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Speaking with Brian Johnson, Madison's Recycling Coordinator · Ask The Experts

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Eight forty two thirteen ten WIBA, Madison in the morning, Katie,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: what are we listening to here?
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Some garbage?
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Well done? Well done? Why is Katie playing garbage this morning?
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Well?
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  Speaker 1: Brian Johnson with the City of Madison, he is the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: city's recycling coordinator, joins us.
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  Speaker 2: Brian, how you doing this morning?
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  Speaker 3: I'm doing okay, and I do appreciate playing garbage. Excellent choice.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, was good.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: We had like, we named an electric garbage truck here
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  Speaker 3: on the east side of Madison last year, and I
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  Speaker 3: was really hoping we were going to pick Butcher surely
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  Speaker 3: as the names of those two things. They didn't win
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  Speaker 3: the vote, but you know, that's the way that goes.
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  Speaker 1: Oh man, I remember that campaign that was That was
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  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. And of course Brian Johnson comes
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to us from the City of Madison. Of course he
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  Speaker 1: is the city's recycling coordinator. Full disclosure, Brian, you and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I were hanging out doing some recording yesterday and we
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: started talking and I said, you know, we gotta get
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  Speaker 1: you on the air because there's a lot of questions
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  Speaker 1: about and a lot of very fascinating things about about
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  Speaker 1: recycling and how the system works. Kind of a behind
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  Speaker 1: the scenes thing. But first and foremost, Brian, let's talk
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit about about you. And so for folks
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  Speaker 1: that are not familiar with the city's recycling program.
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  Speaker 2: Or familiar with what your role is, let's talk a
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  Speaker 2: little bit about that. Brian.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so my job, I'm the recycling coordinator and public
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  Speaker 3: information officer for the Streets Division. So it's a varied responsibility,
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  Speaker 3: sort of like a Swiss army knife thing if people
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  Speaker 3: recognize me at all, because I'm usually the person on
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  Speaker 3: the morning news talking about like snowplow stuff. But it's
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  Speaker 3: also with this recycling information trying to get that stuff
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  Speaker 3: out so people are putting the right things in those
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  Speaker 3: carts every other week to get them picked up. So
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  Speaker 3: we're doing that safely and correctly. And that's part of
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  Speaker 3: the role too, working with our large item pick up.
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  Speaker 3: It's a little of this, a little of that. It's
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: it keeps you busy and keeps the hairline receding.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So that's yeah, you've got well comparatively, you've got a
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  Speaker 1: full head of hair. So I'd love a little bit
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  Speaker 1: about your background. You're You're grew up in the Midwest.
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  Speaker 1: Now you're not a Madison native. But but you're from
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  Speaker 1: the area, aren't you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I grew up in like this, the general
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  Speaker 3: Saint Louis area technically Illinois, but not Chicago, but like
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  Speaker 3: just right around the Saint Louis area. So like Cardinals fan,
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  Speaker 3: but don't hold against me. But they you know, they
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  Speaker 3: throw you out of the region if you're not you know,
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  Speaker 3: but the Yeah. And so I've been to Madison for
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  Speaker 3: over fifteen years now, so I think I'm about as
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  Speaker 3: local as anybody else is really that it comes to Madison,
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  Speaker 3: fall in love with the place, and then stays here,
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  Speaker 3: mixing my home. So I feel like a problem Madisonian
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  Speaker 3: even though I'm not like born and raised here.
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  Speaker 1: One of the one of the things I when I
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  Speaker 1: first much like you, although I grew up a little
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  Speaker 1: closer outside of Milwaukee. One of my first observations of
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  Speaker 1: when I moved to Madison was there's very few cemeteries here.
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  Speaker 1: And I think it has a lot to do with
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  Speaker 1: the fact that most people traditionally would would you know,
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  Speaker 1: when you pass away, you'd be buried where you you know,
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  Speaker 1: where your family is, which oftentimes is out of times
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  Speaker 1: kind of kind of reinforces just a what a mixing pot.
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  Speaker 1: We are here in Maddie. And then speaking of mixing pots,
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  Speaker 1: unfortunately some folks like to use their recycling bin as
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a mixing pot.
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  Speaker 2: And let's talk about I know it's there's.
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  Speaker 3: Why I get know it right there, professional transition there
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  Speaker 3: sean well done exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about what and kind of how, because you
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  Speaker 1: do want to even though they are bins, you want
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  Speaker 1: to have what's inside of them somewhat organized, don't you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, because what belongs in the recycling cart. There are
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  Speaker 3: just certain things that belong in there. You know. It's
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  Speaker 3: the bottles, jugs, it's the paper flattened cardboard boxes, including
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  Speaker 3: greedy pizza boxes. Now that's something new. When it comes
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  Speaker 3: to items that are glass, it's just bottles and jars.
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  Speaker 3: It's not every kind of glass thing that's in there,
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  Speaker 3: in aluminum cans, tin cans, things like that. So it's
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  Speaker 3: not everything. This plastic doesn't belong in the recycling cart
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  Speaker 3: because the sorting systems on the back end can't reclaim
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  Speaker 3: all that stuff out of there. And also there has
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  Speaker 3: to be somebody on the ultimate back end of the
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  Speaker 3: stuff that wants to be able to reclaim these things
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  Speaker 3: and make some new thing out of it that they
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  Speaker 3: can then turn sell back into the market. That's the
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  Speaker 3: economy of how that recycling works. And so them even
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  Speaker 3: though like one of the things we see in the
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  Speaker 3: recycling carts that don't belong there is that clothing like
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  Speaker 3: clothes and shoes, like, do not put that in that
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  Speaker 3: green recycling cart just doesn't have a place that actually
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  Speaker 3: knots up a lot of the machinery. And I think
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  Speaker 3: people do that because maybe they think called polyesters plastic,
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  Speaker 3: does it belong in there, and they kind of value
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  Speaker 3: it and so they feel bad about putting it in
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  Speaker 3: the trash, But like, donat that stuff. You know, there's
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  Speaker 3: other ways, like actually clothing does have an ability to
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  Speaker 3: be recycled through the right places, but it's made into
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  Speaker 3: like industrial rags or could be made into like punching bag,
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  Speaker 3: the intilation kind of stuff like that, but it's not
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  Speaker 3: your cart stuff though it doesn't belong there. It's like
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  Speaker 3: you take that to the the Good Wills of Saint Vinnie's,
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  Speaker 3: the Boomerangs, the Dane County Humane Society like that has
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  Speaker 3: the thrift store like those kind of places, but not
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  Speaker 3: but not the carts.
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  Speaker 1: And Brian One, And I know one of the cool
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  Speaker 1: things do you talk about about, you know, putting those
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  Speaker 1: those like clothing items to good use. You guys actually
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  Speaker 1: have a whole section and have partnered up with with
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of the organizations here in town for folks
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  Speaker 1: that are looking to donate their clothes. You guys have
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  Speaker 1: a great section on your website to do that. One
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  Speaker 1: of the areas that I always get confused about now.
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  Speaker 1: A couple of years ago, like I think a lot
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  Speaker 1: of middle aged guys went out and bought a three
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  Speaker 1: D printer, so you start learning about different types of
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  Speaker 1: plastics and pla and all these other things I still
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  Speaker 1: get confused about, like recycled plastics and there's like a
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  Speaker 1: numbering system. How is there what's kind of the useful
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  Speaker 1: guidance on on like what numbers of plastic are are recyclable?
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  Speaker 1: And is there like an easy rule of thumb to
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  Speaker 1: kind of memorize some of that stuff?
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  Speaker 3: Really, I wouldn't if for like the general like rule
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  Speaker 3: of thumb with the public stuff, I wouldn't get too
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  Speaker 3: hung up on the number stuff. The plastics is super complicated,
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  Speaker 3: and it's even the plastics that we're going to see
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  Speaker 3: as consumers are typically one through seven. But if you
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  Speaker 3: really dig into it, like it's gets way more complicated
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  Speaker 3: than that when it comes to like laboratory plastics and
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  Speaker 3: on on no, no, no, on and so them. If it
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  Speaker 3: really comes down to like it's things like it's the bottles,
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  Speaker 3: is the jug of like laundry tubs, dairy containers, the
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  Speaker 3: and when it comes to like the at the grocery
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  Speaker 3: store in the produce section, the boxes that hold the
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  Speaker 3: or spinach and stuff like that, or they're dairy tubs.
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  Speaker 3: If it has like a handle, a neck, a box
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  Speaker 3: that closes, that kind of feels that's not too rigid.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm not talking like a kitty litter bucket or
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  Speaker 3: anything like that that's too big, that's too rigid. But typically,
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  Speaker 3: but to get to the numbers, it's one through seven.
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  Speaker 3: Plastic containers is what we is what we say, But
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  Speaker 3: it's the container part that's important and if but even
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  Speaker 3: that's kind of nerdy and complicated when you think, how
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  Speaker 3: do you see those little numbers and they get they're embossed.
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  Speaker 3: It's so hard to see if it's like a milk jug,
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  Speaker 3: a pop bottle, if it's a laundry tub. If it's
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  Speaker 3: the other kind of plastic bottle. If it's clean, empty
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  Speaker 3: and dry, that's gonna be okay. I mean there's like
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  Speaker 3: you wouldn't put a motor oil bottle in your recycling
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  Speaker 3: card if you're a change your own oil type of
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  Speaker 3: person because the oil stays case o. The you have
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  Speaker 3: to put that in the trash. But the we try
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  Speaker 3: to make it as simple as we can because the
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  Speaker 3: stuff in our life is always changing. Recycling rules have
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  Speaker 3: been the same for a long time. I mean, we
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  Speaker 3: try to keep adding items like the can, like the
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  Speaker 3: pizza boxes. We can recycle hot and cold takeout cups
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  Speaker 3: now here in Madison, we've been lucky to add that.
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  Speaker 3: But the stuff in our life is always changing, and
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  Speaker 3: that's what makes it feel complicated. So that's why you
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  Speaker 3: have to list like it puts a lot of pressure
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  Speaker 3: on consumers to know what to do with this always
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  Speaker 3: changing stuff in our lives. So you really do have
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  Speaker 3: to look this up by going to like you live
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  Speaker 3: in the City of Madison, going to the City of
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  Speaker 3: Madison's like recycling website, or picking up a copy of
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  Speaker 3: our recyclopedia from a library, or giving us a call.
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  Speaker 3: If you're uncertain or if you don't live in Madison,
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  Speaker 3: like going to your local sources for this information, because
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  Speaker 3: they're going to be the one that's going to tell
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  Speaker 3: you the right thing to do with this stuff.
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  Speaker 1: This morning with Brian Johnson, he is Madison's recycling coordinator.
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  Speaker 1: Brian and I we could probably talk for hours on
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  Speaker 1: some of this stuff.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot to it.
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  Speaker 3: But I'm chatty too, so I'm not going to be
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  Speaker 3: your favorite.
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  Speaker 2: So that's awesome. I love it. I love it.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the things I do have to ask
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  Speaker 1: you about, because I think it's an important one, is
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  Speaker 1: batteries and whether it's the trash can or whether it's recycling.
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  Speaker 2: You really don't want to be doing that, do you.
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  Speaker 3: No, we want to bring them to a recycling site
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  Speaker 3: to here in this if you're a city in Madison resident,
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  Speaker 3: you can recycle your batteries for free. Just bring them
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  Speaker 3: to a drop off site. We have on our website
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  Speaker 3: explaining like the special handling to do with like lithium
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  Speaker 3: batteries and also nickel batteries. But lithium batteries are particularly
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  Speaker 3: worrisome because there are a cause of a lot of fires,
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  Speaker 3: especially if people handling them wrong. It's a big problem
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  Speaker 3: in the recycling industry in general, where these see a
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  Speaker 3: lot of truck fires and industry big facilities have burned
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  Speaker 3: down because of lithium batteries that sneak in to the
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  Speaker 3: recycling streamer doesn't belong, and it could be something as
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  Speaker 3: small as one of those greeting cards that light up
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  Speaker 3: and seeing those are often powered by a little buttons
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  Speaker 3: that'll lithium battery, or someone throwing a cell phone mindlessly
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  Speaker 3: in the wrong cart. But most of what we recycle
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  Speaker 3: is paper, and when those lithium batteries get damage, they
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: spark and if that could catch on fire pretty easily.
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  Speaker 3: Like here in Madison earlier this year, we had a truck,
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  Speaker 3: one of our recycling trucks caught on fire. The technically,
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  Speaker 3: the officially the cause of the fire was undetermined, but
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  Speaker 3: they did find a computer mixed in with all of
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  Speaker 3: the other burn debris, and so they that's a really
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  Speaker 3: big causic. It's a worldwide problem in the recycling industry
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  Speaker 3: of these little batteries. So again that's one more thing
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  Speaker 3: that's a little tougher on our consumers is handling those
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  Speaker 3: little batteries. The right way. So if you're Madison, just
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  Speaker 3: bring it to the drop off site. There's other places
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  Speaker 3: that do it too, Like a lot of hardware stores
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  Speaker 3: do rechargeable batteries. There's like other private stores that will
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  Speaker 3: do a battery recycling where they might charge. But so
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  Speaker 3: much of a our digital stuff has these in there.
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  Speaker 3: We just got to do it the right way because
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  Speaker 3: it could be dangerous.
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  Speaker 1: It's really and it's really important. I know you've got
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  Speaker 1: a great list up at Cityomadison dot com and the
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  Speaker 1: recycling thing about you know, some of the band items
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  Speaker 1: and real quick we've got We've got just about a
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  Speaker 1: minute here, Brian. I do want to ask you was
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: kind of how that is handled? Is is it's It's
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  Speaker 1: obviously these things are very important to keep this stuff out.
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  Speaker 1: But but with with Madison, with the recycling program in
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  Speaker 1: the streets vision, you guys generally are pretty it's more
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  Speaker 1: about education, isn't it than than than going after folks.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're not trying to find people who know, like
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  Speaker 3: we've had this stubbornly high contamination rate. But what I
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  Speaker 3: mean by that is just stuff in the recycling cart
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  Speaker 3: that doesn't belong. So that's the clothing I talked about earlier,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: or like shower curtains or just bags of trash that
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: you'll see sometimes in the recycling cart. For the past
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: few months, we've had people like picking in carts just
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: trying to get just to try to get people's attention,
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  Speaker 3: because it's our attention. There's a thousand different places nowadays,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: and so like, well, how can we get people's attention. Well,
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  Speaker 3: if we leave a little card on the cart saying hey,
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  Speaker 3: there's a problem here and not pick up the recycling,
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  Speaker 3: we can hopefully get chokes attention to fix that issue,
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  Speaker 3: and then if they call us, we'll come back. We're
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  Speaker 3: not trying to find people who are punish people or
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  Speaker 3: make people feel bad. It's just we want this stuff
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  Speaker 3: to be right because it actually saves less costs because
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  Speaker 3: all the trash that gets in that recycling that cost
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  Speaker 3: us extra to have to get rid of that. And
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: plus if it keeps it cleaner, that helps that selling
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  Speaker 3: of recyclables, like I talked about earlier. And if sometimes
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  Speaker 3: some of the stuff can be dangerous too, which we
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  Speaker 3: also clearly don't want in there because that's terrible for
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: the workers. It's just it has serious repercussion. I guess
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  Speaker 3: I could say so. If you do happen to see
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: your cart carded, it has like a silly little frowny
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: face sticker and a card hanging off of it. It's like,
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  Speaker 3: it's not a fine, it's not nothing. Just fix the
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  Speaker 3: problem on the cart. Give us a call, we'll come back,
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: or if you have any questions, call us email us.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: We're here to help. That's what we're here to do.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: We're a city service. We're here to help, so give
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: us a ring will help you out.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Brian Johnson, City's recycling coordinator, thank you so much for
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: your time and that great information this morning. You have
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: a fantastic weekend, and don't be a stranger because we're
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: going to talk soon.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: Indeed you too, Shan, thank you.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: We've got Vicky McKenna and she's got a chance for
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: you to win one thousand dollars next right here on
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: thirteen ten.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Wiba