Chicago's Kathy PosnerFirst some background for those not from Chicago. In 2007, the City of Chicago introduced the Blue Cart Recycling program. This is a program for people who live in a single-family home, 2-flat building or 3 or 4-flat building. According to the web site of the Department of Streets and Sanitation,” Recyclables are picked up and transported in specially designated recycling trucks to avoid contamination with regular garbage. Materials are taken to a city-approved recycling center where they are sorted into separate materials, called commodities, then baled or packaged for delivery to manufacturers who reprocess or reuse the materials to make new products.”
Materials that are accepted by the program are:
•Glass: jars and bottles,•Metal: cans, aluminum foil and pie tins,•Paper and Cardboard (flattened): Cereal boxes, paper towel rolls, cardboard (flatten all boxes), junk mail, magazines, catalogs, telephone books, paper bags, office paper and file folders, newspaper and inserts, paper greeting cards, wrapping paper,•Plastic: bottles and containers (# 1-5, 7 accepted), plastic beverage rings.
Currently there are approximately 600,000 homes that qualify for Blue Cart Recycling, but only 240,000 are part of the program. Last week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the remaining 340,000 Chicago households that don’t have curbside recycling will get it by the end of 2013. According to the Chicago Tribune,” The administration says it can afford to expand the recycling program because pickup has become more efficient in the six months since two private firms started competing with city crews.”
The Sun-Times reported, “A service that cost the city $4.77 for every blue cart collected before the competition is now being provided by city crews for $3.28 a cart including the sale of recyclables and by private contractors for $2.70 a cart, officials said. That’s a $2.2 million savings over a six-month period.”
IT IS NOT A $2.2 MILLION SAVINGS, IT IS A LOT MORE! Did the city have 4 year-olds with a rudimentary understanding of mathematics calculate the savings? The true savings are astounding and I can’t understand how my figures are so totally different from what the city claims.
Here are the simple statistics:
(A) 240,000 households at $4.77 means that each pick up costs $1,144,800 when it is performed by city workers at the old cost.
(B) The program calls for a pick up once every week, so that means there are 24 pick ups in six months which gives a cost of $27,475,200 at the old rate.
(C) 240,000 at $3.28 which is the more efficient city rate, means each pick up costs $787,200 or $18,892,800 for six months.
(D) 240,000 at $2.70—the private haulers rate-- means each pick up costs $648,000 or $15,552,000 for six months.
Conclusions:
(A) The old city six month pick up costs compared to the lower efficient city pick up costs are $27,475,200 vs. $18,892,800. That is a savings of $8,582,400.
(B) The old city six month pick up costs were $27,475,200 and the private haulers rate is $15,552,800. That is a savings of $11,922,400.
I know I am not wrong, so I cannot figure out why the city is saying there is only a savings of $2.2 million!! Even if the pick up is only once every two weeks, the resultant savings are still greater than $2.2 million. Emanuel is gloating about how much money the privatization has saved taxpayers, but his bragging numbers are wrong. How come nobody else has figured this out? Whose calculator is wrong? I don’t think it’s mine.
Materials that are accepted by the program are:
•Glass: jars and bottles,•Metal: cans, aluminum foil and pie tins,•Paper and Cardboard (flattened): Cereal boxes, paper towel rolls, cardboard (flatten all boxes), junk mail, magazines, catalogs, telephone books, paper bags, office paper and file folders, newspaper and inserts, paper greeting cards, wrapping paper,•Plastic: bottles and containers (# 1-5, 7 accepted), plastic beverage rings.
Currently there are approximately 600,000 homes that qualify for Blue Cart Recycling, but only 240,000 are part of the program. Last week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the remaining 340,000 Chicago households that don’t have curbside recycling will get it by the end of 2013. According to the Chicago Tribune,” The administration says it can afford to expand the recycling program because pickup has become more efficient in the six months since two private firms started competing with city crews.”
The Sun-Times reported, “A service that cost the city $4.77 for every blue cart collected before the competition is now being provided by city crews for $3.28 a cart including the sale of recyclables and by private contractors for $2.70 a cart, officials said. That’s a $2.2 million savings over a six-month period.”
IT IS NOT A $2.2 MILLION SAVINGS, IT IS A LOT MORE! Did the city have 4 year-olds with a rudimentary understanding of mathematics calculate the savings? The true savings are astounding and I can’t understand how my figures are so totally different from what the city claims.
Here are the simple statistics:
(A) 240,000 households at $4.77 means that each pick up costs $1,144,800 when it is performed by city workers at the old cost.
(B) The program calls for a pick up once every week, so that means there are 24 pick ups in six months which gives a cost of $27,475,200 at the old rate.
(C) 240,000 at $3.28 which is the more efficient city rate, means each pick up costs $787,200 or $18,892,800 for six months.
(D) 240,000 at $2.70—the private haulers rate-- means each pick up costs $648,000 or $15,552,000 for six months.
Conclusions:
(A) The old city six month pick up costs compared to the lower efficient city pick up costs are $27,475,200 vs. $18,892,800. That is a savings of $8,582,400.
(B) The old city six month pick up costs were $27,475,200 and the private haulers rate is $15,552,800. That is a savings of $11,922,400.
I know I am not wrong, so I cannot figure out why the city is saying there is only a savings of $2.2 million!! Even if the pick up is only once every two weeks, the resultant savings are still greater than $2.2 million. Emanuel is gloating about how much money the privatization has saved taxpayers, but his bragging numbers are wrong. How come nobody else has figured this out? Whose calculator is wrong? I don’t think it’s mine.
