b'Who You Choose Matters.The Zero Waste Hierarchy is a ranking of steps we can take to achieve the greatest conservation of our resources in a way that causes no threat to the environment or human health.wouldmakethingsmorerecyclable,gone more smoothly than the doom- In 2021, homes in South Orange sold, on average,they would do it. sayerspredicted,buthealsonotesin 25 days at 7% above list price.HeadvocatesforincreasingthethatPatriciaCanning,thewomanMy homes sold, on average,numberofdropofflocations:Bothwho spearheaded the effort in Southin 9 days at 21% above list price.Maplewood and South Orange acceptOrange, put six years of work into it recyclablesattheirdepots,althoughbefore seeing it come to fruition. ItsStacie Levythat seems to account for a small por- kind of this balance. he says.M. 917.686.3821tion of the recycling haul. Paul Kittner,Whatever the balance to be struck,O. 973.310.6816 the director of public works for Maple- expertscontendthatthemethodofStacie Levy is a real estate salesperson af liated with Compass.Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by equal housing opportunity laws. wood, says that typically less than 10collectionmatterslessthanteaching percent of the townships total recycla- people how and what to recycle.bles are collected at the DPW yard offReally what is needed is a better ed- SPRING IS NEAR.Boyden Avenue. ucation program, says Virginia Lamb, At the very least, Parlapiano wouldaMaplewoodresidentwhoservedasIS YOUR LAWN READY?like to see more sorting done at thoseone of the Zero Waste consultants. sites. Currently South Orange does notFor her and other recycling expertsSPRING SERVICESseparate plastics, glass, and cans at itsthe key is to get people to recycle cor- Semi Organic + Organic Lawn Fertilization Packagesdepot, for example. And Kittner saysrectly. The biggest hurdle to better re- Organic Mosquito + Tick Controlwhatever is collected at its DPW yardcycling rates is what is known in theEco-Friendly Weed Control + Preventiongoes into Maplewoods single stream. industry as wishcycling. People hopeFALL SERVICESSouthOrangetrusteeHaskinsissomething might be recyclable, so they open to more sorting at the depot. Iput it in. Much of the time, it is garbage. Aeration + Overseedingthink its something we can try. TheresShreddedpaperisnotrecyclable.Compost Top Dressingdefinitely interest in improving our re- Only plastics number 1, 2 and 5 are.Lawn Revivalscycling further. Pizza boxes, though made of corrugat- Locally owned and operatedBut while Haskins agrees that moreed cardboard, can be contaminated by shouldbeaskedofpeople,healsothe grease that comes off on them. Ex-thinks steps must be incremental. Heperts only recycle the top half. Every-talksaboutthepushtobansingle- thing needs to be clean. Some things use plastic bags, which took effect inneedtohavelabelsremoved.Plastic Maplewood in July 2019 and in Southlids can be recycled, but only if they OrangeonJanuary1,2020.Peopleare screwed on to their bottles. Single- 10% off 10% offworried that the ban was asking toouse plastic bags need to be recycled at much, especially for people on limitedgrocery stores, not the curb. Sign up for one of our Lawn Sign up for one of our LawnFertilization packages and SAVE BIG! Fertilization packages and SAVE BIG!incomes, and the proposal had its de- Technology may help save us. It isExpires May 15th! Expires May 15th!tractors. And yet now, people remem- possible to download an app, Recycle bertheirreusablebags,ortheybuyCoach,thatkeepstrackofrecycling one at the store without complaint. days in each town. It also has a searchCall or send us a message on our website!Haskins acknowledges that it has allbutton. If someone types in what they973-821-3858 / greenrootsorganic.comfeature story /29'