I stopped by the Transit Center to recycle a few AA batteries. Instead of the collection tube, a sign that said recycling had to be done at the Recycling Center! Come on. Is anyone really going to drive up there just to drop off a couple dead batteries? Is it too much trouble to pick up a tube once a week or every other week? Or should we just throw them in with the other single-stream recyclables? – A Confused Recycler
Eek! Don’t ever toss batteries in the blue bin. While batteries are recyclable, they are also hazardous material and need to be handled separately.
And that’s the main reason for eliminating drop-off tubes at public facilities. That and money. Actually, it’s more about the money.
“The market for old alkaline batteries is tough and most of the recycling facilities got out of the business,” laments Mary Beth Miles, the city’s sustainability coordinator. “So recycling batteries is expensive.”
Because of cost, La Plata County stopped recycling batteries a few years ago, she added. The city continued with free battery recycling and subsidized the program.
But you know how things are these days. Government services that used to be free are now charged fees. Dealing with dead batteries is no exception.
Battery recycling now takes place Saturdays during electronic recycling. It’s open to everyone and there is a small cost – 50 cents per pound.
“The big challenge is to balance consumer responsibility with the fact that we need to cover costs. We want people to do the right thing,” she added.
It’s going to make some people mad, and tempers might flare. Like the time a Middle Eastern ruler angered the Engergizer Bunny. The bunny dropped his drum and started pummeling the potentate.
The bunny was charged with a sultan battery.
Why were so many trees on Main Avenue and the side streets cut down? Did Paul Bunyan come out on vacation or what? I thought Durangoans were tree huggers. – Out On A Limb
Downtown Durango isn’t exactly the prime woodland territory, and several trees were ready for the mulch pile, said City Arborist Ron Stoner.
Take the maples that used to be on the south side of the Irish Embassy at Ninth Street and Main Avenue. Reflected heat offered brutal conditions.
“Those maples were under severe scorch condition for 20 years,” he said.
Much of the tree travails were a result of the wrong species for the site and the fact that until now, downtown trees had to rely on rainfall or snowmelt. And we won’t even talk about the impact of dogs.
So with the ongoing sidewalk improvement project, crews can now install irrigation for the urban forest and fell the fellows who were diseased or dying.
“It was a tough call, but it will be better for downtown long-term,” Stoner said. “Many of the trees we took down were on their last legs.”
For replacements, Stoner recommends two seedless, non-fruiting newcomers to this Tree City U.S.A. – “Golden Colonnade” Ginkgo and “Espresso” Kentucky Coffee Tree. A total of 25 will be planted in spring.
Ginkgo is a living fossil dating back 200 million years ago when dinosaurs were in charge. So you know it’s tough.
But just how tough? Six ginkgo trees survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and are still alive. A little reflected heat from the Irish Embassy building? Piffle!
Also ironic is the fact that the uranium used to nuke those trees was smelted right here in Durango and ended up in Los Alamos to become a part of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
Meanwhile, the seedless Kentucky Coffee Tree has a Durango connection as well.
One horticulturist described the species as “tolerant of adverse growing conditions,” an essential trait for living here.
In addition, the trees featured a “rather coarse outline when young and when bare in winter.”
This pretty much describes local teenagers – so this tree will fit right in.
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