Another example of settling for mediocrity in DC sustainability planning

I wrote a long piece ("Realizing all aspects of Sustainable DC: it all comes down to chickens...") last fall about DC's sustainability plan after attending DC's sustainability conference. Basically my point was that DC can't say that it's going to be the most sustainable city in North America by 2032 by implementing new sustainability policies and practices that aren't even at the level of best practice/pathbreaking practice now.

The cities that are operating at best practice levels aren't standing still, they are going to continue to improve on their current efforts, leaving DC further behind.

With regard to DC's replacement of trash and recycling cans, I wrote a couple pieces about how this was somewhat wasteful (the regular trash cans were replaced with new cans of the same size while all of the recycling cans were replaced with a new cans double the size of the previous cans) because most of the trash cans still had plenty of useful life, and that in terms of sustainability planning, the city could have taken the opportunity to improve and extend its waste collection practices to reduce yard waste ("A way for DC to begin adding yard waste collection as a separate element of waste collection and reduction programming").

Earlier this month police arrested some artists picking up the discarded trash cans, which hadn't yet been picked up by the Department of Public Works.

Today the Washington Post reports ("D.C. said it would recycle thousands of old trash and recycling bins, but many went to a landfill") that tons of the cans were not recycled as promised but dumped in a landfill.

Again, this doesn't speak well of DC's commitment to sustainability.

Of course, it's all about changing organizational culture and commitment, which is a difficult enough task even when your top officials are truly committed and not just cheerleading.