Mohit Malya’s Post

Did you know your trash and recycling cans need to have their lids fully closed for the city to ensure they get emptied? 🙉 While sometimes cans with slightly open lids still get serviced, there are instances where overflowing cans get skipped entirely. The reason is simple: during pick-up, if the lid isn’t shut, bags and trash can easily fly out, causing a big mess. To avoid this, make sure your cans aren’t overflowing and the lids are securely closed when you place them at the curb. Help keep the streets clean and ensure your trash gets collected! 💯 #canmonkey #cantocurb #closedlids

“Composting should be free just like trash” If only that was how it worked. —————————— During #EarthDay and International Compost Awareness Week festivities, I got that chance to be out and about at various community events representing WasteNot, Inc. At these events, there are always a few people who want to start composting with our service, but aren’t able to commit the necessary funds in their budget at the moment. Inevitably, some of these people will plead with me that composting should be free for everyone. While I love the sentiment, I envy the communication specialists who have been able to convince a large portion of the population that collecting trash is free of charge. I end up being the bearer of bad news in these scenarios - telling passionate would-be-composters that trash actually is not free. Whether you know it or not, everyone is paying for trash (and the maintenance of defunct landfills) one way or another. I know that if people understood the true cost of trash and there were more incentives in place to decrease generation of trash in the first place, we’d create an economy in which composting is the cost effective waste disposal option. Anyway, here is a selfie I took last week when I took the day off to head to Springfield for Illinois Environmental Council Zero Waste Lobby Day. It was great to speak with legislators interested in making changes to the Illinois waste landscape. As always, it's a privilege to work at WasteNot, Inc. where we’re making strides everyday to lower that barrier for entry and to make sustainable waste disposal a seamless addition to any home or business.

Stringed Lights SHOULD NOT Be Disposed of In Your Recycling Bin! Do you have an abundance of holiday lights that are burned out and unusable? If so, you can SIMPLY PUT THEM IN YOUR REGULAR TRASH. Stringed lights in a recycling bin will cause a problem at the recycling facility and are potentially hazardous to those working in the facility as they become wrapped around equipment and need to be manually cut off. Unusable lights and any other garbage placed in your regular trash will be used as fuel to create electricity when it is brought to the York County Resource Recover Center by your hauler. All of York County’s municipal curbside trash is combusted and turned into alternative power. Your old holiday lights used to create electricity, who knew? Waste-to-Energy: working for York County. For more information on the process of waste-to-energy, visit https://lnkd.in/eKw7-b3Y . #keepyorkcountycleanandsafe

Waste and Recycling Workers Week is a great time to show your appreciation by serving those who serve our communities. Throughout the week of June 17th, join us in thanking your garbage collection providers and all those who work in the waste industry. Here are a few things you can do to show your support - Join the Recycling Effort - Let’s take some ownership for our garbage contributions. Consider ways you can reduce, recycle and reuse the things being thrown in the garbage from your own home. Call to Say, “Thank you” - It’s easy to complain when things are not done right. Consider calling your local provider with a word of thanks and appreciation for all the weeks they do their job well! Help Them Lift It! - Got a big pile after your spring cleaning efforts? How about meeting them at the curb and helping them lift it in. A little kindness goes a long way to show we are aware of their efforts. #SansomEquipment #WasteRecyclingWorkersWeek #Sanitation #PublicWorks #Recycling #Waste #SanitationWorkers #GarbageMan

It's a phrase I always grew up with: you throw rubbish and trash "away" and take what you don't need to "the dump" or "the tip." However, a comment in a nature documentary made me reevaluate: "You can't throw anything away. There is no 'away'." Unless we're throwing a leaf or some grass cuttings back on the lawn, it matters where what we've used ends up. It doesn't go away—it goes somewhere, and eventually, that somewhere will catch up with us. This is why I think "the garbage dump" is better as "the Recycling centre." And we should try to only buy things that we make good use of. And we should try and repair when we can and, if possible, find another home for what we no longer need rather than "dump" it. And why we try to buy recycled products to give a market for those making them. It can be hard work. It's easier and more fun to bring new, shiny things into my life than to find homes for older, less shiny things. But there is no "away." The effort will pay us back in the long run. (I don't mean to get preachy about it, it's just the comment has stuck with me from the moment I heard it) Also: Just 16 days until the US book release of Big Ideas Little Pictures. Pre-order at: sketchplanations.com/book

Thanks to my friend Nic Esposito for sharing this article that highlights why I feel so strongly about government innovation and the culture change that goes along with it. If there's one thing I've learned in my government career, it's that public sector employees always (ok, almost always) design programs with the best of intentions. I don't doubt for one minute that the folks who were part of these conversations around trash collection in Philly believed that twice a week pick up would make our city cleaner. With that as the foundation though, I'd love to see exactly who was involved in those conversations, what questions were asked, what other solutions were brainstormed, and what role data played in the process. Government is littered (no pun intended) with programs that missed their intended mark because of an incomplete design process - maybe a key stakeholder voice wasn't included, alternatives weren't evaluated, or data and research wasn't effectively leveraged - and we're left with an expensive, ineffective solution that solves the wrong problem. Programs like the Innovation Academy and the Permit Accelerator work to combat this challenge by diffusing the capacity to innovate among individual employees, shifting the narrative that "innovation" only happens in Innovation Teams or by Directors of Innovation, to one where everyone can be their own agents of change. But until that mindset is truly embedded into every team, every workforce, and every administration, we will continue to build programs in ways that don't actually serve our intended audiences. I'm so thrilled to see governments embracing innovation, but we still have so much work to do!

Great to recycle a few blister pack but what about the "pharma" in our oceans and water waters ways. Wide literature review shows that different classes of pharmaceuticals could be found in the wastewater including antibiotics (clarithromycin, ciprofloxacin, doxycyclin, erythromycin, methronidazole, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, roxithromycin, sulfamethoxazole, sulfapyridin, tetracyclin, trimethoprim), antiepileptics (carbamazepine), anticoagulants (warfarin), analgesics and anti-inflammatories (4-aminoantipyrine, antipyrin, codein, diclofenac, ibuprofen, indomethacine, ketoprofen, ketorolac, naproxen), lipid regulators (clofibric acid, fenofibric acid, bezafibrate, gemfibrozil, ezetimibe), steroidal compounds (esterogenic and androgenic drugs) beta-blockers (acebutolol, atenolol, celiprolol, metoprolol, propanolol, sotalol), diuretics (furosemide, hydrochlorothiazide), contrast media (amidotrizoic acid, diatrizoate, iotalamic acid, iopromide, iomeprol, iohexol, iopamidol), cosmetics (galaxolide, tonalide), psycho-stimulants (caffeine, paraxanthin), antidepressants (fluoxetin)

Recycling, using energy-efficient appliances and helping to take care of any communal green spaces doesn't just benefit the environment, but can also help you to save money on utility bills and create a sense of pride and community. #CardeaLettings #Lettings #Landlords #Tenants #Property

Recycling, using energy-efficient appliances and helping to take care of any communal green spaces doesn't just benefit the environment, but can also help you to save money on utility bills and create a sense of pride and community. #CardeaLettings #Lettings #Landlords #Tenants #Property

Waste and Recycling Workers Week is a great time to show your appreciation by serving those who serve our communities. Throughout the week of June 17th, join us in thanking your garbage collection providers and all those who work in the waste industry. Here are a few things you can do to show your support - Join the Recycling Effort - Let’s take some ownership for our garbage contributions. Consider ways you can reduce, recycle and reuse the things being thrown in the garbage from your own home. Call to Say, “Thank you” - It’s easy to complain when things are not done right. Consider calling your local provider with a word of thanks and appreciation for all the weeks they do their job well! Help Them Lift It! - Got a big pile after your spring cleaning efforts? How about meeting them at the curb and helping them lift it in. A little kindness goes a long way to show we are aware of their efforts. #SansomEquipment #WasteRecyclingWorkersWeek #Sanitation #PublicWorks #Recycling #Waste #SanitationWorkers #GarbageMan