Great recycling news and more

Great news from Marty Howell, the city’s sustainability manager: We will recycle all plastics by the end of the year. That means you won’t have to look under bottles to locate a 1 or 2 because all plastics, 1 through 7 will go in the blue can. That includes supermarket plastic bags! (More on what the numbers mean here.)

Glass recycling, however is still a difficult proposition as recycling businesses want to make sure they’ll get the volume before they come to El Paso. But Howell said, "There's a good chance we'll try." (He is counting on El Paso's bars to keep glass recyclers busy.)

Composting, is also tough but for different reasons. The dry El Paso air is not conducive to breaking down organic materials. But once again Howell said the city was willing to try it soon at collection sites. There's already a composting pilot ongoing at the zoo, using yard waste and, hm, animal poo.

Howell was speaking at the El Paso Solar Energy Association meeting last week. Other interesting things he said are after the break.

• The City’s carbon footprint? 305,231 tons of CO2 per year.

• There will be a solar demonstration project at Calendar Park paid for by a museum grant. The project will be a bench topped by solar panels, all shaped like a sunflower, where people can stop to recharge their cell phones or laptop and enjoy free wifi. 

• The city is still working on the Property Assess Clean Energy (PACE) loan program, which would let property owners who want to install energy saving devices such as solar panels borrow money and pay it back as property tax. The loan's attrctiveness is that it's not based on income or credit. The city has given itself six months to figure out financing.