Connecticut Coalition for
Environmental Justice

Recycling and Urban Health

Recycling and safe disposal of hazardous household waste has been a special challenge for the city of Hartford, CT. Seventy five (75) percent of residents are renters who may not be told the recycling and disposal options at the dwellings where they live. The local population includes many immigrants as well who do know about recycling and household hazardous waste disposal in the U.S. Moreover, landlords of multi-family units and small businesses hire private contractors to remove rubbish but not recycling and fail to collect hazardous waste for safe disposal. These factors leave Hartford’s recycling rate well below that of its neighboring suburbs even though the municipality houses Connecticut’s largest and third largest regional recycling centers that serve more than 70 towns.

Recyclable trash and hazardous waste that Hartford residents throw away is burned at the regional trash-to-energy incinerator in the South Meadows part of the city, the fifth largest facility of its kind in the nation. The burning by the incinerator releases pollution into the atmosphere, such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides as well as air toxics, which have been linked to asthma, diabetes, and cancer. Hartford’s low recycling rate and failure to safely dispose of household hazardous waste thus puts residents’ health at risk and wastes resources that could be reused.

In 2008, CT Coalition for Environmental Justice created a Recycling Speakers Bureau that educated over 900 Hartford residents on how to recycle and safely dispose of hazardous waste as a way to improve city health. The Bureau presented at various Hartford events including health fairs and community meetings.  Further efforts included advocating to the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority which recently expanded the plastics it would accept from city residents to include #1 to #7. 

In 2010, CCEJ launched a new effort to expand recycling in Hartford's multifamily housing and small businesses. Most large apartment complexes and multifamily homes in the city do not have recycling pick-up. Many small businesses fail to recycle as well. CCEJ is educating landlords and business owners that recycling in fact saves money in trash removal fees as well as makes a differnce to the local environment. Already, we have succeeded to recruit two property owners and two small businesses to initiate recycling.

Part of our new recycling outreach will include Speakers Bureaus at Housing Authority buildings we convince to initiate recycling. We hope in time to educate 900 residents in Housing Authority buildings and other multifamily housing on recycling once our project concludes in 2011.