I emailed my local township office with a question about recycling. Their response was AI-generated. And their response to my reply was also AI-generated.
This was my original message:
Hey, can I get some information about the changes at the Transfer Site for recycling? I know non-corrugated and glass are being phased out and just, I guess, tossed in the trash. The paper reported this was due to these being at-cost to the township to recycle for a few thousand dollars a year.
My question is: did these materials *ever* get recycled? Or did it just get trucked to some recycling plant where most of it ended up in a landfill anyway?
Aren’t glass and paperboard highly recyclable? Isn’t glass akin to aluminum cans in how well it can be recycled? Why was it ever at-cost?
Lastly, what’s the next nearest recycling option? It seems almost heretical to me to throw away glass.
This was the reply:
Thank you for reaching out to the Hamlin Township office. We appreciate your passion for recycling and understand the frustration that comes with seeing these services discontinued.
To address your concerns directly, the decision to phase out glass and non-corrugated cardboard (NCC) was made after a careful review of our actual recycling outcomes and costs. Here are the key facts regarding the current situation:
- Processing Reality: While the Township has provided collection dumpsters for glass and NCC for many years, we just discovered recently that these materials were not actually being processed for recycling by vendors once they left our site. This was discovered when the new board members started looking into the recycling billing.
- Market Challenges: Unfortunately, there is currently no viable market for glass or NCC in our county. Because of this, we have been unable to secure a waste management company that genuinely recycles these specific materials.
- Handling of Collected Material: Because no recycling vendors take them, the contents of those dumpsters were ultimately combined with standard waste once they reached capacity.
- Fiscal Responsibility: Continuing to maintain separate dumpsters for materials that end up in the same place was costing the Township over $ 5,200 per year. By phasing this out, we can redirect those funds to other essential community services.
We agree that glass and paperboard are ideally recyclable. Please be assured that if we are able to identify a vendor in the future that can guarantee these items are actually being recycled, the Township will look to reintroduce these services.
In the meantime, the dumpsters will be phased out starting January 1, 2026 and removed by February 1, 2026.
Thank you for your understanding as we work toward a more financially sustainable future for Hamlin Township.
I was irritated by this overly-wordy, cheeky, faux-emotional reply. “Actual outcomes?” The bold bullet point keywords? My “passion for recycling”? WTF is wrong with these people. Who talks like this? I replied:
That’s good to know. I secretly assumed those two in particular were, perhaps for “lack of profitability for the recycling vendor, just going into the trash anyway. I don’t have to like that, but at least we know and aren’t just flinging things into a fantasy and wasting money and time along the way.
Not for nothing, if the little flyers being handed out at the Transfer Site actually said “Turns out, our vendor wasn’t even recycling this anyway and we’re out of options regionally, so we’re not going to waste the money until we can find a real solution”, I suspect more people would feel better about the decision. Otherwise it just feels like, “Well, there goes the government, just tightening the screws for no good reason.”
The reply was more AI-cruft:
Thank you for your follow-up and for your candid feedback.
We completely agree that transparency is the best approach. While our initial physical flyers may not have captured the full picture, we have since updated our official community website and Facebook page to explicitly clarify that our regional vendors were not actually recycling these materials.
We want to ensure our residents know that this decision was a practical response to regional limitations and a lack of viable recycling markets. We will certainly take your suggestion to heart and ensure our future signage at the Transfer Site is just as direct so that residents don’t feel “the screws are being tightened” without reason.
Thank you again for engaging with us and for your commitment to our community. We hope you have a wonderful and relaxing Christmas.
I hate it. Also, all the double-spaces after periods. Talk about combining old-times and new. Jiminy.
