Don’t ‘wish

Local Government Reporter

Local Government Reporter

Bryan Johnson is Madison's recycling coordinator and offers plenty of advice and education on what not to recycle, and why.

Bryan Johnson says he’s like wallpaper: “I’m always here.” He also will be the first to tell you not to recycle wallpaper, by the way.

As the city Streets Division recycling and public education coordinator, Johnson helps run many of the things that keep life in Madison moving — from how to get a pothole filled, to trash collection, to the ins and outs of snow plowing — and one of the oldest recycling programs in the United States. He takes that responsibility seriously.

Johnson has talked to the White House Council on Environmental Quality about setting up city systems for reuse. He’s helping the county plan for a sustainability campus at the new landfill. He assisted the launch of a program teaching residents how to become a “master recycler,” which he thinks is an obtainable goal for anyone in Madison.

The Cap Times caught up with Johnson to ask him about all the things Madisonians should know about but often don’t — from why you shouldn’t call move-out season “Hippie Christmas” to what should and shouldn’t go into your recycling bin.

I’ve been with the city for nearly 13 years, but in this particular role as the recycling coordinator for going-on eight years now. I got my start in the city working as a police report typist, which was basically clerical work. A position opened at the Streets Division doing front desk work and I wound up in that role. I learned all the ins and outs of the division.

I have a master’s degree in creative writing, and I was going to be a fifth grade teacher in southern Illinois. So how did I end up as the recycling guy? This role really is teaching people through writing for the most part. It’s really using both of those skills at the same time.

What I’ve learned at this job is you’re the Swiss army knife. You’re never doing just one thing at this job. A lot of my job is helping the public understand things, and there’s a ton of public contact. Every day is a little different.

It’s probably that surprise aspect. I like being able to help people and being a person people can rely on when they ask a question. And I like being able to give an answer. You never know what you're going to get on a given day here and it's exciting. It keeps things interesting.

A key part of this job is education. The most important part of my title is the recycling coordinator part because we pride ourselves on being one of the oldest recycling programs. The main goal is to make sure people know what those recycling rules are and that we're doing it right.

The biggest challenge is I don’t know how to compete in this marketplace where there's not common attention to public information. Where do you go if your trash is canceled? Where do you look for that information? (You) are looking on Twitter or at national news, (and) you feel informed, but you're not because you're completely disconnected from your local sources of information. I don't know how to pierce all those bubbles.

We're like the vegetables, but we're not the ice cream. It can be difficult to make this basic vegetable information always accessible and interesting for people so they want to seek it out and grab it.

It's basic things. First, not all plastics can be recycled. That’s number one. It’s plastic containers, (numbered) 1 through 7. A good rule is for it be recycled, it needs to have a lid or handle or something like that — so no plastic straws. (Plastic bottles with plastic caps should be recycled with the lids on. Plastic caps should never be in the recycling loose.) All that weird plastic stuff that comes in boxes you buy online, that doesn't go with the box in the recycling cart. You empty the box, you flatten the box, and then you put the flat box in the recycling cart. You don’t just cram the full box in the recycling cart. It isn’t that big of a deal and it’s very simple to fold these things up. If you can open the top of them, you can open the bottom of them.

Don't put clothes in the recycling or any other sort of tangler, like rope or Christmas tree lights, because they can cause these systems to get stuck or clogged. Good recyclables are light — the bad things are going to weigh more. If you put a pair of pants in the recycling, pants are really heavy. … Your bad choices are always going to outweigh your good choices, just like life in general. I keep coming back to clothes because that one always really confuses me. I don't understand why people put clothes in the recycling bin.

Another thing, too, that people tend to get wrong is bag recycling. Where the city takes recycling, they’re willing to deal with clear bags. If you can look into the bag and see it’s full of paper or glass, fine. But if it’s a white bag or you can’t see through it at all, then they have to assume it’s trash and pull it out.

People can always check our website with resources and common questions.

Yes. “When in doubt, throw it out” is still sound advice. There’s this “wish-cycling” thing where people don't want to throw things in the trash so they throw things in the recycling. They really just wish someone would do the right thing with it. And it makes problems.

The annual turnover in leases in mid-August results in large piles of used furniture and other items in downtown Madison, and an unofficial scavenger hunt nicknamed "Hippie Christmas."

We don't call it those two words mostly because we don’t want to encourage people to paw through the stuff at the curb. It makes what is already a pretty prodigious mess downtown worse. We don't want stuff getting scattered around because our folks pick that up, and we have to do a lot of it by hand. And it is well over a million pounds worth of stuff that we get in about two weeks. It's a lot, and we don't want to make it any more trying or stressful on anybody.

With there being so many donation opportunities in our city as it is, if the stuff you’re putting out on the curb is usable, why not rely on these well established places — many of them are supporting good causes — to take that stuff. Some of these places will even come to your house and haul it away for free. If you put it at the curb, it gets rained on and it gets ruined, or a dog walks by and ruins it, or it gets broken or smelly or stained. You also hear about these “great scores” that some people may have accidentally taken from somebody who didn't mean to leave that out. They maybe caught somebody mid-move. It happens, so just don't do it. Just leave it there.

(The Streets Division will empty trash and recycling carts in downtown Madison and on the near east and west sides every work day between Aug. 7 through Aug. 17, as opposed to weekly collection. Residents in that area will not be required to complete a work order for free large item removal, like for furniture and mattresses, during that time frame. Find more information online at https://bit.ly/3rGW65A.)

If you are moving out and have a lot of stuff, make a plan. Donate what you can. Use collection carts (trash cans) as often as you can, because we start emptying those daily on Aug. 7 this year. Start working at it. There's no reason to wait until the 14th and shove everything onto the curb.

Allison Garfield joined the Cap Times in 2021 and covers local government. She graduated from UW-Madison with a degree in journalism and previously worked as a government watchdog reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and was the state capitol intern for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Support Allison's work and local journalism by becoming a Cap Times member. Follow her on Twitter @aligarfield_.

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