Extra Extra

does this mean that apartments and condos will atleast be allowed plastic recycling? better than nothing.

Thousands of people put 12-pack boxes and other pressboard in their recycling bins. All of that crap goes in the landfill. I suppose 15% might be a good estimate.

Seth

I actually quite like the Traditional Texas plate (to me, looking like a six of Lone Star is a good thing). I'd rank Lone Star Texas as the worst - that scribbling in the top left is awful. Natural Texas is equally bad. New Texas and My Texas are ok, but I'd rather not have the space shuttle on there.

doulos, good point. I have heard that a lot of supposedly recyclyable stuff does get thrown away too, but this article did not make that case at all, so the headline was bogus.

Traditional Texas: Looks a lot like a six pack of Lone Star.

Natural Texas: Looks like what it is-- a faded photograph.

Lone Star Texas: From a design perspective, it's at least eight years out of date.

New Texas: Iconic, best of the bunch, ties in 60's Texas with a contemporary feel, despite the fact that almost all the warmth (red) is relegated to a sliver in the upper right corner.

However-- I still voted for the old one. (The 'control'?) Because it's the best one offered. Even though I thought it was ugly when it came out.

Also it has a spaceship.

all of the new texas license plate designs are pretty hideous. the 'best' one being the 'new texas' is unfortunately in second to last place. ugh.

Um... this is yet another example of journalists using a headline to make you believe an article says something important when in all actuality... it's not saying anything that would really qualify as news (not slamming austinist... love this blog). Slightly reworded, this would be a public service announcement.

"Please check austinrecycles.com to see a full list of items that we are equipped to recycle. Putting items into the recycle bin that cannot be recycled by Austin will cause unnecessary expense as those items will simply end up in the trash where they should have been placed to begin with.

What follows is the money quote from the article that makes the headline "not a lie":

"The material that we cannot recycle at this time, unfortunately, goes in the trash," said Mayfield.

That amounts to about 15 percent of what gets dropped off. The sorter determines what can't be recycled.

Wow! Really? You mean you take the things people were supposed to put in the trash and actually put those things into the trash? I thought they would end up in the "gee I really wish they would recycle this" region. Oh yeah... that's a landfill.

Thankfully, the article does point out that Austin is moving to make more things recyclable this year. I wish the city would do more, too... but this is just ridiculous reporting. "Oooh - that would make a good headline and it isn't technically a lie... let's print it!"

Wow talk about glass half-full - "If only 85% of my recycling gets recycled then why bother?"