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CLEVELAND WON’T HAVE CURBSIDE RECYCLING UNTIL SOMETIME NEXT YEAR; HERE’S HOW TO RECYCLE IN THE INTERIM
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CURBSIDE RECYCLING IS THE
only kind of recycling many of us have ever used, and a critical part of the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra. But more than six months after the City of Cleveland admitted it’s dumping recyclables, and with no change in sight, it’s time to look for alternatives.
Fortunately, there are plenty of places in Cleveland where forprofit companies and non-profit organizations will take certain kinds of recyclables off your hands. Armed with Cuyahoga County’s recycling website and an embarrassing number of empty beer cans, I set out to explore them.
My beer cans and I went to Aaromet Metal Recycling, a for-profit scrap facility between some empty lots on W. 63rd St., where facility manager Bobby Lester walked me through the process.
Ferrous metals – mainly steel – can be dropped off by truck around the back of the giant shed, with the mounds of crumpled cars and old ovens. Non-ferrous metals, including soda and beer cans, get dropped off inside. If you’re not sure, Lester said, see if a magnet sticks to it. If it’s magnetic, it’s ferrous.
Lester said he’s required by law to get an ID from and run a background check on anyone who drops off scrap metal – presumably to deter people like the one who used an electric saw to swipe my car’s catalytic converter a few months ago. However, there’s an exception for beverage cans.
He said food and beverage cans don’t have to be washed. “We prefer [clean]. It makes it nice,” he said, but they’ll accept them grungy.
Lester set my box of empties down on a scale built into the floor, then handed me a receipt and 30 cents for a few dozen cans.
“We normally get people in and out in less than five minutes,” he added.
There are for-profit scrap yards happy to take metal recyclables scattered around Cleveland. If you’d prefer not to interact with anyone while dropping off your cans, select fire stations throughout the city collect them for Aluminum Cans for Burned Children.
The organization’s website says most drop-off locations have bins with ACBC logos behind the firehouse. I couldn’t find a bin at Fire Station #23 on Madison Ave., but a firefighter lounging in front said I could just leave cans, preferably in a bag, next to the station’s dumpster, and someone from the charity would pick them up.
Charities want your paper and cardboard, too. Two recycling companies, Royal Oak Recycling and River Valley Recycling, currently take in paper from about 100 designated dumpsters in Cleveland.
Melinda Valentine from River Valley said non-profits, churches and schools can ask to host a bin. Income from the first 2,000 pounds of paper and cardboard collected per month essentially covers the expense of trucking out the paper. Above that amount, Valentine said, the hosting organizations get $3 per ton for the next 3,000 pounds of paper and cardboard, and $8 per ton over 8,000 pounds.
If a location consistently collects under 2,000 pounds a month, Valentine says the company will sometimes remove the bin, but they’re not penalizing offices or schools that may be closed because of the pandemic. The company maintains an up-to-date list of locations on its website.
Sean Walter, the company’s vice president of sales for the Midwest, says that the material goes to cardboard and packaging | clevescene.com | November 4-10, 2020 5
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manufacturers in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan and Alabama.
“Occasionally we will send some stuff overseas over to India, but the domestic mills are the ones that get the majority of our material,” he said.
Cuyahoga County’s Solid Waste Division lists a few facilities for more niche recycling, like electronics. Heavy duty plastic six-pack rings – not the old-school film ones – can be dropped off at a few local breweries and beverage stores. But there’s nowhere residents can recycle other types of plastic, or any kind of glass.
When Cleveland admitted it was no longer recycling, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste Division Directory Diane Bickett said her department looked for facilities that would take plastic or glass from Cleveland residents. They found no takers.
“It has everything to do with the market,” she said.
According to Bickett, plastics and glass, unlike metal and paper, are only profitable to recycle in large amounts, like the quantities that come out of sorting facilities, or industrial-scale castoffs from manufacturing. In the quantities produced by a single household, it’s just not worth the cost of transporting it.
“The tricky thing is that there’s a recycling infrastructure, a system of collectors and processors and end users, and when there are gaps in that system, it makes it harder for people to recycle certain items,” she said. “Until Cleveland has this program back up and in place, options are limited, unless you have a resident or a friend that lives in another community who is willing to take their materials and recycle it through their community’s program.”
Her daughter, she noted, lives in Ohio City, and brings her recyclables to Bickett’s house for curbside recycling.
According to a city spokesperson, the contractor evaluating Cleveland’s recycling program is scheduled to have recommendations by the end of this year. The city plans to implement changes in 2021.
But Bickett encouraged residents to think beyond traditional recyclables. Food waste, she said, makes up a large percentage of residential trash, and can be recycled either through home compost or a service like Rust Belt Riders.
She also pushed the two other R’s: reduce and reuse. For example, since you can’t recycle plastic water bottles, Bickett suggested trying to use fewer.
And much of what people throw away can be used again by someone else. Non-profits will treasure your old clothes, furniture, sporting goods, eyeglasses, televisions, and other ostensible trash. Bickett pointed readers to the county’s donation directory, Pass It On: A Resource-Full Guide to Donating Usable Stuff.
The upshot is, you can still recycle in Cleveland, but it takes a little more effort these days. Valentine believes a lot of people want to go the extra mile.
“It’s amazing the amount of phone calls I get daily” from residents with questions, she said. “It’s actually quite amazing to see how many people do truly care about it.” -Cid Standifer
Right-wing Fraudsters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman Indicted in Cuyahoga County for Robocall Scheme
After already having been indicted in Michigan for a robocall scheme to intimidate urban-area voters with misinformation, the fabulously inept duo of Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have now been indicted in Cuyahoga County for the same scheme.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office referred the case to local prosecutors.
Congresswoman Marcia Fudge was among those who noted after the Michigan case was unveiled that similar calls had been reported in Cleveland.
Wohl and Burkman face eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery and a possible 18 years in prison. (Bribery in this context refers to 3599.01(A) (2) in the Ohio Revised Code: “Attempt by intimidation, coercion, or other unlawful means to induce such delegate or elector to register or refrain from registering or to vote or refrain from voting at a primary, convention, or election for a particular person, question, or issue.”)
The calls said, “If you vote by mail, your personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used for credit card companies to collect outstanding debts. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is even pushing to… track people for mandatory vaccines.”
Similar robocalls were made in areas with “significant minority populations” in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, Michigan Attorney General Dana
There are a few facilities for more niche recycling, like electronics, but there’s nowhere residents can recycle other types of plastic, or any kind of glass.
Nessel said earlier this month.
In all, the duo made more than 65,000 robocalls. Cuyahoga County prosecutors say at least 10% of those were targeted to Cleveland and East Cleveland.
“The right to vote is the most fundamental component of our nation’s democracy. These individuals clearly infringed upon that right in a blatant attempt to suppress votes and undermine the integrity of this election. These actions will not be tolerated. Anyone who interferes with others’ right to vote must be held accountable,” Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a statement. “I commend Attorney General Dave Yost and his staff for their diligent work on this investigation. We urge all citizens to get out and vote. Do not let these individuals or others like them succeed. Exercise your right and get out and VOTE!”
Wohl and Burkman have been removed from social media sites for making bogus claims, including manufacturing sexual-assault allegations against former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and special counsel Robert Mueller. They also falsely claimed Elizabeth Warren had a sexual relationship with an ex-Marine male escort.
Arrest warrants have been issued. The pair will appear at a later court date. -Vince Grzegorek
Cleveland Voters to Secret Cabal Trying to Sabotage Schools Levy: Eat Shit!
In a decisive electoral victory Tuesday, Cleveland voters passed Issue 68, the levy to support the Metropolitan School District. The win for the schools came despite what was likely a multi-million dollar marketing campaign attempting to convince voters that an investment in CMSD was dangerous and scary.
Citywide mailers and advertisements on social media deployed rhetoric about rising rents, small business closures and general economic precarity, but was short on legitimate information. The backers of the effort were never conclusively revealed, though Crain’s reported that several downtown real estate developers opposed the levy and were likely involved.
The majority of Cleveland voters were not misled by the campaign. With 100 percent of Cuyahoga County precincts reporting, Issue 68 won by more than 20 points (61%-39%).
The levy will prevent cuts and allow the school district to continue to make investments in technology for students and teachers as they pursue new learning strategies during the pandemic and beyond. It will also permit the district to invest in new academic and extracurricular programs.
With a term of 10 years, the levy is not only a renewal, but an increase, adding roughly $7 per month in taxes for the owner of a median-value home in Cleveland ($45,000). Businesses will pay 2/3 of the levy’s total cost, which is why the downtown real estate community was so strenuously opposed.
But as Scene and others have noted, many of the developers most vocally opposed to the levy are themselves the recipients of generous public subsidies, applied to their real estate development projects. Their opposition was especially distasteful in light of that hypocrisy.
“Cleveland’s children are the real winners in this vote of support from the community,” Cleveland Teachers Union president Shari Obrenski said in a statement. “CTU educators are grateful to the citizens of Cleveland for their vote to support Cleveland kids and their future success. This levy will enable us to continue the significant academic progress we’ve been making in our schools. Cleveland voters recognized the need to support CMSD students, and were not swayed by the misleading propaganda from this cowardly anonymous group.” -Sam Allard
West Park Attorney Launches Outsider Cleveland Mayoral Campaign
West Park attorney Ross Dibello announced last week that he intends to run for Mayor of Cleveland in 2021. He has launched a campaign website that introduces himself to voters and lays out an aggressive policy reform agenda.
DiBello’s announcement comes
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only days after Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley formally filed campaign finance paperwork with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, laying the groundwork for his likely run.
The entry of DiBello into an already crowded field of speculative candidates signals that the 2021 race could be a clown car indeed. DiBello is perhaps most easily compared to 2017’s Tony Madalone, another millennial white male non-politician whose heart was in the vicinity of the right place.
DiBello is unknown in Cleveland politics. He grew up in Chesterland, attended OSU and Cleveland-
DIGIT WIDGET
107.3 Local FM radio station (#WhoisJeny) that for less than a year marketed to “generation Y” by playing modern hits. Last week, it quietly switched to alternative rock programming.
3,845 Ohio’s single-day Covid case numbers on Oct. 30, the highest since the pandemic began. Previous single-day records had been set on Oct. 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 29.
340,000 Estimated number of households across Ohio with no internet access.
70,000
Rounds of golf played at Seneca golf course in Broadview Heights in 2020 through the end of September, overtaking Big Met as the Metroparks’ most popular course. Marshall College of Law, and for the better part of his career has worked for Judge Cassandra Collier-Williams. In a press release Wednesday, he said he was inspired to run for Mayor both by Cleveland’s dismal quality of life rankings and by a desire to hold current elected officials accountable.
“City Hall’s preoccupation with how money will be spent on and against other candidates in this election has led to a host of significant problems in our city going unaddressed,” DiBello said in the release. “We are faced with unacceptable levels of infant mortality and lead poisoning, the highest poverty and crime rates in America, a broken economy that doesn’t work for its people and glaring racial and gender inequalities that continue to be a blight on Cleveland’s reputation.”
Listing policy priorities on his campaign website, DiBello claimed to want to institute more democratic procedures on Cleveland City Council, including immediately instating public comment, doing away with council appointments and limiting campaign contributions from individuals and corporations. He also believes that municipal elections should be held during presidential years and that term limits should be imposed.
DiBello’s policy ambitions cover a wide range — gun buybacks, innovation in education, closing Burke Lakefront Airport — but his key motivation seems to be making a statement about what he refers to as stagnation at City Hall.
“With our current system, Clevelanders need to be aware that the Mayor they elect in 2021 could certainly still be campaigning in 2041 with a message that ‘there’s more work to be done.’ That Mayor will outraise any ordinary, COMPETENT working resident of this city that wants to change it for the better.”
In a brief phone call with Scene, DiBello confirmed his intentions and his desire to run based on Cleveland’s woes, naming infant mortality, lead poisoning and teen suicide specifically. He also said, as a matter of principle, that he won’t be paying canvassers to collect signatures in order to put his name on the ballot.
DiBello notes in his campaign bio that he is a “lover of games.” He has been a professional poker player and is a lifelong fan of the OSU Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns. -Sam Allard
scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene Republicans Say Hate for Ohio Health Directors Isn’t Personal. They Just Don’t Like Women
As state health director, Dr. Amy Acton gained national renown for her fight against Covid, which has killed nearly 5,000 Ohioans. Yet conservatives bucked at her craven attempts to save their lives.
She was called a “tyrant” and a “globalist,” smeared with anti-Semitic vitriol. Armed men even protested outside her Bexley home. In June, Acton finally came to a realization: If she couldn’t meet the exacting scientific standards of people with few teeth, she had no business practicing medicine. The doctor resigned.
Last month, Gov. Mike DeWine found a replacement: Dr. Joan Duwve, the chief public health official in South Carolina who also formerly served Vice President Mike Pence in Indiana. But only hours after DeWine announced her appointment, she too resigned.
Officially, Duwve claimed fear of “harassment.” Unofficially, say sources, she worried conservative leaders would soon discover she’s a woman.
Republican officials reject the implication. “We knew she was a broad all along,” says Senate President Larry Obhof. “We could tell by her picture.”
Contrary to widespread opinion, he says Republicans don’t have a problem with women in general. It’s just when they achieve positions of authority. “If Acton would have worn a little more makeup and deferred to the men in the room, everything would have been fine,” Obhof explains. “But she wouldn’t even get coffee.”
Now Republicans are insisting on a health director “who only talks about abortion. We’d prefer a man because, well, he’s a man.”
Women get “too emotional” when a few thousand people die, adds Rep. John Becker (R-Union Township). “They’re genuinely sad. And they might want to do something about it, without first thinking of how it might affect the stock market.”
Both legislators wish DeWine would make selections more like former Gov. John Kasich. He appointed Turnpike Director Rick Hodges to lead the health department, since running a tollbooth and fighting a deadly contagion are practically the same thing.
Becker points out Covid didn’t dare rear its head around Hodges, who is a man. So it’s “a little suspicious” that it only showed up during Acton’s reign. “Coincidence? I don’t think so.”
His thoughts are echoed by Rep. Candice Keller (R-Middletown). She’s considered the Legislature’s foremost abortion foe. She’s also a proud fiscal conservative.
“When we say ‘pro-life,’ we mean ‘unborn lives,’” says Keller. “Once they get born, we can deprive them of government services. It doesn’t cost us anything. But Covid patients run up thousands of dollars in unpaid hospital bills. You just can’t economically justify caring about them.”
Keller believes dealing with these hard truths is best left to men. Stunted emotional development allows them to prioritize money over “traditional family values” – a phrase meant to be a soundbite, not a practical approach to life.
“A woman’s place is in the home. Cleaning,” says Keller. “Except for some women. Like me.”
Rep. Nino Vitale was Acton’s biggest critic. He calls her a “hypocrite,” wondering how many people she may have infected with “girl’s germs.” The Urbana Republican is now pushing DeWine to fill the post with a constituent, Jake Merriman.
A plumber by trade, Merriman achieved modest YouTube fame for his thoughts on masks (“SJW virtue signaling”) and male supremacy (“Why are Urbana chicks so stuck up?!”). His hobbies include skeet-shooting and archery. But his biggest selling point is an absence of ovaries, says Vitale.
“You think Covid wants to take on a guy like that? The hoax gets one look at Jake’s compound bow, and it’s hightailing it back to China. If the babes were still here, they’d prepare a guest bedroom.”
