Others have lampooned such signs with signs of their own, including one I saw, in the font and colors of “this house believes…” signs, saying, “My political opinions are so exciting that I figured you’d like to learn about them while you walk your dog. Just kidding. Have a nice day.”
California Assemblyman Steve Bennett once shared with me his political strategy regarding campaign signs. He won nearly two-thirds of the vote in the recent primary and has won multiple local elections as a city councilmember, County supervisor, and as a leader of SOAR, the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources organization, so he can be regarded as a campaign expert. He acknowledged signs can be useful for new candidates to gain name recognition, give supporters a sense of being included in a campaign, and encourage voting. However, he cautioned against giving multiple signs to enthusiastic supporters who might place the signs in public spaces. Too many signs in too small a space will be resented as visual pollution, and only signs on private property, with consent of the owner, provide the advantage of an endorsement.
Those who dislike the visual blight of campaign signs also have another reason to dislike the signs. Plastic coated paper is not recyclable.
This exclusion of plastic-coated paper should not be confused with thinly coated glossy paper, such as magazines, which are recyclable in curbside and commercial programs. Christian Contreras, former recycling coordinator for the Indy Containerboard recycling mill in Oxnard, explained the difference to me four years ago, and his lesson is still valid today. Political signs must survive outdoors in inclement weather, and the thick plastic coating giving them durability also makes them too difficult to turn into pulp, the soupy mixture of paper fibers and water molded into new sheets at recycling mills.
Automated systems at sorting centers will treat those posters like pieces of cardboard, and the posters will end up in bales sent to paper mills to be made into new cardboard. This may be counted as recycling on some tallies of recycling programs, “but the fibers and plastic from the posters will end up being screened out of the truly recyclable mix, and the recycling mill will then have to pay to dispose that mess, along with all the tape, labels, baling wires, and other material screened out of the pulp in the manufacturing process,” explained Contreras.
On its website, Athens Services, the contracted hauler for two local cities and parts of unincorporated Ventura County, also advises against trying to recycle plastic-coated paper signs but says corrugated plastic signs can be recyclable. Plastic signs are also accepted in other recyclers’ carts, with the likelihood of recycling depending on the type of plastic, processing methods, and fluctuating markets.
The Athens website also provides suggestions for reuse. The stands for political signs, and the frames or solid backings of posters can be reused.
My mother-in-law, who served 36 years on a local city council, had the best campaign sign reuse program of all. She followed up with her supporters to collect as many signs as possible immediately after the election, stored the signs in her garage, and kept reusing them as she ran for the same office again and again. After she retired, she gave some of the signs to her grandson, helping him win an election to student council.
David Goldstein
David Goldstein, an Environmental Resource Analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency, may be reached at david.goldstein@ventura.org or (805) 658-4312
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