Our schools do a great
job of teaching students the importance of recycling. By sixth grade, my students often make
suggestions about how to “reduce, reuse, and recycle.”
Our state Department of
Environmental Quality encourages recycling at home, in the office, in schools
and in the community. It has many
suggestions for products that can be donated to charities, and suggestions for
composting to give a second life to our yard clippings and other organic materials
that could enrich our garden soil.
I’ve often wondered why
we have two trash pick-ups per week in Eunice, but, no curbside recycling. To recycle, we have to haul our recycled
glass, paper, plastic and electronic items to the recycling center.
Don’t get me wrong. Our trash pickup service is wonderful, and
very dependable. And, I am always amazed
when I see tree limb piles picked up after storms, regular as clockwork.
And, our St. Landry
Recycling Centers are beautiful sites – sparkling clean, very well-
organized. But, their hours of operation
are not compatible with work schedules for many adults. To use these centers, I have to store my
recycled bins for months at a time until that rare day comes along when I am
off before the Center is closed.
Curbside recycling
benefit s most of our working families, and it can be handled in different
ways. Some towns provide two or three
bins to each home. On designated days,
residents set out their sorted recycle products for pick up. This model is known to increase recycling participation,
and to reduce the use of landfills.
There is a town in
Pennsylvania that makes it even easier for families to recycle. Residents are given one bin per household. All the family’s recycle products are placed
in that one bin, then, sorted at the town’s recycling centers by paid staff. This town’s financial manager proved that this
model of curbside pickup of single bins with sorting at the recycle center was
actually more cost effective. But, it also encouraged more people to use the
program, saving the town landfill costs.
There are other ways for
us to reduce our trash volume, perhaps making it easier for the town to switch
to curbside recycling collection days.
To encourage reduced
purchase of unnecessary packaging and disposable products, the town of Vineyard
Haven used to sell $2 tickets for each trash can they emptied. We could recycle all we wanted for free, but,
for trash destined for the landfill, we had to pay $2 per can. No ticket, no pickup.
At first I thought this
was ridiculous, and I was sure it would be more expensive for the home owner
than the old fashioned monthly fee that we were charged for water and
sewage.
But, paying by the can to
dispose trash proved to be quite effective in changing the habits of home
dwellers. Even though I moved away
decades ago, I still limit trash accumulation by avoiding unnecessary
packaging, and by using reusable containers, dishware, etc.
Some towns make it easy
to dispose of toxic waste and electronics by having special curbside pickup of
these materials on designated days each year.
And, of course, Eunice and every
other town has thrift stores where we can drop off our “gently used” reusable
clothes and furniture.
Why am I raising this
concern for your consideration? Because
soon, we will be voting for City Council members and other elected officials.
A few years ago, a
politician knocked on my door one day to ask for my vote for City Council. I told him I would vote for him if he would
support curbside recycling. It hasn’t
happened yet, but, there is an election coming up.
No comments:
Post a Comment