Recycling a natural choice

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Recycling a natural choice

Opinions

Thursday, 12 August 2010 07:04

We like the idea of Osceola County providing one-stream curbside recycling in unincorporated areas. The county is mandated by the state because it has a population of more than 100,000 to reach certain levels of recycling and the one-stream method – where all recyclable items are placed into one container – is an improvement over what we have now.
According to county officials, our current rate of recycling – using 20 drop-off sites – is only 12 percent, not surprising, given the inconvenience of having to load up the recyclables and haul them somewhere.
But adding recycling to our trash collection service will come at a cost: It means residents will have one-day-a-week trash collection rather than twice a week. We don’t see this trade-off as a big inconvenience, however, given that there is no limit now on the amount of trash residents can put curbside, and that will not change, according to county officials. Residents, however, will have to be more diligent to make sure outdoor trash containers are secure, given their garbage will be available to animal intrusion for longer periods. Plus, the county will have to deal with scheduled pick-up days falling on holidays.
Our neighbor to the north, Orange County, has dual-stream curbside recycling, in which residents are provided two 16-gallon bins. Paper and fiber is collected separately in one bin, aluminum or tin cans, plastic and glass is collected in another. That county has a 32 percent participation rate. Residents also have yard waste pickup once a week along with twice-a-week trash collection, with amount restrictions.
One of our other neighboring counties, Polk, uses the single-stream curbside method, with participation at 23 percent. We should be able to attain this level and higher with a moderate amount of effort.
We believe the County Commission made the right choice in going the single-stream route to help reach state-mandated goals and they are going to do it without increasing costs. In the future, maybe we can consider going to every other week on the yard waste and the same for recycling at minimal additional cost to get back the twice-a-week regular trash collection.
The ultimate goal of recycling is to reduce the overall waste stream to help extend the life of costly landfills, reduce methane gas emissions from these facilities and to ease the pressure on natural resources.