Need to find new recycling options | Letters

Editor,

Megan Hansen, in her editorial of Feb. 16, stated that “Residents want cubside recycling.” What she should have said is that residents want voluntary curbside recycling, not mandatory curbside recycling, which is nothing more than a tax.

Why should island residents have to haul their own garbage to the transfer station just to avoid a tax?

When curbside recycling for the entire island came up five years ago, the county spent a few weeks conducting an unofficial poll. Of the respondents, 29 percent were OK with mandatory recycling, but 71 percent were opposed.

When the Island County Solid Waste and Moderate Risk Waste Management Plan was adopted on Jan. 28, 2008, in Section 7.4.2 Customer Preferences it states:

“Customers typically favor voluntary rather than mandatory collection service because they prefer choice. Mandatory collection in Whatcom County was discontinued soon after it was established due to customer complaints.”

Commissioner Kelly Emerson commented in a commissioners’ meeting in January that her constituents were running about 70 percent against mandatory curbside recycling. After all of these years the percentages haven’t changed. Approximately 70 percent of island residents that are served by Island Disposal do not want mandatory curbside recycling.

It’s just that the commissioners have not been listening. Finally, we have two commissioners, Kelly Emerson and Jill Johnson who are listening to their constituents and they should be commended for stopping mandatory curbside recycling dead in its tracks.

If Island Disposal cannot make voluntary curbside recycling work, then find another company.

Richard Bowen
Coupeville

 

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