Letter: County recycling program should be supported

Editor,

With Island County landfilling costs skyrocketing by 36% this year alone; and in order to save money and conserve resources, it is time to support our community’s waste transporter, Island Disposal, in their call to start curbside recycling.

Initially, recycling services will be $6.50/month, but over the coming months, homeowners can work with Island Disposal to customize the level of service they receive to potentially lower their annual collection costs.

At the heart of this recycling strategy is the challenge to radically slash Island County’s projected $6 million annual cost (if our wasteful patterns continue) now used to transport trash to the Roosevelt Landfill mega-dump situated four hundred miles away along the Columbia River.

Recycling, which typically makes up 30% of America’s residential solid waste, is the quickest way to reduce wasteful landfill expenses. Recycling is the right thing to do. The first step is to support Island Disposal’s request to county commissioners to include recycling in their level of service agreement.

The next step is for us all to get serious about transforming our current $13.6 million Island County’s Solid Waste budget away from trashing resources and emitting greenhouse gases towards a zero-waste to landfill strategy. We all create waste, so we must all be a part of the solution.

David Haskell

Freeland