Let the market and politics test whether recycling is a good idea here

Gayle Swagerty spoke for quite a few people in the entire community this week when she asked why there is no recycling program organized by the four towns whose waste disposal is governed by the Regional Board of Mayors.

The mayors’ response was that it’s not economically feasible to sustain such a program in an area of this population.

That may be so, but the mayors should let the market prove it.

Evidently, that’s not an option currently because the waste disposal contract gives the regional refuse hauler the right to run a recycling program. At least that is what was told to the last person who tried to start one. Can’t be done.

It’s time to change that aspect of the contract. If Sunrise Disposal doesn’t want to offer a recycling program, that’s understandable. When this state passed the law that requires most of the state to offer curbside recycling, it exempted small towns for the very economic reasons the mayors are claiming. Still, about 87 percent of the people in the state now have access to curbside recycling. It’s a value we’ve drummed into our children since the 1970s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

That’s why the ability to put together a recycling program should not be exclusively held by a company that doesn’t want to do it. Keeping that clause in the contract in the future might point to a more questionable reason for it: Keeping out recycling ensures more waste to pay the bills at the local disposal site, and more hauling for the contractor.

That, too, is a rational approach, but it’s certainly one that, given the political will, could be alleviated if the people decided to do so, possibly through higher garbage bills, if necessary.

That’s a political question. And if Swagerty, or anyone else, want to ask it, they ought to be able to at least see a possibility of success, not a contract to a private company with a tight garbage can lid on the process.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher