Hooray! Our county is considering curbside recycling for all Island Disposal customers! Recycling has been scientifically shown to benefit the Earth and the future of humanity in several ways: reducing the burden on landfills, preserving limited resources, decreasing pollution, decreasing carbon emissions, and decreasing the cost of producing new goods.

Yes, identifying, separating and preparing recyclables takes effort, but this relatively small effort will yield great long-term benefits. We must think beyond our own current personal convenience (it’s easiest to throw all of our waste into the garbage) to act for the greater good. I am grateful and proud that Island County officials are trying to move in this direction.

To increase recycling participation, the county needs to make it more convenient and to offer an incentive. Curbside recycling greatly improves convenience.

As an incentive, if all of us pay for recycling services, those who recycle will decrease their trash can size, thereby decreasing their garbage collection cost. Universal curbside recycling would further benefit the environment by converting a large number of individual transportation vehicles (current recyclers) to a few Island Disposal trucks.

For a thorough explanation of the benefits of a universal curbside recycling program for Island Disposal customers, please read “The Case for Curbside Recycling” at www.islandcounty.net/publicworks/SolidWaste/documents/csrecycle.pdf.

Kimberly Hallahan
Oak Harbor