A call to action is needed to protect Whidbey Island’s great but endangered social gathering places.

We are speaking, of course, of our recycling centers, formerly known as dumps, in which folks of all stripes gather on Saturday to dispose of their reusable refuse. Professors, retired Navy officers, lawyers, auto mechanics, used car dealers, the unemployed, meth-heads, even journalists, all use the same facilities, acknowledge one another’s presence in a friendly matter, and even chat amiably as they lug their empty aluminum cans and bottles, used cardboard, magazines and newspapers, to their proper bins. On an island in which the various strata of society rarely mix, the recycling centers bring us all together into one democratic hodgepodge of people bent on reducing the modern guilt of simple existence by recycling their stuff and saving the planet.

But now our way of life is endangered as county leaders ponder a proposal by Waste Management, Inc., which several years ago swallowed up friendly little Island Disposal. The gargantuan garbage company wants to force all garbage customers to recycle, using a huge bin we would keep in our garages, or park outside under the eaves. Of course there would be a charge for this, enough to make Waste Management a pretty penny. The alleged goal is to increase the recycling rate, so of course the county bureaucrats are all for it. What’s another government mandate for a good cause? And if we’re forced to pay, we’ll give up those social trips to the recycling center.

They blame the county’s dismal recycled garbage rate of 5 percent. This is accomplished by what can call the “pickers,” who are people hired by Waste Management to pick recyclables from the garbage. They want to fire these pickers and instead force the average Joe and Jill to recycle, and to pay Waste Management for the honor. About $5 a month, thank you.

Our elected county leaders weren’t born yesterday and hopefully can see through this corporate ploy. The answer isn’t to mandate another task on the public, it’s to better the life of the pickers. Waste Management is hiring them for a pittance and putting them to work with no incentives. They’re just pickers with no hope of improving their station in life. No wonder they pick out only 5 percent of recyclables. Maybe that’s all it takes to keep the boss off their back.

So let’s incentivize the picking job. There are 9,000 garbage customers, so raise rates only $1 a month. Give the $9,000 to the pickers, not Waste Management. All they have to do for the extra money is pick out 30 percent of the recyclables instead of 5 percent. Does anyone doubt they can do it? Of course they can. They’ll finally be making good money — quite possibly more than the county commissioners, and deservedly so — they’ll have jobs other people want, and they’ll have the community’s respect.

Meanwhile, the rest of us won’t have those huge, ugly recycling cans around the house, and we can continue our cherished social lives at the recycling center.