The financial turnaround at the county landfill is largely due to increased recycling efforts. Those efforts have meant less waste is taking up space at the landfill and more types of waste are being recycled and sold by the county itself or to third-party recycling stations. The Blue Bag Recycling Program has been a major component of this increased recycling effort, and many people who have begun to use the bags have been surprised at the amount of recyclable material they were previously sending to the landfill. County leaders should be commended for launching this program.
That said, we believe the Blue Bags program could work even better if the county did more to promote it, and if the bags were more affordable and more widely available.
On the whole, though, the landfill turnaround provides a good example for county residents to emulate.
As Americans, we are the most wasteful people in the world, throwing away copious amounts of “garbage,” reusing or repairing very little of what we own, and buying new before we even consider secondhand goods. But our wasteful habits are hurting the planet and our personal pocketbooks. Isn’t it time we began to throw away less, recycle more, and reuse rather than repurchase?
County landfill managers are spinning straw into gold by taking waste previously thought to be useless junk and finding uses or a market for it. That’s the same approach county residents should take in their personal lives.
“Reduce, reuse and recycle” has become a mantra for less wasteful living for people across the country. It’s time we adopted it as our own.
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