Rathdrum Prairie News: Recyling needs to be bigger priority for future

While the recent plan by Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson and Solid Waste Director Roger Saterfiel to build a jail next to a garbage transfer station and then have inmates sort recyclables is innovative and interesting, it is not the far-reaching program we need to interest area residents in recycling.

With Kootenai County residents throwing away 8.5 pounds of garbage per person per day – almost twice the national average – we are guilty of not being responsible when it comes to recycling.

And coupled with the booming rate of growth, the pressure we are putting on our county landfill at Fighting Creek means we will outgrow it years before the estimated 2037 date.

Some states, including Washington and Oregon, use mandated requirements for waste reduction and recycling to draw recycling processors to the area with promises of a continuous flow of materials and taxpayer subsidies.

But with no recycling requirements, communities in states such as Idaho are forced to ship recyclables to outside processors, making it cheaper to simply bury them in local landfills. And that is what we do.

Coeur d’Alene Garbage Service and Post Falls Sanitation provide weekly trash collection and curbside recycling to customers within the city limits of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls.

While they accept newspapers, magazines, cardboard, steel/tin/aluminum cans, household batteries and plastic pop bottles and milk jugs, they do not take junk mail, catalogs, books, glass, vehicle batteries, motor oil, antifreeze, any plastics other than milk jugs and pop bottles, cereal boxes, six-pack boxes or other pressed paper containers.

Coeur d’Alene Garbage Service and Post Falls Sanitation also provide weekly trash collection – but no recycling services – to residents of Hayden, Hayden Lake, Rathdrum, Dalton Gardens, Huetter, Fernan Village, Stateline and other rural areas.

These residents, as well as other Kootenai County residents who choose to use local refuse sites, have no recycling services. Instead, they must take recyclables to the county transfer station on Ramsey Road.

Kootenai County officials are aware more recycling services could be offered and more materials could be recycled. However, they maintain the key is to find markets for recyclables first, then establish collection systems.

One local resident, Karen Thurston, took them at their word.

When Thurston noticed that not all her recyclables were being picked up, she asked county officials why. She was told there is no market for many recyclables.

Through research, Thurston discovered that used clothing and textiles are the eighth-largest export product from the United States. She continued her search and found a broker who would accept clothing for shipment to Third World countries.

Then she founded Community Green Cross, a nonprofit organization that collects and recycles used clothing and fabrics. The organization collects about 600 pounds of textiles at the Ramsey garbage transfer station each week, and it recently entered into a three-year recycling contract with Kootenai County.

The county also promotes recycling through its School Drop Box Recycling Program.

Every Kootenai County public school has recycling collection bins that accommodate newspapers, magazines and aluminum cans.

Participating schools receive a 50 percent discount on their solid-waste fees plus all revenue from the recycled items. The schools receive a check from the recycling processor and can spend the money in any way they choose.

In 2004, Kooteani County schools collected 1,136.69 tons of recyclable materials and received $33,299 from recycling processors. The schools also saved $98,921 in reduced solid-waste fees.

We all need to catch the recycling bug and not just assume that governmental officials – and convicts, as the case may be – will do it for us.

Recycling programs in place in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and the schools are a start, but it is time for Kootenai County to provide recycling bins at all rural sites.

And it is time for all of us to dedicate ourselves to leaving a more healthful environment to our grandchildren by recycling some of the trash we routinely have been throwing into our landfill.