Our Say: Recycling efforts are working, but can go further

The Capital - Editorial
July 17, 2007

A city alderman has gotten a lot of attention for proposing to force merchants to stop offering their customers plastic bags. But government can ultimately do much more for the environment by pushing recycling.

As recent stories made plain, these efforts are already off to a solid start in both the city and the county - but a lot more remains to be done before this area will get the maximum benefit.

The city already has money in its budget to put recycling bins downtown, not to mention a grant to pay for disposal of computers and computer-related materials - so-called "e-cycling."

Meanwhile, the county has made big strides since curbside pickup of recyclables was introduced in 1992. Technical advances now make it possible for residents to put all their recyclables in one container. The material goes to the Waste Management facility in Elkridge, generating $1.8 million a year - which the county applies to keeping trash fees down.

So far, so good. But while recycling has become a fact of life in neighborhoods, with about 70 percent of residents participating to some extent, it is still absent in much of the private sector and in some semi-public places.

You won't see any recycling containers in the public areas of any of the county's three biggest shopping malls (although at least two of them have programs for reclaiming waste cardboard from tenants). Baltimore Washington Medical Center currently doesn't recycle bottles or cans; Anne Arundel Medical Center recycles only shredded paper and fluorescent light bulbs. BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport has gotten its recycling up to 28 percent of its waste, but officials there acknowledge they can do better.

No doubt it makes short-term commercial sense for some businesses to send all their trash to the landfill. But in the long term, it doesn't make any sense to be burying ton after ton of reusable paper, plastic, glass and aluminum in a county landfill that has only so much space.

Other jurisdictions don't stop with largely voluntary efforts. Montgomery County requires businesses to put recycling bins next to each trash can and makes businesses - as well as apartment and condominium managers - draw up recycling plans and give yearly reports. It also has investigators who hand out fines.

Before Anne Arundel County adopts any such policies, it should make sure it's doing all it can to encourage voluntary recycling. We haven't yet reached the point where ordering businesses around is local government's only recourse.

Arguments that recycling is a joke - an impractical expression of piety by environmentalist goody-goodies - have died away. There is nothing impractical about the high-tech Waste Management plant in Elkridge or the $1.8 million a year it shaves off the trash bills of county residents. But there's still more that can be done.

Published July 17, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2007 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.