Posted on: Wednesday, March 26, 2003

EDITORIAL
Recycling will cost us, but it's worth it

Just three months before curbside recycling is to be launched on O'ahu, a debate is on over how to pay for it.

Mayor Jeremy Harris has proposed replacing one of our twice-weekly garbage pickups with one weekly curbside recycling pickup. Those who opt to keep their second weekly garbage pickup would pay $8 a month.

On the positive side, one less garbage pickup would inspire households to reduce the waste going to landfills and to recycle more. On the negative side, it would burden large, low-income families who produce more waste than the average household.

Meanwhile, City Council Chairman Gary Okino suggests everyone pay a monthly $8 fee for the twice-weekly garbage pickups as well as a weekly alternating green waste and recycling collection.

This would certainly extend and simplify Harris' plan. But it doesn't provide an incentive to reduce waste. Besides, some might prefer more paper, glass, aluminum and plastic pickups than green waste pickups.

The bottom line is, you cannot customize an islandwide recycling program to each household's needs. So the city is going to have to settle on a way to pay for this program. At this point, we can't say whether the Harris or Okino plan has the stronger legs. The key is not to slip away from the drive to recycle.

As Islanders continue to indiscriminately throw out rubbish, the Waimanalo Gulch landfill is living on borrowed time.

On a cynical note, however, we need reassurance that our efforts to segregate rubbish won't be wasted, that the paper, plastic, aluminum and glass that we separate out of the garbage is really going to various recycling markets and not ending up in landfills and the H-POWER plant.

We don't expect recycling to be lucrative. Its real payoff is that it diverts waste from the landfills and protects our environment. Those are the priceless rewards.