Ever since I received my recycling container, which, as I recall, I never asked for, I’ve wondered about this whole recycling business.
Is it really of value?
Years later, I believe in the San Diego area, a recycling customer also wondered and put a tracking tag on the container to see where his recycling container went. It went to the landfill alongside his regular garbage.
So, that prompted me just before last Christmas to email our solid waste department to see what percentage here was recycled and what just went to the dump? I received a response from someone who said she wasn’t sure, and the person who knew was on vacation, but that they would get back to me when he returned.
I never heard back. To be fair, I didn’t ask them again, either.
Meanwhile, I continued to put cardboard, plastic and other materials I thought were actual recyclables into the can anyway. After all, I’m paying for the can. Then, one day, I had the chance to talk to a member of the solid waste board and learned a lot about this recycling business.
First, I learned that all cardboard is not the same. Most of what I’ve been tossing wasn’t the right kind and couldn’t be recycled. Plastics, same thing. After 30 minutes or so, I knew more about recycling than I thought possible.
Mostly what I came away with from this is that household recycling is complicated and probably not really doing much at all. In fact, if I knew what the rules were, my can would likely have almost nothing in it.
Now, I’m all for clean water and air, but I continue to wonder if all the green initiatives actually do what they say or if they are just another way to cost us money?
I’m pretty sure “cost money” is the answer.
I also learned that not all areas have the same requirements for recyclables. In some areas, one thing is considered recyclable, and not too far away, it's not, which seems odd. In a city where my son lives in California, they don’t have a recycling container at all, except for yard waste.
So while I’m not against recycling when it makes sense, it appears to me I’m just paying extra for a garbage can to feel good.
But I don’t feel good.
It’s just another service I pay for and don’t need that doesn’t really do anything.
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I’m not necessarily opposed to our state government studying important issues before acting, but sometimes I have to question a study of the obvious.
State Rep. Mark Klicker, R-Walla Walla, sponsored House Bill 1108, which would have required the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to study the primary drivers of cost for home ownership and rental housing in our state.
Gov. Bob Ferguson vetoed the bill because he says it has been done.
You have to admire the courage of a Democratic governor who vetoes spending of any kind — especially this governor, who just signed into law the largest tax increase imaginable after signaling early he wouldn’t.
He was just kidding when he said that, I guess. But, really, the reasons for our high cost of housing don’t need to be studied. Just stopped.
Stop with the endless increases in property taxes and taxes of all kinds. Stop with the endless bureaucracy, land use regulations, fees, etc., that get in the way of less expensive housing. Just stop making stupid, poorly thought out decisions that make it more expensive.
And if the taxes Ferguson approved weren’t enough, jurisdictions that want to access the “free money” he promised for more cops have to comply with a host of requirements, including another property tax increase, on top of everything he just did.
So, he’s right. We don’t need to study the obvious because he and his ilk in Olympia wouldn’t listen anyway. It would be a waste of money, which is why it’s so admirable. Because waste in Olympia is an art form and, right now, he’s the painter.
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.
