Seattle Press on Line - Get Serious About Recycling--Make Businesses Do It, Too

Small Ideas for Seattle

Get Serious About Recycling--Make Businesses Do It, Too

By Dick Falkenbury

May 18, 2000 -- My mother recycles like it's a religion. But Burger King has no mandated recycling program.

My sister composts, but no construction outfit has a recycling station instead of a dumpster.

My neighbors all recycle. But the Seattle Parks Department doesn't recycle the trash that they pick up in the parks.

Everybody, every business should have to recycle, or show that someone is doing it for them or show that they produce little or no trash. Even Boeing, the area agencies* and mom-and-pop groceries--everybody has got to be a part.

As long as the only mandated program is individual houses, it will be little more than a PR gimmick. Get real about garbage reduction.

Put someone in charge who relishes being a hardass. Tell them that the goal is a five percent reduction in total garbage per year over the next four years; then have them sign it.

*When the Seattle Public Schools tore down West Woodland Elementary, they didn't even bother to take out the desks, tables and chairs. I climbed the fence, went in and tossed about fifty of the chairs onto the sidewalk. They were all gone by the next day. My little nephew still uses the solid maple table I saved from the bulldozer.

Talk to Dick: falkenbury@aol.com.

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