Mandatory Recycling

Reading Sharon Hornberger's views on recycling -- "Westminster's mandatory recycling law should be trashed" (Carroll County Sun, July 5) -- leaves me relieved that she represents The Carroll County Sun rather than the residents of Carroll County.With all due respect to the lady, we already have too many leaders who wouldn't recognize water if they fell out of a boat.Recycling is not a terribly complex issue -- it is simply a disposal option for the trash that each of us generates each and every day.Today, we have only two legal options.

Charging county residents for trash service by the bag may be trendy and may encourage recycling, but it's a bad idea, said many residents at the first public meeting on the proposal last night.About 70 people attended the meeting at Howard High School in southern Ellicott City, and most of them sharply criticized the "pay-as-you-throw" concept proposed Sept. 1 by the county's Solid Waste Funding Assessment Board.If County Executive Charles I. Ecker and the County Council adopt the board's proposal, Howard would be the first county in the state to charge residents for trash pickup based on how much they throw away.

Bowing to public pressure, the county commissioners say they may scrap mandatory recycling and other aspects of a proposed solid waste program that raised objections from residents and trash haulers."

Carroll's county commissioners overrode opposition from trash haulers and gave themselves the authority yesterday to make recycling mandatory.They also voted to prohibit county residents from mixing yard waste with trash destined for landfill trenches.Effective May 1, yard waste must be separated for composting.The Maryland Delaware Solid Waste Association, a refuse haulers industry group, opposed changing county law to allow the commissioners to require residents and businesses to recycle.

Mandatory recycling found no favor in Carroll County yesterday.The county commissioners heard opposition from a representative of trash haulers at a 30-minute public hearing on proposed changes in the county solid-waste ordinance. The hearing attracted about 10 people, most of them from the refuse-hauling business.County Attorney Charles W. Thompson Jr. assured the haulers that the county doesn't need to require residents and businesses to recycle their trash now. He said the proposed change in the law would simply allow the commissioners to make recycling mandatory later.

Recycling glass, plastic and newspapers will remain voluntary in Carroll -- for now -- but the county commissioners yesterday set the stage to move swiftly to mandatory recycling.The commissioners directed their staff to draft an ordinance that would allow them to enact mandatory recycling by resolution, without the usual advertising and public hearing.However, the commissioners will be required to advertise and hold a public hearing on the proposed enacting ordinance, county officials said.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."This is given to us from the Declaration of Independence. Abraham Lincoln defined this as meaning that ". . . It was the right of the people to govern themselves, to be sovereign of their own affairs, in the sense that a state belongs to the people who inhabit it."

If the Carroll County commissioners want to know whether to go to mandatory recycling instead of a voluntary system, they ought to focus on the right set of numbers. Instead of comparing the percentage of solid waste recycled under voluntary programs versus mandatory programs, they should focus on the cost of filling landfills with garbage that could go elsewhere.The more garbage that goes into the landfills, the shorter their life. If current rates of disposal continue, officials project the county's two landfills will reach capacity about the year 2007.

Carroll County commissioners appear likely to give themselves the authority to make recycling mandatory, despite an industry group's opposition and one commissioner's refusal to say where he stands.County staff members had reported rumors that the commissioners planned to eliminate the mandatory recycling authorization when they vote on changes to the county's solid waste ordinance April 14. But the measure appears to have majority support.The Maryland Delaware Solid Waste Association, which represents refuse haulers, will oppose the enabling provision, said Pamela S. Metz, executive director.

The county commissioners are moving forward with a proposed $40-per-ton tipping fee, even though the cost of a revised solid waste management program, which would include mandatory recycling, is projected to be higher.During a work session Wednesday on proposed revisions to the county's Solid Waste Management Ordinance, officials said they expect the cost of burying and recycling trash to be about $53 per ton.County Attorney Charles W. Thompson Jr. said commissioners believed that raising the tipping fee by $25 -- from $15 per ton to $40 -- was enough to make the revised program operable.

Carroll County commissioners appear likely to give themselves the authority to make recycling mandatory, despite an industry group's opposition and one commissioner's refusal to say where he stands.County staff members had reported rumors that the commissioners planned to eliminate the mandatory recycling authorization when they vote on changes to the county's solid waste ordinance April 14. But the measure appears to have majority support.The Maryland Delaware Solid Waste Association, which represents refuse haulers, will oppose the enabling provision, said Pamela S. Metz, executive director.

Carroll residents wouldn't be allowed to put their grass clippings and leaves into landfill-bound garbage under a proposed ordinance change supported by a majority of the county commissioners.But the commissioners say they will rely on voluntary compliance rather than try to enforce the requirement that yard waste be placed in the mulching area at the northern landfill in Reese and kept out of the cells where refuse is buried.The county uses the mulched material in gardening and offers it free to anyone interested.

When Baltimore County Executive Roger Hayden announced plans early this year to blanket the county with curbside recycling collections by 1995, the volunteers who had manned about a dozen drop-off stations on weekends cheered. The county, like Baltimore city and most of its suburban neighbors, was finally entering the late 20th century in refuse collection. It made little sense that residents had an easier (and cheaper) time throwing away their non-renewable garbage than getting rid of their recyclables.

Unattended bins where people can drop off recyclable trash can work, but such voluntary systems are not without problems, as officials in the town of Hampstead are discovering. The recycling bins, unfortunately, are becoming repositories for more than just recyclables and the mess around them is annoying residents.Hampstead is not unique in Carroll County (or elsewhere) in having problems with voluntary trash disposal. Mount Airy's effort to create a community compost pile to handle yard waste in Prospect Park became a smelly eyesore after people began tossing bags of trash, old furniture and other refuse into the pile.

If the Carroll County commissioners want to know whether to go to mandatory recycling instead of a voluntary system, they ought to focus on the right set of numbers. Instead of comparing the percentage of solid waste recycled under voluntary programs versus mandatory programs, they should focus on the cost of filling landfills with garbage that could go elsewhere.The more garbage that goes into the landfills, the shorter their life. If current rates of disposal continue, officials project the county's two landfills will reach capacity about the year 2007.

Mandatory recycling found no favor in Carroll County yesterday.The county commissioners heard opposition from a representative of trash haulers at a 30-minute public hearing on proposed changes in the county solid-waste ordinance. The hearing attracted about 10 people, most of them from the refuse-hauling business.County Attorney Charles W. Thompson Jr. assured the haulers that the county doesn't need to require residents and businesses to recycle their trash now. He said the proposed change in the law would simply allow the commissioners to make recycling mandatory later.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke asked Baltimore's City Council yesterday to pass a package of environmental bills, including one that would impose mandatory recycling if voluntary efforts failed to meet minimum targets established by state law."This package of legislative initiatives and incentives will encourage Baltimoreans and city employees to develop a direct role in cleaning and preserving our environment," Mr. Schmoke said. "We think the local government has an important role to play."The mayor said his environmental proposals would encourage people to place a higher value on clean air and water.

Carroll's county commissioners overrode opposition from trash haulers and gave themselves the authority yesterday to make recycling mandatory.They also voted to prohibit county residents from mixing yard waste with trash destined for landfill trenches.Effective May 1, yard waste must be separated for composting.The Maryland Delaware Solid Waste Association, a refuse haulers industry group, opposed changing county law to allow the commissioners to require residents and businesses to recycle.

Local trash haulers, worried about an ordinance that would allow the county commissioners to make recycling mandatory, aired their concerns yesterday at a workshop on the proposal.County officials, including County Attorney Charles W. Thompson Jr., Public Works Director Keith Kirschnick and Recycling Manager Vinnie Legge, were on hand to answer questions.Proposed by the commissioners in August, the ordinance would give them the authority to enact a mandatory recycling program if the county's recycling rate drops too low. Currently, the county has a voluntary curbside recycling program.

Carroll's recycling rate climbed to 16 percent in August, up from 13 percent in July, county officials reported yesterday.The county's overall recycling rate for the first eight months of 1993 was 20.3 percent, up from about 17 percent for the first six months, said Comptroller Eugene C. Curfman.Mr. Curfman credited the high rate to the fact that yard waste is being composted, a form of recycling, instead of being buried with other refuse at Carroll landfills. He also said more businesses have been reporting their recycling efforts to the county.