It’s often hard to predict what will spur reader outrage or community feedback on a particular story, but the issue of recycling seems to have touched a nerve with some people, following a Town of St. Paul decision to change recycling operations and discontinue the recycling of plastics.
A few have noted that recycling plastics, whether or not there’s a market or money to be had from doing so, is essential, because plastic is not biodegradable. All of us want to do our part for the environment, and recycling seems like a great option. But those involved firsthand in recycling efforts know it’s not that simple. They know, for instance, that blue box recycling programs that offer pick-ups at residents’ doors would not be cost-effective, nor would the blue box program make sense for a small community such as St. Paul. They know that the cardboard we recycle might travel all the way to China to be reused, leading to carbon emissions associated with shipping. They know that some grades of plastic are extremely hard to reuse and that the processes of melting the plastic and reforming it has its own environmental costs.
Of course, one obvious solution is to start consuming less – to stop drinking water from plastic bottles when you can get water from a tap or to use reusable shopping bags at the grocery store. But given that so many of our goods are bottled in plastics, there’s no way to stop our consumption of plastics entirely.
Perhaps in the long run, there will be better ideas on how to reuse and break down materials that we can’t do anything with right now. Take the idea of using plastic bottles to create fleece jackets, hats, vests and socks – it’s an amazing transformation, while also incredibly useful in our Canadian climates. While not all plastics might be as easy to recycle and reuse, great minds are working on solutions to this issue and other environmental problems.
Right now, recycling could probably be more sustainable and continue to offer a valuable service to this community if partners – such as the County of St. Paul - were to get on board and support it. Certainly, many county residents want to participate or do participate in recycling efforts, so it makes sense for the county to get involved with recycling. It may not hold all the answers to the problems of consumption and pollution, but right now, recycling is the best we can do to divert waste from landfills and avoid turning dumps such as the one by Lafond into mini-mountains.