Story on recycling was an eye opener

Dear Editor

Your article [Chesterfield County recycles - but at a cost on Oct. 4] was both disheartening as well as informative. I was under the now-misguided impression that Chesterfield's recyclable materials were hauled to a sorting location where the miscellaneous cans, bottles, cardboard, etc. are compacted and sold to various buyers, with the county then receiving X dollars back for that product. From this exercise, those compacted bales are ultimately used for new consumer product packaging, etc. It was now pointed out to your readers that the county pays a company to take the recyclables off our hands and out of the landfills. This just seems so disjointed as once again for every action, there is a reaction. We pay a tax for everything we purchase and bring into our homes, and we pay a resultant tax to get rid of it.

I am trusting our county leaders that they have done their homework on this subject, but it just bothers me that we citizens have no concern about paying yet another tax (and don't think for a minute it's not) to have our recycling disposed of. Virginia is the second biggest importer of trash in the U.S. with seven super-sized landfills and two trash burning energy recovery facilities eager to take it. The idea of burying our garbage is simply archaic and not being good stewards to this land. I am never a proponent of forced or mandatory legislation, but I am sitting here wondering if we had a 100 percent recycling requirement, would there be a resultant incentive to the county to become self-sufficient, leading to a net gain from the recycling program?

I will admit that I was nave when I started out separating all of our recyclables, only to come home early one day to see the CVWMA driver tossing everything into the back of the truck as one whole load! On the other hand, we are convinced of what an impact we are making to the landfill as we see every week just what little we toss out for the garbage pickup. By the way, my pet recycling peeve: far too many teenagers in our county practice recycling two or three nights a week as they toss out their fast food, beer/booze and cigarette packages into neighboring yards prior to reaching their mommy and daddy's house!

I will close by imploring the citizens of Chesterfield County, if you are not already recycling, please reconsider this task as another volunteering act, and something that you will definitely feel good about completing. Don't think it's not worth it. Try this experiment - if you are like most households, designate one week to collect all of the daily junk mail you receive, as it will be quite an eye opener with what would have gone into the trash.

Steve Durant

Midlothian