Our recycling ethic is a valuable asset

Published 7:00 pm Monday, February 15, 2016

Thirty-five years ago, few voices in our region were promoting recycling. An Astoria city councilor named Doug Thompson, Astorians Susan Borgardt, McLaren Innes, Richard Hurley and Peg Christie were leaders.

The nonprofit Clatsop Recycling (1983) preceded by one year the first state legislative mandate. The city of Astoria awarded a recycling contract not to the city’s trash hauler, but to the local group, Recycle Now!

How times have changed. With successive state mandates and an aggressive trash hauler, Astoria gained curbside recycling, which makes it much easier to participate.

Erick Bengel’s two-part series, Talking Trash, which concludes today, has depicted the recycling stream that extends from our streets to industrial manufacturers.

In today’s installment, Bengel details Trails End Recovery, which extends recycling well beyond household waste. When buildings are demolished, materials such as wood and concrete find their way to Trails End.

One of the most useful points that Bengel makes is that, “Because fossil fuels are burned in the manufacturing of recycled products, releasing greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, the act of recycling alone, however virtuous, will not create a sustainable world.

“But using recycled materials cuts down on the demand for landfill space while extending the life of existing landfills. And it reduces the needless squandering of virgin materials, like trees, precious metals and the fossil fuel inputs used to harvest them.”

Our region’s recycling ethic is a great asset.