Consider, for a moment, your recycling bin. Chances are your setup looks something like ours here at Observer World Headquarters – a big blue box on wheels in the driveway with a pungent film of mostly dehydrated beer, bourbon, and God knows what else at the bottom.
In one sense, the curbside system used by most Washingtonians is kind of awesome in its simplicity. You just have to make one high-level decision for each item. Recyclable or not? Then there’s a satisfying thunk, or perhaps the cathartically punk-rock sound of glass breaking, as you toss the item in the bin. At some regular interval, a truck rumbles up and hauls it all away, ostensibly to some bright green future as new boxes, bottles, cans, etc.
It’s easy and hassle-free, especially when compared to earlier iterations1 of recycling — which are perhaps best captured in the classic Pemco Insurance ad featuring an obsessive-compulsive recycler. Nobody — except maybe a judgy tween — is likely to hassle you about those unrinsed beer bottles, or even when you – innocently or not – toss in something that’s definitely not recyclable.
Here's the problem, and why you should care about this: First, it doesn’t really work very well if your goal is a system where as many cardboard boxes, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles as possible are made out of cardboard boxes, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles instead of trees, bauxite, and oil.2 Washington’s recycling rate hovers stubbornly below 50 percent, which means that more than half the recyclable materials that flow into the waste stream wind up in the landfill.
Second, you’re paying for it in the form of your monthly garbage bill.
Hence two bills that passed out of the House Environment & Energy Committee on Thursday. House Bill 2049 from Rep. Liz Berry, D-Seattle, and House Bill 2144 sponsored by Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver. Together, the two measures would do three main things aimed at boosting the recycling rate:
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