news story / By Rick St. Charles

Confessions of a Renegade Recycler

(Feb. 26, 2009)  Due mainly to the diligence of my wife, we recycle virtually every molecule of paper, glass, plastic and metal that passes through our house. Whereas I might be tempted to just toss into the trash that scrap of aluminum foil encrusted with tuna fish salad, my wife will duly wash it and consign it to a recyclable bin. All of our garbage goes into our compost pile, which, since we don’t do that much gardening, is starting to resemble the Pyramid of Cheops. About once a month I make a trip to the sanitation station in McKinleyville where I pay about $10 to dispose of the few things we can’t recycle, such as waxy milk cartons, corn cobs and chicken bones.

I was just starting to think of myself as a pretty responsible Earth-friendly eco-green sort of guy when Arcata Community Recycling Executive Director Mark Loughmiller abruptly burst my little bubble with the ugly truth: I’m a leech. I recently read some comments by Loughmiller in the Arcata Eye, in the Feb. 11 issue. It seems his opinion is that people who recycle at ACRC but who are not paying Arcata Garbage for pickup services have “taken advantage of a recycling system”. He supports the soon-to-be-approved mandatory subscription of all Arcata residences and businesses to Arcata Garbage’s garbage and recycling pickup services. “The free ride is ending,” he firmly announced at a special City Council meeting to the reprobates who voiced objections to this plan.

GALLERY >

I was ashamed. According to Loughmiller, my fellow citizens who pay Arcata Garbage are picking up the lion’s share of the tab for my wanton and prodigal drop-offs at ACRC, whose services are contracted by the City of Arcata to the tune of $400,000 annually.

I was confused. In the past I have been hired by ACRC to produce TV ads inspiring people to recycle there. I wasn’t told to include the message that by doing so they would be considered deadbeats.

I was curious. I needed more information. Maybe their attitude had changed since they introduced their new dual stream fuel-injected turbocharged Samoa facility. So I visited the ACRC Web site at www.arcatarecycling.org There I found that they still seem to be encouraging people to recycle. “Welcome!” is the first word on their Web site. “We offer a variety of recycling services including drop-off recycling!” proclaims their mission statement. They’ve published a handy, slick, downloadable brochure for schoolchildren touting the benefits of recycling. They offer free tours of the facility. They do everything but holler “Come on down!”

One thing intrigued me, and that is: As Arcatans, citizens of possibly the most democratically-minded city in the world, how can we legally be forced to subscribe to services from one company? Isn’t that sort of like a monopoly? And kinda like taxation without representation? What would Thoreau think? Would he encourage civil disobedience, like not paying the new fees? What if we didn’t? What’s the city gonna do? Not pick up our garbage and recyclables?

I figured that Arcata Garbage must be either a non-profit or a government agency. I would feel better about being required to subscribe to them were this the case, similar to the way I don’t have any problem with paying storm and sewer fees. If they’re not a non-profit then I hope they sell stock in their company, because I suspect it’s going to rise. I would definitely buy some with all the money I make from recycling beer bottles.

I decided to do some Googling to check out their status. The first thing I noticed about the top Web site I was directed to, www.arcatagarbage.com, is that it’s blatantly sponsored by something called Adult Friend Finder, the World’s Largest Sex and Swinger Personals Community. Real Sex Just a Click Away! This would be pretty weird for schoolchildren doing research about recycling to stumble upon. Maybe it was harmless…

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