As Terri Buckner describes in her commentary in yesterday's Chapel Hill News, we could be seeing the end, as we know it, of our very successful recycling program in Orange County.
Some will say that since the county has already privatized recycling in the urban areas, this proposed expansion to county residents should not create any concerns. But if all recycling in Orange County is privatized, the current system is effectually dead, including all the outreach and education, the goodwill recycling and composting at public events like Hog Day, the dedicated staff constantly seeking new markets, and the service to both school systems that has always been handled by the county. In other words, we'll be left with the same kind of recycling program that everyone else in the state has.
In 1997 as part of the state's required plan, we adopted a goal of 61 percent waste reduction. We're just a smidgeon away from achieving that goal (59 percent). We've accomplished something amazing, something worth fighting to protect.
