Good step toward more recycling

When county residents are asked what sort of things the local government can do to improve quality of life, requests for more opportunities for recycling hit near the top.

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Those requests likely are to come true soon.

The county's director of community and leisure services, Barry Smith, is expected to ask for funding in next year's budget for two recycling centers. One would likely be located at the county's old landfill, with the other somewhere in the Evans area.

"We want a full-fledged, fenced-in, convenient drop-off center that will be staffed," Smith told News Editor Donnie Fetter.

Staffing such a facility is a mixed blessing. Workers on site will help prevent the recycling centers from becoming a trash dump, but they also would be added to the county payroll.

There is hope that taxpayers won't just pick up another burden, however. Jenny Hinton, coordinator of Keep Columbia County Beautiful, says the county likely would put together a deal with a private contractor to haul the recyclable material, with the county receiving a share of the proceeds.

In any event, it's good to see the county is now taking steps toward helping residents become a little less wasteful. But it's important to remember that there already are plenty of opportunities for recycling - they're just scattered at different locations and times, a problem that a recycling center would solve.

Incidentally, one of those opportunities is coming Saturday, March 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Columbia County Government Center, when the county collects household paint and recycle fluorescent light bulbs in an event called "Part With Your Paint."