Recycling plan good for city, environment

THE ISSUE The city has decided to move ahead with curbside recycling.

It isn't often that a new municipal service ends up saving money, but the city's curbside recycling program could lower annual operating costs for refuse collection by almost $200,000.

After a successful pilot program, the city has decided to ramp up recycling with service to 39,000 more residences come November, adding communities incrementally until 160,000 homes have collections in 2010.

Operating costs will drop because green waste, now collected separately, will be part of usual pick-ups and remove the need to transfer materials to different locations.

That's the silver lining on the financial picture since the price tag on bins for the program's start-up will be $23.4 million, but in the long run, taxpayers and the environment will benefit from islandwide recycling and the city's trash dump won't fill up as fast.