Boulder is a Stoopid Place

Erika Stutzman of the Daily Camera pontificates on “common sense” trash and recycling. First she claims…

It has long befuddled consumers why a little old lady living alone and throwing away 2 cubic feet of trash a week is charged the exact same amount as her neighbors, a family of five — including two in diapers — who fill up their giant 96-gallon containers with abandon. But there you are.

That simply has not been my experience in Boulder County. I agree it certainly wasn’t pay per volume, but there was a price difference and the little old lady paid less.

Erika is quite pleased with the “pay as you throw” concept and I agree with her. Unfortunately, she combines this with the misconception that free recycling is thrown in…

So it pleases the Camera that local communities are moving toward pay-as-you-throw systems for garbage: You pay based on the amount of trash you throw out, usually with free recycling thrown in for good measure. And the more you recycle, the less you throw away and pay. It’s good for landfills and pocketbooks alike

Hmmm, a few comments here:

1. First: Hello Erika, recycling is not free, pure and simple. Perhaps it isn’t charged for, but calling it free is an insult to your readers and reveals little understanding of economics on your part (no surprise there, working for the Daily Camera and all).

2. Secondly, with Western Disposal I’m paying $10/month for “free” recycling and compostable pick up that I don’t use.

And the last two sentences above are also telling:

And the more you recycle, the less you throw away and pay. It’s good for landfills and pocketbooks alike.

So pay as you go seems like a good incentive to recycle, but unfortunately, at least in Boulder County’s case, they couldn’t leave well enough alone and take pleasure in mandating:

1. Implementing pay as you throw (we’re in agreement on that)
2. Mandatory payment for recycling regardless of use
3. Although actually using the recycling and composting service isn’t mandatory, it sure is hard to get Western Disposal to pick up the containers.

What an interesting experiment it would have been simply to implement “pay as you go” and see how many people signed up for recycling and composting voluntarily. Erika, now that would be common sense.

The fact that the Boulder County Commissioners weren’t able to do this reveals the following:

1. They have very little faith in their fellow citizens to respond to economic incentives. A typical Boulder liberal mindset. If the government doesn’t mandate it, it must not be a worthwhile effort.

2. From a larger point of view the citizens of not only Boulder but of the Nation have become more and more accustomed to the government taking care of them. If it’s important to do, I’ll know it when a politician tells me important. I don’t need to think for myself or take responsibility for my actions.

Well, I’m off to call Western Disposal to see when they can pick up the composting cart they left behind when they picked up the recycle cart laying right beside it yesterday.

Well I guess I jinxed myself by posting that two of my three trash carts would be gone today. Western Disposal, in their infinite wisdom decided to only take my recycle cart and leave the composting cart. I didn’t get around to calling them today, so I’ll do that tomorrow morning and report back.