As a 30-year resident of Summit County, it embarrasses me how bad we are at recycling. People want to recycle, but they generally won’t unless it’s relatively easy. We seem to strive to make it difficult.
What’s really hard to understand is that Europe has had it figured out for decades, but we seem to refuse to be able to learn from the success of others. They make it easy. Many, and I mean many, drop-off spots, underground storage until picked up by specialized trucks, deposits on many items, and, yes, they can even put their separated items in plastic bags.
If you’ve ever lived outside of Summit, you know how crazy cheap our property taxes are here. It would take a very small tax increase per household to provide both recycling and trash pickup at the same drop-off spots for everyone. There is no need to seek solutions by putting a Band-Aid on a broken system. Instead, it’s time to invest in easy and effective recycling that this beautiful place deserves.