Dear editor: Why are we “testing” recycling? What would make it fail a test? Lack of participation? Heck with that. It’s the right thing to do, just do it. And it’s not hard. What’s hard is having five bins in the garage, separating everything and having to haul the bins to the landfill or into some store in Savannah when they’re full. I don’t take the bins in each week, but I figure it takes me about an hour per week in separating and hauling. It would be so nice to toss everything into one bin and roll it to the curb twice a month.
I’ve been recycling for 20-plus years, and I can tell you it works for reducing the stress on landfills. We currently recycle plastic bags and Styrofoam at Publix; plastic containers, newspapers, magazines, junk mail and cardboard at the recycling center on Spur 144; aluminum cans at the fire house on 144; compact electric light bulbs at Home Depot; and batteries at Batteries Plus. I would love to recycle glass and metal cans, but there’s nowhere near here to do so. And no, all this running around doesn’t add to air pollution as I batch all my errands.
My newest resolution is: Everything that can be recycled is, and that nothing organic leaves the home place except bones. Kitchen scraps are run through the dogs and chickens when appropriate or composted. Office paper is shredded and composted. Yard waste is burned at our bonfires or in the fireplace for heat in the winter or mulched into the garden beds. Clothes and household goods that we don’t use but still are useable are given to charity.
I may have the cleanest trash in town, and less of it, but it is a bit of work. I would so love to have curbside recycling and be able to be responsible with my trash in less time than it takes now.

Nancy Celani Baker
Richmond Hill