Recycling woes

IT'S GOING TO be a lot harder to do recycling in Quincy. Quincy Recycle at Sixth and State has announced they will no longer be a free drop-off site for recycle stuff, including plastic, glass, tin and newspaper. There's a new plan in place where you pay a fee for recycling, but knowing people around here, it won't go over well.

It's complicated and I don't have easy answers, so here's to trying to figure it out. I don't blame Quincy Recycling - when the city's new plan starts in May and people have to pay to recycle, they'd get deluged with the free drop-off stuff. And Quincy Recycle is not in an accessible place to begin with - you've dodged the massive semi-trailers and dump trucks roaring in and out of there while you are sardined off to the side dropping off your cans and bottles.

I'm not sure if this includes cardboard, but if it is, Second String Music is in big trouble. We get tons of stuff in cardboard boxes almost every day and if we can't find a place to bring it, we'll throw it away.

Well, maybe we won't throw it away, because the price of trash stickers just went up. And how do you stuff a big cardboard box into a garbage bag? It can be done if you cut it up, but geesh, what a pain. After a big shipment we could fill 20 bags easily. At $1.50 a bag, that's $30. For a small business, it's just another cost and money going down the drain, and it would add up in a hurry.

We will do more homework and see if there are other places to drop off cardboard. If not, I'll find a place. How's that for being a steward and environmentally conscious? Bonfire anyone?

Let's hope somebody steps up and agrees to take recycling, and we can start saving the earth again, one milk jug at a time.