EDITORIAL

The Advocate-Messenger

Danville will begin negotiating its next trash and recycling contract later this year, but based on comments from city officials, it sounds like there’s a possibility it could wind up being just a trash contract — no recycling.

But even if Danville can’t convince its curbside service provider to recycle, that doesn’t spell the end of recycling for the City of Firsts.

Boyle County Fiscal Court still provides free-to-use convenience centers for all county residents, which as some seem prone to forget, definitely includes Danville residents.

Those convenience centers still take recycling, including the paper that other places around central Kentucky have stopped accepting.

The convenience centers are enormously popular — even the slightest whiff of the idea of talking about closing any one of them provokes public response like a baseball bat to a beehive. And Solid Waste Coordinator Angie Muncy is a staunch defender of recycling with a knack for getting things done and making things work.

No, regardless of what Danville can accomplish, recycling will be around in Boyle for a long time and through tougher times than it might be in less engaged and passionate communities.

City officials need to be careful, then, in how they talk about what they’re doing if Danville does opt against curbside recycling. This newspaper needs to be careful, too.

Muncy hit the nail on the head Tuesday, when she told Danville Mayor Mike Perros that recycling is a habit — it’s hard to get started, but easy to keep up once you’re doing it.

“I think if you tell people to start throwing things away, they’re going to keep throwing things away,” she said.

We couldn’t agree more. That’s why it should be made clear to the public that the real choice is not between curbside recycling and no recycling; the real choice is between curbside recycling and convenience center recycling.

We need to work together to keep our good habit of recycling going no matter what. Then, whenever the recycling market picks back up, we’ll be poised to take advantage.