Club seeks recycling incentives

Columbia residents should have more incentive to recycle beverage bottles and cans rather than chuck them onto the street or send them to the landfill, members of the Sierra Club say.

Citing an increase in littering since the 2002 repeal of Columbia’s beverage-container deposit ordinance, Ken Midkiff of the Sierra Club is lobbying the city to do more. Speaking last week to the Columbia City Council, Midkiff said the city should adopt a “pay as you throw” system, in which a resident would pay more for discarding more trash.

As it stands, the city charges one monthly fee to collect trash, yard waste and recyclables at curbside. Residents place the refuse in black, clear and blue bags, respectively. The city distributes 75 trash bags, 54 recycling bags and 10 yard-waste bags to households each year. Cynthia Mitchell, the city’s landfill and recovery superintendent, said residential utility customers pay