The garbage coalition
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overnment exists to keep us safe, to build and maintain roads and sewers and to haul away our garbage. Further, government should perform these tasks economically and as unobtrusively as possible.
It's not too much to ask.
So, news that most Top of Utah governments and/or special service districts that deal with garbage removal are studying a regional landfill is encouraging. This is not the first time the subject has come up, but it appears to be the most serious attempt so far.
If successful, this would probably consolidate all the refuse from Cache, Box Elder, Weber, Morgan and Davis counties -- except Bountiful, which operates its own landfill -- at a site somewhere in Box Elder.
The site could be as large as 1,000 acres, or more, and may be designed to accept a century's worth of trash.
The theory is that with a shared effort, the costs to each partner would be reduced. That's the goal all the counties should be striving for.
For example, a regional landfill would better serve the needs of Weber County, since it currently ships its waste off to Tooele County. Box Elder is closer. And while the Layton landfill now operated by Davis and Morgan counties has a projected life of 15 to 20 more years, the counties need to start planning for landfill capacity needed in the future.
Since all partners have signed on to the interlocal agreement to study the pros and cons of the regional landfill idea -- with the bottom line being cost -- we urge officials to investigate an environmental option: recycling.
While experiments by single cities and counties in the state have had mixed results, the economies of scale involved in recycling on a regional level may change the outlook for recycling efforts linked to trash removal and disposal. Within a few years, everyone in the Top of Utah could be recycling glass, plastic, paper, aluminum, etc.
It's already being done in other parts of the country, and we can do it here.
We wish the planners good luck.
