Valley Curbside Recycling

Read the news lately?

• No money in recycling
• Recycling is junk
• Scraping the bottom of the barrel

Ryan and I certainly have been, and in the last few days we've fielded more than one question from customers and friends, all asking the same thing ... "Have you heard about recycling?" Yep, we've heard. And it's been something we've thought a lot about.  In fact we were out on Tuesday van shopping, and as we drove we spent a good bit of time discussing some of the things we'd been reading.  It's true that there are fewer buyers for the materials that can be recycled, like scrap metal and cardboard and paper.  It's also true that many localities are suspending portions, if not all, of their recycling programs, which in my opinion is a shortsighted view.  If you're a company or municipality that makes money from the sale of recyclable materials, you're up a creek right now. Valley Curbside Recycling isn't one of those companies.  See, Ryan and I aren't starting this because we see our financial security tied up in #1 and #2 plastics.  We haven't been working at all hours of the day and night to maximize profits from the sale of corrugated cardboard.  If we don't make a dime from this venture it'd still be worth it (although it'd be nice to make a little if you don't mind!), because we feel it's the right thing to do.  I heard Ryan tell someone recently that he often thought of the Jane Goodall quote, "Doing the right thing for the planet is often the hardest route to take, but it's still the right thing to do."  That's how we see this venture. We know recycling makes sense from an energy standpoint ... it costs far less energy to reprocess materials than it does to make them from virgin materials ... but we can't ignore the social costs AND benefits.  If the community rallies behind making recycling convenient, behind demonstrating to younger generations the importance of social responsibility, then why would we not continue?  What are the costs of NOT doing so? Too great, in my opinion, and so I'll recycle.