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Have to solve recycling problem

Northeast Michiganders have to throw away less trash and recycle more materials.

News staff writer Julie Riddle’s recent stories on the area’s fast-filling landfills made that much clear.

As Riddle reported Saturday, state environmental officials predict Montmorency-Oscoda-Alpena Solid Waste Management Authority landfill in Atlanta will fill up within 14 years (down from 21 years just two years ago) and the GFL Northern Michigan Landfill, south of Onaway could fill up by 2026.

The good news? The Legislature has pushed bills meant to encourage more recycling statewide and the Alpena Resource Recovery recycling facility and the Alpena County Regional Airport have partnered to seek state investment in a new, more modern recycling facility at the airport to make local recycling more cost-effective. And, as Riddle reported Monday, Lafarge Alpena has secured a state grant to use scrap tires as fuel at the plant, helping to dispose of that environmental risk in a safer way.

But the problem can’t be solved from Lansing. Each of us has a responsibility to do more right from our own homes. It takes only a little effort to separate recycling from trash and take it every now and again to one of the many Alpena Resource Recovery dropoff bins around the city.

In addition to recycling, each of us has to look for ways to reuse materials — especially plastics, which are especially dangerous to the Great Lakes — whenever possible, instead of just tossing once-used items in the trash.

Given that state officials already cut by a third the expected lifetime of Alpena’s landfill, we can’t expect that we have 14 years to fix the problem.

We have to act now.

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