Recycling in Siloam Springs

Dear Siloam Springs, thank you for running a clean, honest curbside recycling program.

It provides re-manufacturers, also called end-users, with material they can actually make into new product. An aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery store shelf in less than 60 days. That means back in the economic loop!

American curbside recycling is in a crisis, and it could have been prevented. Putting all recyclables: paper; plastic; metals and glass into a single compartment truck (single stream recycling) significantly increases the level of contamination. Little

Rock admits around 40 percent with their singlestream collection program. I wonder how much higher that number would be if we could look inside the bales being shipped.

Your curb sort program, in which recyclables are sorted at the curb into segregated compartments on the truck, probably results in less than five percent contamination. The system could be tweaked, with more efficient trucks and bins. Wake up entrepreneurs, opportunity awaits!

This mess with China would not have happened had American citizens stayed engaged with their local Three R programs, thus resulting in transparency, and had not the garbage industry been given total control of municipal recycling. They should only have contractual instruction. Folks, we are talking about $5 billion in annual business, according to a recent CNN.com Money article, which can be seen at http://cnnmon.ie/2wUEZwV.