CAPE RESIDENTS SHOW RECYCLING SUPPORT

Trash. Everyone has it. No one wants it. Neighbors hate it. Cities deal with it. Trash -- and what to do with it -- has been a perennial headache for communities.

The challenge got even tougher when Missouri mandated that cities reduce their solid waste by 40 percent through recycling programs by January 1998.

But Cape Girardeau and its residents surpassed the goal before the deadline. The city diverted 41 percent of its solid waste into recycled waste during the 1996-97 fiscal year.

For its achievement, the city was honored last week by Gov. Mel Carnahan. The city recycled an impressive 12 million pounds of waste.

The city was also recognized for its massive sewer project approved by voters that will separate the sanitary and storm sewers in older parts of town.

Recycling doesn't make money for the city. Markets for recycled goods have been tentative at best. But without recycling, it would be much harder for the city to achieve the landfill-reduction mandate.

The city's move to limit regular trash collection to one day a week also helps make recycling believers out of more people. Many people have been forced to recycle to meet the weekly trash limits and have found it a rewarding habit.

Over the years, the city has also expanded the types of materials it will recycle. These generous guidelines have also made the program more palatable.

At its start, the city collected just five kinds of goods: newspapers, corrugated cardboard boxes, rinsed glass, plastic containers and aluminum cans. In May 1997 the city added junk mail, residential mixed paper and grayboard-chipboard to the list. The latter includes cereal boxes, old cardboard soda cases and shoe boxes. The residential mixed paper includes such items as envelops, stationary, copy paper, typing paper and computer paper.

The city has offered a curbside recycling program since Oct. 1, 1991. The curbside component is important. The easier the process, the more people participate.

Of course, residents can always drop off recyclables in containers at the City Recycling Center, 120 N. Broadview.

In today's world, people grow frustrated by their inability to make a difference. It seems like everyone else is making the rules or calling the shots -- usually in Washington, D.C.

But recycling is a very real way that everyone can make a difference. Each soda can, each milk jug, each newspaper recycled reduces the amount of landfill trash.

The city should be proud of this statewide award. But the thanks also extends to each and every family that places recyclables at the curbside week in and week out. Everyone in Cape Girardeau should feel proud of a job well done.