Good Deal - for Waste Management

Much has been written about how the deal Mayor Peyton has struck with Waste Management for operation of the Trail Ridge landfill should have been put out to bid.

While true, that misses the point.

Even if no one else submitted a proposal, or if Waste Management submitted the lowest bid by far, the proposal from Waste Management would do a great disservice to the taxpayers of Duval County.

Think back 35 years, if you're able.

Thirty-five years ago, soda came in glass bottles. You paid a deposit for the bottle and, when it was empty, took it back to the store to get your deposit back. If you were thoughtless and it ended up in the ditch, someone like me would come along and pick it up, because it was worth money.

Thirty-five years ago, no one had ever heard of a two liter bottle, and there was certainly no such thing as a coat made from discarded soda bottles.

Thirty-five years ago, there was no curbside recycling program in Duval County. People put everything in the garbage.

Thirty-five years ago a landfill was just a big pile of garbage with a little soil thrown on top. There was no clay lining to prevent contamination of the groundwater. A landfill was an inexpensive alternative to incineration.

Simply put, our garbage and, for that matter, our landfill looked a lot different thirty-five years ago.

Today, things are changing at least as quickly as they have over the past thirty-five years. The raw materials that went into our garbage, especially the oil used to make plastics and the aluminum used to make cans, are more valuable. Better technologies are being developed to take those raw materials out of our garbage more efficiently and less expensively.

In thirty-five years, we might look back on the landfills of today and wonder how we could have been so foolish. It would be a shame to be wondering that also about the checks we're continuing to write to Waste Management.

Dave