OPEN COLUMN
Article misleads residents on success of recycling

Editor, the Tribune: The recent article "Deposit law debatable six years after repeal" gave an exceedingly erroneous impression of how well we were doing. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources surveys of waste showed aluminum cans going into the landfill increased 174 percent from 1997 to 2007, not 0.87 percent as stated in the article.

Aluminum cans as a percentage of the total weight of all material going into the landfill increased from 0.50 percent to 1.37 percent. This is a 174 percent increase - .87 percent divided by 0.50 percent - in the weight of aluminum cans. This is much greater than a 0.87 percent increase. The blue bag program, while good and getting better, does not seem to be recycling beverage containers nearly as well as the deposit law did.

---

Dick Parker

215 W. Sexton Road

---

Advertisement