Don't throw my heart in the trash

K.J. Hascall / Hungry Horse News

Every time I do it, my heart breaks. Really, it just kills me. Tossing glass bottles in the trash, I mean.

In the city where I grew up — a city whose population is more than twice the size of Montana's entire citizenry — recycling was just another part of day-to-day life. We had curb-side pickup of office paper, newspaper, aluminum and tin cans, and yes, glass. Every week! As far as my memory stretches back, I remember sorting cans from bottles, magazines from newspapers. This was important. Denver's claim to fame in the 1980s was the thick cloud of brown smog that clung to the city's skyline like a cloud of mosquitoes above a lamp post. Denver, the dirty city. Sportscasters joked that the Broncos had never been No. 1 in anything but carbon monoxide.

But Denver cleaned up its act. And it now has a clear skyline and additionally, a wonderful recycling system designed to preserve the beauty and resources for generations to come.

When I moved to Lincoln, Neb. for college, the recycling system was a downgrade. There, a person had to be a self-motivator. You could recycle your heart out, as long as you took it to the designated bins around town yourself. But my friends and I dutifully saved our paper, cans and bottles. Every few weeks, or as often as the sacks in the kitchen got out of control, we made a trip to recycle. We felt like we were doing our part to save the planet. Or something.

Here in Columbia Falls, the big city crowds (and traffic!) are gloriously absent. I walk to work, to the grocery store, to, well, just about anywhere. Glacier National Park is minutes away. This town and the Flathead Valley are wonderful places to live. Except for the recycling problem.

And it turns out, I'm not the only person who notices that. At the Montana Governor's Conference on Tourism last week, Kara Grau, a research assistant at the University of Montana in Missoula dropped a little gem of information in her presentation about surveying tourists: The one thing visitors to this state are most dissatisfied with is the lack of recycling.

Is this enough to push lawmakers into creating recycling programs? Visitors to Montana love the pristine waters and air. Shouldn't we fight to keep it that way? And if the environmental angle isn't good enough, let's approach the problem from an economic viewpoint. Think of the jobs such programs could create!

A recycling push has cropped up in parts of the valley. In Kalispell, a company called Green Machine picks up recyclables. First Best Place Task Force has mentioned an effort to create more recycling opportunities. There are a few green recycling boxes near Plum Creek in Columbia Falls, as well. These projects need support.

I think the Iroquois, a confederation of Native American nations in upstate New York, had it right. Their Great Law was this: "In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation…"

What will my great-great-great-great-great granddaughter think when she visits or lives in this area decades from now? "Golly gee, what big mountains!" or "Golly gee, that's a big mound of trash!"

K.J. Hascall is the managing editor of the Hungry Horse News.