Walton County Recycling: Not Dead, Just Sleeping

If you happened to go to the Coastal Branch Library this week and ask the librarian for Blue Bags, you might have gotten the same answer I did. The Blue Bag program has been cancelled.

Not so, apparently.

An email to Commissioner Cindy Meadows confirmed that the county is currently out of Blue Bags and awaiting a shipment of the recycling tool. Although the Blue Bag program is under discussion as to its value, it has not, as yet, been scrapped. If you still have Blue Bags, they will be picked up with your trash collections as has been the case for the past several months. If you're out of bags, any blue bag will do, but make sure it is thick and sturdy. Light weight bags that break easily defeat the purpose of loading them with recyclables.

It seems that recycling in Walton County is an ongoing dilemma. As a volunteer program, there is no immediate incentive for people to recycle, especially since everything is going to the same place anyway, but have you actually thought about how much more expensive that petroleum-based water or soda bottle has become over the last several weeks. The oil it takes to make that bottle is is going for $4 a gallon at the gas pump. It's only a matter of time before the price of the water/soda goes up, or they start charging a bottle deposit. (Hummmm??)

However, in the long term, recycling isn't really about how much it costs or how convenient or inconvenient it is. Recycling is about not filling our landfills with items that can be restructured for reuse. It's about not adding massive amounts of usable material to the trash piles.

It's about waste not, want not.

Didn't your mother teach you that? What you throw away today may be something you wish you had, or cause something to change your way of life drastically, tomorrow.

So many of us in Walton County have moved here from other places, some places where as much as a mandated 30% recycling was enforced. We know how to recycle.

Those us us who have lived in beach communities most of our lives also know how limited and precious our land is and how fragile is its ecosystem. Many of us want to recycle, we just need help.

We need a program that works and we need to make it a priority. No it's not up to the County or the neighbor next door. We ARE the neighbor next door. We have to make the difference and make it work. We. You and me.

So, even though Walton County recycling isn't dead, it's going to take a loud alarm clock to wake it up. For the sake of our beautiful coast, I have a few pots and pans in my cupboard I'm willing to bang. How about you?

Happy Coasting.

Saturdays - Seaside Farmer's Market - Be There

Hurray! This summer you don't have to travel north of the Bay to enjoy fresh Farmer's Market produce. The Seaside Farmer's Market is back.

With the slogan, "Keep it Green, Keep it Local, Keep it Organic", Jen Kuntz of Raw & Juicy in Seaside, Toni Wheeler of Perennials & Natives in Grayton Beach and other dedicated foodies have launched a new old tradition. Every Saturday from now until, fresh fruits and vegetables are available from 8AM to 12 Noon on Scenic 30A next to the Raw & Juicy Airstream at the Seaside Amphitheater.

Jen Kuntz is hoping the tradition and the market will grow as word gets out. "We're looking for farmers, bakers, cheese makers, flower growers, coffee roasters, grape growers, fish catchers, berry pickers, goat owners, oil fusionists, preserve melt-it-downififts, and any other food lover." she says.

If the produce available is any indication, growing the Farmer's Market won't be a problem. Last Saturday I bought snap beans and carrots for dinner and steamed them that night to go along with my hormone-free, no-saline-injected chicken. It was my first organic meal in 50 years and suddenly, I found myself at my mother's table tasting flavors I remembered from childhood. After years of homogenized eating, I had forgotten how fresh vegetables are supposed to taste.

With blueberry season upon us, you can bet I'll be at Seaside this Saturday. How about you?

Happy Coasting.