I admit, I was saddened when my husband made me aware that the city of Chattanooga has announced that they are budgeting for the cancellation of curbside recycling.

Before I moved to Chattanooga in 1996, I did quite a bit of research on the city and its operations. Surprisingly, I learned a great deal about this fine city from the front of a telephone book. There is/was a rather large section in the telephone book comprised of subjects that may be of interest to potential movers to the area. One of them was curbside recycling.

Of course I took advantage of the program as soon as I could. When my
husband, Paul, and I got married, we noticed that we were only throwing away one small plastic grocery bag of garbage between the two of us weekly. The rest was being recycled.

When glass was no longer being accepted curbside, we continued saving it and now take it to Warner Park as needed.

The proposal given to us by the city and Mayor Littlefield is when the
curbside recycling is discontinued; they will establish more "convenience centers" within the city.

Their belief is that they will get the residents who currently recycle to
take their recyclables to these centers. While that may be true, and I
sincerely hope it is, it may prove to be somewhat of a fallacy.

They cancelled their curbside glass recycling service last year. Paul and I still collect our glass and now take it to Warner Park for recycling. It has proved to be a bit of a burden, but we do it nonetheless. I am just wondering how many of the prior, devoted glass recyclers now take it to an appropriate recycling facility.

I believe it would be well-suited for the city to do some kind of research, be it of the market nature to see who would participate under what conditions or financial to see if it would be feasible.

I really don't want to come across portraying myself as being preachy
because this subject shouldn't be seen in any light as anything but an
inevitable truth that we must face. Often, I hear that this subject is
linked to a specific political party. This subject should not be of any
relevance to ANY political party whatsoever.

To make a long written opinion short, I will elect to skip the benefits,
outcomes, efforts, dollars, and opinions of recycling. Instead, I am going to plead with the city and the readers of this website to please see the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. It will be showing at the Carmike Bijou downtown starting June 30 for two weeks minimum. It explains why we need to recycle, amongst other things, and what we need to do to correct the outcome in which we are surely headed.

I'd like to finish by stating that this letter was composed by a female who was brought up in a Republican state (Kentucky) by Republican parents and still learned from her elementary school music teacher (of all subjects) back in the mid-70s why it will one-day be important to recycle. This matter really should not be party-affiliated in any way and I hope that everyone can look past any arguments they may have and reconsider why if they don't recycle and need a valid reason, please, please, please go see the movie An
Inconvenient Truth.

If the readers aren't able to see the movie, perhaps they can at least visit the website, www.climatecrisis.net for further information.

Dena Jackson
paulanddena@yahoo.com