One man's garbage is another man's landfill

Who'd have thought my favorite quote of the week would come from a story that has nothing to do with elections:

"To be dependent on a landfill is the crack cocaine of economics."

That pearl is from Colerain Township Trustee Keith Corman, who along with trustees Bernie Fiedeldey and Jeff Ritter on Thursday denied a zone change that would have allowed the Rumpke Landfill to grow from 509 to 868 acres, even though it meant giving up $29 million in future fees.

Corman's line got cheers from just about everybody in the room except the representatives of Rumpke, which has for years been building a mountain out of all the plastic cups, candy wrappers, cigarette butts and disposable diapers that the rest of us throw away. As the saying goes, it's a dirty job but I'm glad somebody does it.

The Rumpkes say they need the space to accomodate our refuse for the next 30 to 50 years. If not in Colerain Township, then where do we want to put the 8,000 tons of garbage per day that Rumpke takes in from the rest of us?

Unless you live an environmentally pristine lifestyle with a 100 percent rate of recycling, Colerain Township's problem is your problem too. The "crack cocaine" Corman was talking about is really our addiction to disposability.