Renton, it’s time to start playing with your garbage. It’s all for a good cause, the environment.

The City Council unanimously approved a new garbage contract Monday night, a smart move. It was time.

There’s more stuff you can recycle, including pizza boxes, and stuff that will still go in the garbage can, including disposable diapers.

Costs will go up, but not exorbitantly. The percentage jumps are a little scary, but look at the dollar amounts, in a latte range.

The big change comes in lifestyle, as one speaker pointed out at the council meeting.

The contract was about two years in the making, but still, one council member, Randy Corman, wondered whether the time was right to give up a good deal that still had a year to go. It was the “do-nothing” question, a logical one to determine whether the status quo is just fine.

But that’s the type of issue that should have been raised two years ago, rather than at the 11th hour after so much time and money had been invested in the process. There were some pretty good reasons to renegotiate the contract a year early, all of which are spelled out in my story on page 1.

I am pretty sure city staff and representatives of Waste Management were wondering whether all their hard work was about to get thrown out. Besides that, I would think, starting negotiations early gave the city the chance to not be coy about looking around for a new provider if talks weren’t going well.

In the end, the entire seven-member council, Corman included, approved the contract. The reasoned and reasonable King Parker liked what he saw and pointed out no one can predict the future, although he was pretty sure that waiting would mean even higher rates as costs go up.

Now the hard work begins, at least for anyone who generates garbage – pretty much everyone.

Yes, those three recycling bins are gone, so all the non-organic stuff, such as the Renton Reporter, the milk cartons, glass and cans, can all go together in the one big 96-gallon cart. At home, I try not to throw mail or paperwork into this cart that might have important personal information – identity theft and all. I’ll put it in the garbage, which no one paws through, or I’ll

shred it. Sorry if that’s not quite the game plan.

I’ll admit I was a bit confused about recycling food waste, as practiced by my mother-in-law in Seattle – that ever-green city. She puts the scraps into a bag, usually plastic, then just dumps the organic stuff (no bag) into her cart. Sounds so easy, I don’t know why I was confused. I would prefer the countertop food-scrap container Renton is getting.

I also like the price that Renton folks will pay. It’s a lot less than what I pay in Kent and I think the service in Renton is better. We did opt for a smaller garbage container; recycling really pays off. But I also was dinged once for putting out too much stuff.

Whether you live in Renton or Kent or anywhere else in King County, the reason for recycling is the same – make good use of the still usable and don’t fill up the landfill.

More ardent recycling has helped extend the life of the Cedar Hills Landfill between Renton and Maple Valley by several years. Someday, those folks in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon who are now the recipients of a lot of our garbage may decide they don’t want to get dumped on anymore. And the idea of burning our garbage went up in smoke decades ago.

So a little extra time managing our re-defined garbage isn’t a waste.

Dean A. Radford can be reached at 425-255-3484, ext. 5050, or at dean.radford@rentonreporter.com.