Washington - the State of, that is - has been active recently on a lot of fronts regarding recycling. The City of Seattle, for example, just enacted new waste and recycling services that include new residential services such as:

• Increasing the  type of paper, plastic, and metal  that can be recycled, including cups, deli trays, aluminum foil and plastic plant pots.
• All food scraps are being composted including meat, fish, and dairy; in the past it was only vegetable scraps.
• A "single stream" no separating is required; glass and paper are put in the same cart.

Realize, of course, that rates also went up! And as of May 7, the State legislature passed  and Governor Chris Gregoire signed a law that requires all state agencies and state colleges to purchase paper containing 100% post-consumer recycled content by the end of this year. The law also requires that buildings with  25 or more employees must recycle 100% of the copy and printing paper in use in the office, and must reduce their printing and copying use by 30% by July 2010. It is also a requirement that state agencies and colleges purchase or lease only printers capable of efficiently using 100% recycled content white sheet bond paper. (Editor's note: I thought all office printers could handle recycled content paper; actually, I didn't think recycled content paper looked or printed any differently that virgin paper. Correct me?) The increased paper conservation and recycling requirements are estimated to save about $1 million a year. Other savings from the law are projected to include:

• 6,256 tons less wood -- the equivalent of about 43,000 trees.
• 3.8 million pounds less in climate-changing greenhouse gases -- the equivalent of about 346 cars per year -- in producing the paper.
• 15.7 million gallons less water -- the equivalent of about 24 swimming pools -- in producing the paper.
• 2 million pounds less solid waste sent to landfills -- the equivalent of about 72 garbage truck loads.