Some day, Schuylkill County residents may kick to the curb the chore of loading up the trunk with cans, bottles and cardboard to haul to local recycling collection bins.

A move to countywide curbside recycling is folded into the revised and updated 2017 Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan adopted by commissioners last week.According to the plan, Schuylkill County residents dispose of 4.63 pounds of trash per person per day. That's 21 percent less than in 2005, but more than double the national rate.The overall plan is meant to make sure the county has enough disposal space for trash.Making recycling easier would reduce the need for more or bigger landfills."The Solid Waste Plan lays out some options that the county has to consider," said county Administrator Gary R. Bender."County citizens have done a great job of recycling. What the county would like to see now is to have our citizens be afforded the opportunity to have curbside recycling all over the county to make it even easier for them to recycle," he said.It would include rural areas."Almost everybody has garbage collection. They're already putting their garbage at the curb. This would be one step in offering curbside recycling," Bender said."It's an option," said Joseph Scribbick, of county Recycling Coordinator/Office of Solid Waste. "I think it's a feasible option."The Solid Waste Advisory committee "voiced strong consensus on the need for the county to abandon its drop-off recycling collection program," according to the plan.The county has had increasing problems with people dumping trash at the recycling sites, and revenue from recycling has been dropping.But the idea needs to be discussed and the pros and cons weighed before the county makes any decisions, Scribbick said.The drop-off recycling program needs to be assessed and audited, traffic counts conducted, residents surveyed and inappropriate site usage analyzed.The county also needs to find out how many people have curbside trash collection, figure out what to do with the collection bins and other equipment, and explore the feasibility of having centers to take electronic waste and hard to recycle materials.The overall updated solid waste and recycling plan identifies the goals for the county's waste streams, and assesses the existing solid waste collection systems, both public and private, Scribbick said."It addresses current and future capacity needs, and lists ways for commercial, residential and other waste to be managed," he said.The 360-page revised plan was done as a joint effort among commissioners, the county department of Solid Waste and Resource Management, Real Estate and Engineering, consultant Michele Nestor of Nestor Resources Inc., the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, and representatives from municipalities, the waste and recycling industry, Schuylkill Keep It Pretty, and others.It includes demographic information such as population, population density and shifts, current and projected waste collection and disposal data, and the overall performance of recycling programs.The Solid Waste and Recycling Transporter ordinance, adopted in July 2016, is also included in the plan.The ordinance establishes a hauler registration program for anyone who collects and transports municipal solid waste and/or recyclables generated from sources within the county."That's for data accuracy to help the county better plan for solid waste disposal, Scribbick said."Any hauler who hauls municipal waste in Schuylkill County needs to register," he said.