Every kindergartner for the past 20 years has known the difference between a blue bin and a trash can. Unfortunately, too many of their parents and grandparents do not.

Unconscionable as it might seem, far too many people hurl recyclable materials into their trash bins every day. Paper, plastic, glass and aluminum waste products are dumped into the enormous piles of trash hauled to the Central Landfill in Johnston every week.

Town leaders urge everyone to recycle because it can save the town money — the more recycling, the less trash, the lower the cost to ship waste up to Johnston. Improved recycling can save taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars every year.

Yet saving less than 1 percent of the town's annual budget is not that compelling for the average citizen, whose life is unlikely to change if the town saves a few bucks every year.

Their lives are more likely to change from the constant, unending, planet-altering pressure our race unleashes on this Earth. By mining, digging, pumping, dumping, polluting, clearing, paving and experimenting on this planet, humans place enormous burdens on the environment. Civilized nations have drifted toward cheap and convenient and disposable, and those trash piles deepen every year.

A new "no bin, no barrel" policy, which the Bristol Town Council was scheduled to discuss last night (Oct. 21), makes so much sense, it's surprising it's not already law. Simply stated, if a homeowner does not put a recycling bin curbside, the town will not pick up their trash barrel.

As reluctant as we are to endorse government's intrusion into private lives, we fully endorse this policy. The town is not saying, "you must recycle." It's saying, "you must recycle, if you want this town service."

The "no bin, no barrel" policy is just one measure in a sweeping re-write of the town's trash rules, all of which seem pointed in a good direction.

In 2015, citizens should not have to be told to recycle, yet some still need the nudge. If they still can't follow the law, we could always send the kindergartners to teach them.