It's time for Utah Valley cities to get on the recycling bandwagon.

Some local municipalities -- including Pleasant Grove, Salem, Santaquin and Eagle Mountain -- still send all their garbage to landfills. Others have voluntary recycling programs that are used by only a fraction of their households.

Of the four local cities that contract with Waste Management for recycling, only Lehi requires participation. That city's example is revealing. Its program diverts large amounts of refuse from landfills: 170 tons each month of the year, plus more than 200 tons of green waste from April through November.

Failure to recycle is a countywide and statewide problem. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, landfills generate hazardous and uncontrolled air emissions and threaten surface water and groundwater. The group correctly says that "using recycled materials reduces the need to chop down, extract, process, refine and transport natural resources such as timber, crude petroleum and mineral ores."

Multiply a little individual recycling effort by the number of residents in Utah Valley and it's easy to see that mandatory programs could keep thousands of tons of trash out of landfills while protecting valuable natural resources.

But much of Utah Valley hasn't caught the spirit. What better day than Earth Day to turn that around.

Provo's program is still voluntary. Regular recycling costs $5 a month, and green waste recycling costs another $5 in spring and summer. That may not seem like much, but it discourages some people from taking part.

Recent news stories suggest that other towns around the valley have seen little progress. In Springville, RevaBeth Russell and a friend have been campaigning for seven years for recycling. Springville did put in a voluntary, $5 per month recycling program a few years ago, but only 475 households out of more than 7,500 have signed up for it.

In American Fork, the city council studied the issue at a March 20 meeting, but stopped short of making recycling mandatory. Only about 14 percent of the city's residents participate, a slight uptick since last year, but far short of expectations.

As Reece DeMille of Allied Waste said at that meeting, "People love the environment, but nobody wants to pay for recycling."

This is where local government ought to step up and make curbside recycling work.

One way to go is to make it mandatory, as Lehi has done. Major cities such as Pittsburgh, San Diego and Seattle have done the same. Regionally, West Valley City is the latest to launch such a program. Advocates argue that it's in the public interest.

Those who have taken part can attest that recycling causes little trouble.

Local officials often say recycling costs too much, but perhaps they are not evaluating all the costs. Many cities have found that a close analysis reveals significant savings. New York, for example, is a national leader on the least cost-effective recycling programs, plastic and glass. The city expected to save $39 million, but increased landfill costs ate that up. It has now embarked on a more advanced program to recycle more efficiently and economically.

Mandatory recycling need not be the only option. It should be noted that some cities have boosted recycling participation by providing incentives. Some are designed to reduce the amount of garbage thrown out, thus indirectly encouraging recycling. For example, if a town requires that a resident pay for stickers to go on each bag of trash thrown out, those residents are motivated to recycle more in order to pay less in garbage fees.

More creative ideas can boost recycling directly. The Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill works with RecycleBank, a firm that offers residents gift certificates if they reduce the amount of trash they send to landfills.

The company provides trash containers that a truck picks up. After scanning a bar code on the container, a computer on the truck records the container's weight. Based on that, residents get credits toward certificates for use at local businesses or national retailers.

It's estimated the program will save $2 million in landfill fees and other expenses over five years, and recycling has doubled in neighborhoods it serves.

Technology, the markets and ingenuity are providing solutions to some of the obstacles to recycling. It's time for Utah County municipalities to get in gear and make curb-side recycling the option for most or all residents.