I don't think anybody in Orange County is happy that we are planning to send our trash over the horizon to a giant landfill in some poor God-forsaken community.

I don't think our county leadership is happy about becoming beholden to a giant waste corporation that will have us by the short hairs when they want to raise the hauling rates somewhere down the road. And you don't have to be psychic to know that fuel costs are only going to rise.

The current plans for a transfer station harness us to an unethical and increasingly expensive boondoggle. Our best bet is to avoid getting hooked into this unpredictable system by siting our own landfill in Orange County.

First, we have to adjust our perspective and realize that solid waste represents an economic opportunity. The waste stream provides many materials that have a useful purpose. Plus we'll save money over the long run by avoiding the inevitable price hikes from waste businesses and fuel cost escalation.

We should site a well-designed landfill in one of our Economic Development Districts (EDD) that have been sitting vacant for many years. Then we should work to site businesses there that will make products from the waste stream. We could offer incentives such as free electricity from methane generated by the landfill. It could be the beginning of an Eco-Industrial Park.

Another key element of making us self-sufficient with solid waste is to take advantage of the many, many opportunities that still exist to reduce our output.

We've got the space in the Economic Development Districts. We've got a county Economic Development office in need of a clear mission. We've got time, since the current landfill will last longer than originally projected. We've got a chance to take care of our own business and not foist our trash on another community. It's an opportunity to do the right thing - ethically and economically. If we commit to it, I know we can make it work.

We need to make this commitment soon. If the current landfill doesn't last long enough for us to open a small landfill in an EDD and begin creating an Eco-Industrial Park, our fallback position would be to contract with Durham to handle our waste at their transfer station while we complete our work.

This situation has been a huge burden on the county and now we seem to be on the verge of making a bad decision just to close the door on the issue. But the decision will haunt us economically and ethically. We have an opportunity to get out of the rut we are in and bypass the community unrest in the Rogers Road neighborhood.

More importantly, we have an opportunity to commit to a positive vision that recognizes our waste stream for what it really is: a river of resources and raw materials. Instead of putting ourselves at the mercy of giant waste-handling corporations, let's create economic opportunity.