Buried in an enormous survey by Seattle Public Utilities (one of 22 the agency did last year, at a total cost of almost $200,000) is this saddening statistic: Just 19 percent of all garbage customers said they'd be extremely or very satisfied switching to every-other-week garbage pickup---a change the city estimates would save more than $6 million a year. Twenty-three percent said they'd be somewhat satisfied, and a majority---53 percent---said they'd be not very satisfied or extremely unsatisfied. The city's "zero-waste strategy" aims, among other goals, to increase the amount of trash residents recycle from 51 percent in 2010 to 60 percent by next year.

People who throw away a lot of stuff---those with trash cans holding 64 gallons of garbage or more---were much less likely to accept the idea of having their garbage picked up less often.

Residents are also composting less---30 percent said they composted yard waste in 2010, compared to 40 percent five years earlier, and food waste composting fell from 26 to 21 percent.

People always complain about change, but biweekly trash pickup is the least of the changes Seattle residents will have to make if we're going to get anywhere close to zero waste this decade. If the minor inconvenience of dropping things in a different bin is too much to ask of us, what will happen when we're asked to recycle everything that's recyclable, or compost all food waste, or give up our precious plastic bags. If we can't manage the little things, the zero-waste strategy may start to look like the ten-year plan to end homelessness: A good idea in theory, but not one we're really prepared to make happen.

SPU will brief the council's utilities committee on the survey results this afternoon at 2:00.