As a lifelong Bakersfield resident, I've noticed there are two things Bakersfield folks generally don't like to pay for -- parking and recycling.

We don't mind walking a block or two to avoid a $3 parking fee and apparently consider recycling a service that government officials should offer free of charge.

So it's no surprise that a number of local residents are less than thrilled with a Bakersfield City Council committee's approval Thursday night of a proposal to mandate curbside recycling.

The vote was actually to approve the pursuit of a $1.5 million state grant, but the recycling mandate is a requirement of the grant. No mandate, no moolah.

As a member of one of the few Bakersfield households -- about 5 percent -- currently participating in the voluntary curbside recycling program, I have to say I really like my blue cart.

I like that the cart takes my soda cans, milk cartons, newspapers and cardboard boxes, no sorting required. I like that I no longer have to haul sticky, grimy loads of recyclables to the nearest recycling bins.

I like that the cost to participate in the program was recently cut from $6.67 per month to only $4 a month and that the county is considering the same price cut. And I like that I'm doing my bit to reduce waste.

But what I really like about the blue cart is that I can use it or not as I see fit.

Recycling is good. Mandates are not, particularly when those mandates single out specific segments of the population -- in this case, single-family homes -- while ignoring others like multi-family units and commercial and industrial sites.

Those who want to mandate recycling like to point out that Bakersfield may be one of the few remaining areas in the state that doesn't have a metrowide curbside recycling program.

Only they say it like it's a bad thing.

For us, it hasn't been. The state requires at least 50 percent of a city's waste be diverted from local landfills, a requirement that local city and county waste managers have managed to meet without imposing mandatory recycling.

Kevin Barnes, city of Bakersfield solid waste director, says the city is currently at 58 percent diversion, while the county is at 62 percent.

"As the law stands now, it is not necessary," Barnes said of the proposed mandate. "We have been waiting, but what is pushing us to the issue at the moment is the possibility of a $1.5 million grant that the state has available."

If the Legislature eventually decides to push that diversion mandate to 75 percent or higher -- and this being California, it probably will -- it's going to take more than curbside recycling to cover the cost, Barnes says.

Because it's impossible to predict with any certainty what our Legislature will do, the City Council committee was wise to pursue the grant option for now. Even if Bakersfield gets the grant, it will take 18 months to put the program in place.

In the interim, we would do well to consider Councilman Ken Weir's more sensible suggestion to "get serious about recycling" and work to develop a comprehensive waste reduction plan.

A plan that includes not just some, but all those who create the waste.