First, the good news

Their eyes raced over the pages for one address: South Corgiat Drive.

But nowhere in the solid-waste legislation announced by Mayor Greg Nickels Thursday did it say that the city would come anywhere near the South Seattle street. Not to buy, not to build, not to wave in a fleet of trash trucks like the flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz."

And that's when the folks of Georgetown knew they had been spared.

"Can you believe it?" gushed Kathy Nyland, who has been leading the neighborhood's fight against a proposed trash-transfer station for two years.

For a while now, Georgetown has been spit-polishing and struggling to succeed, all the while fighting the city of Seattle over one thing after another: the expansion of Boeing Field, the location of a strip-club district and the building of a trash-transfer station that would generate some 200 truck trips through its very heart.

Instead of a new station, the city said it would upgrade its current, aging stations — in the Fremont/Wallingford area and South Park — and order the rest of the city to adopt a "Zero Waste" plan to recycle 70 percent of its waste by 2025.

So while Georgetown won its battle, the fight to reduce waste — and costs — has just begun for the rest of us.

Councilman Richard Conlin said that Georgetown "did a great job" fighting for itself, but there was this:

Last week, the City Council got a letter from the BNSF Railway, which hauls Seattle's waste to an Oregon landfill. It said it wouldn't be able to serve a Corgiat site anyway.

Assuming the city wouldn't force the railroad's hand, was the residents' fight for naught?

"No," Conlin said. "We weren't going to do it anyway, but this letter was the icing on the cake."

After the announcement, Nyland and her partner, Holly Krejci, headed back to Georgetown for eggs at the Hangar Café. Does the area seem to have new life?

"I don't know," Nyland joked. "The bags under my eyes are obstructing my view."

The view for the rest of us? Not so good.

First, we have to accept that we spent about $2.9 million on studies, then decided not to do anything but upgrade our current transfer sites in less-than-perfect ways.

And if the folks who live near those places were hoping to have less trash traffic passing through? Forget it. The trucks that were headed to Georgetown are going to keep on trucking to those places.

Conlin maintains that "Zero Waste" will reduce the trucks' load, but that will cost us, too, in time, money and effort.

According to Conlin's "Zero Waste" report, doing everything required to reach the 70 percent recycling goal by 2025 will cost $10.5 million a year, with a $5.2 million startup. Education, marketing, containers, take-back programs.

In the end, we're all saving Georgetown, so we may as well enjoy it. The community is hosting "Artopia" Saturday, so head down there and see what they were fighting for.

Then go get a compost pail. Getting to Zero isn't just peeling potatoes, but bucks.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

Paper or plastic?