The fire-and-brimstone, squid-v.-whale, struggle-to-the-death war between the Arcata Community Recycling Center and the Humboldt Waste Management Authority — a nonprofit agency and a government agency, respectively, lest we forget — looks like it might be getting even hotter pretty soon.

The Wednesday meeting of the Arcata City Council ran past midnight this week. At the bitter end, long after everyone went home, Councilmember Alex Stillman made a curious motion — a review of the city’s zero-waste policy and how the Humboldt Waste Management Authority might fit into that. Or not.

“I really want to look at our JPA (joint-powers authority) arrangement with HWMA and talk about whether or not we want to continue with that, because it seems in conflict with zero-waste,” Stillman said, referencing the ACRC/HWMA war in passing.

Councilmembers Mark Wheetley and Mayor Susan Ornelas quickly agreed.

If the city eventually elects to withdraw from the Waste Management Authority — a coalition with county government and the cities of Eureka, Blue Lake, Ferndale and Rio Dell — presumably it will have to take on the task of figuring out how to dispose of its own garbage, and, of course, what to do with its recyclables.

Video here. Fast-forward to about the 6:12:30 mark.