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WASTE AS REALITY: A Waste Inventory

      Learning about the waste stream is part of our personal
and group examination of conscience.   Discover the waste picture
by carefully observing and recording the domestic waste stream in
a typical month.  The project will generate some eye-openers
provided the inventory is honest.

• Weigh the products thrown away over the month
         and list them according to categories:
           - yard wastes
           - kitchen compostables
           - plastics
           - hazardous materials
           - newsprint, cardboard, office paper
           - metals (aluminum, steel, other)
           - glass (clear and colored)
           - building materials
           - junk, clothing, tires and others   
• Record how much of this waste stream is rerouted and
  reused
• Discover how much that is not reused is recycled.
• How much ends in a landfill?
                           incinerator?
                           other forms of disposal?
• Does the waste so disposed of go to an approved landfill?
                        illegal landfill?
                        incinerator?
• How much is reused?                  
                    recycled?
                    stored as junk?
     

An alternative approach is an inventory of potential waste
that is brought onto the premises:
          - packaging and grocery bags
          - disposable containers

Use of materials on grounds:
          - incinerator or landfills on grounds
          - burning some discarded materials in furnace

Are the following composted and returned to the soil?
    Human Wastes --
     Animal Wastes --
    Kitchen Wastes --
    Yard Wastes --
    Agricultural Organic Wastes --

   
WASTE: A PERSONAL ISSUE

     The first step is to see just what we use and what we waste.
The truth is always shocking, but knowing that something can be
done about it encourages us.  We will first treat the
individual's responsibility in waste matters and then move on to
societyþs responsibility. Let's consider the four "r's" of
personal waste management.

     1. Reduce: Don't Use Unless Necessary

     Policy Needs.  A "No use" policy is far better than a
recycling policy.  Goals could be developed according to the
needs of the organization.  One general policy is to pause and
question the purchase of each item.  The pause could cut
purchases immensely.  Merely having the financial reserves to
make a purchase is no excuse for doing so.   Does this car or
computer need to be purchased?  Do we need so many newspapers and
periodicals? so many paper towels?  Should we purchase lunch
foods in individual containers?  Using individual containers for
each draft of fruit or vegetable juice requires about five times
more container metal than is used when buying only one large
container or a frozen packet and dispensing the juice in a
pitcher.  Office supplies could also be purchased in bulk,
resulting in immense savings.
 
  Create Operational Policies.  Can an item presently owned be
substituted for the purchase?  A general policy then becomes --

   

•  Purchase only after a pause and an effort to see whether
           an item can be substituted.
  
•  Buy only bulk items.
  
•  Exhaust alternatives before a purchase.
  
•  Practice comparison shopping and avoid impulse
           purchasing.
  
•  Write down goals and guidelines for purchasing supplies.
  
•  Phase out purchase of single use and toxic materials.

         
     
     2. Reuse When Possible

     Some people have far greater ability than others to reuse an
item.  They have greater imagination, are more resourceful, and
are willing to expend time in taking the needed steps.  If such a
group could not buy a needed new item, they would be able to
press an alternative into service.  But reuse does take time.  To
clean off used concrete blocks from a demolished building may
perhaps not be worth the time and cost -- unless the person has
nothing else to do.  Many regard the time element as so critical
that they do not reuse items because of the high cost of
refurbishing materials in terms of labor.  Can we really blame
this sort of mentality?  

     In actual fact, some periods of time are less busy than
others, and during the slack season preparing materials for reuse
is quite possible.  A policy of storing reusable materials in an
accessible and well labeled place is the first step.  If this
stored material accumulates, further disposal may have to be
undertaken in the form of a yard sale or scrapping of materials.

 
     3. Repair

     The third of the four "r's" is the one that is least done
because few people feel competent to repair a broken device.
However, others out there are willing to try, and repair people
actually abound.  The notion that items are not worth repairing
is often more of a ploy by the marketers than fact -- but some
things actually are not.  Expensive watches used to be repaired,
but cheap ones are discarded because the repair costs are higher
than the purchase price.  Surprisingly people have this attitude
about everything from computers to cars.  Failure to repair items
places an added burden on resources and on landfills.  Perhaps
the outer jacket of most appliances could be reused and many of
the non-working appliances repaired.

     4. Recycle as a Last Resort  

      We advance beyond immediate waste and litter disposal
problems to a stage of concern for others including the Earth.
One of the most discussed solutions in recent years is recycling
or the return to cyclic process.  This recycling return to
natural cycles can be achieved with some degree of success -- but
only some.  In fact, recycling is an imperfect process and does
not address deeper social problems associated with use of
materials in the first place.  The recycling of some types of
containers may be perfect, but other ways of obtaining the
materials initially would not demand the recycling.  

     Should we Knock Recycling?  Sorting out waste materials
takes a degree of discipline that is beyond the average consumer.
Thus local regulations can prove quite helpful.  But should we be
using the materials that need to be sorted and recycled?  It is
precisely this question that makes the recycling controversy
quite difficult to handle.  While to recycle is good, not to have
to recycle is far better.  Refraining from using disposable
materials -- a profitable process for many consumer product
producers -- nips recycling needs in the bud.  "Why so many
aluminum soft drink cans?"  Think of the energy and other
resources required to produce these smaller items.  The recycling
process never questions the recyclable's raison d'etre; it only
offers limited stewardship for materials and then demands that
the disposing person handle them properly -- whatever that means.

     Hidden Areas: Some often overlooked problems with recycling
procedures include:

     a) Recycling is generally the first formal environmental
practice that many individuals perform -- and that is to its
credit and discredit.  With little understanding of ecological
processes the practitioner will take at face valued industry
pressure to recycle and never consider that the disposable
material needing recycling should not have been produced in the
first place.

     b) Recycling requires some effort and care especially in
taking what could be easily mixed and sorting it according to
serviceable categories.

     c) Recycling bins take up space, need to be maintained with
care, and can be messy if not handled properly.

     d) Even in the best of circumstances only a percentage of
materials is actually recycled.  Even in Germany with a very
strong waste ethic, about 40% of goods are not sorted properly
for effective recycling needs to be valued as such.  
     
     Eco-tactics: One suggested eco-guerrilla tactic is
deliberately dirtying the neighborhood with non-toxic litter so
that the public will react more rapidly -- but will it?  Often
the tactics will result in residents becoming content with the
dirty situation, or fleeing it for a cleaner place.  Deliberate
dirtying may be habit forming and may even entice others to do
the same.  Better than dirtying the surroundings is making a
limited cleanup and leaving the collected material on the parlor
rugs of the waste generators' offices.  Certainly such
confrontation lets off steam -- but does it address the deeper
social issues of the dominant commercial culture?
     
     Labeling the Recycling Bins: Management requires that we
not make our surroundings junky even when, through compulsion, we
want to cling to things and not throw them away immediately.
Label recycling receptacles.  Mark office paper, and especially
mailings, so that workers and receivers of mail know that it is
recycled paper.  Place prominently labeled composting bins where
others can see them when they approach the back portions of the
main complex.

     Recycling Hints:

• Collection bins for particular items must be located where
  those items are used.  It may not be necessary to place a bin for
  office paper in a kitchen area, but receptacles for glass and
  aluminum should be found there.  Placing a small box for used
  paper on each desk in an office is ideal due to the quantities
  that are constantly generated.
  
• Post clearly what is and is not to be deposited in each
  receptacle.  If people are in doubt about a material, they will
  likely dispose of it as unsorted trash.
  
• All bins should be clearly labeled and should be easily
  identifiable as recycling receptacles.  If paper grocery bags are
  used to collect newspaper, people may not sort as consistently as
  when a particular bin shape is designated for recycling efforts.  

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