New Year's Revolutions

I don't know that resolutions are going to do it. If we want to turn climate change around we need a few revolutions:

1. Achieve clean green energy, and transportation both individual and public forms.

2. Ignite a massive effort to recycle more and use the toxic landfills less.

3. Invent and use alternatives to plastic.

4. Begin a major transformation from a consumer society motivated by convenience to one that is a conserving society motivated by a sense of fairness rather than greed.

These huge transformations must be fueled by our day to day actions. I can't invent a car that runs on compressed air, but I can save up so that when one arrives on the market, I can purchase it.

Made a resolution that helps you feel like you are participating in the revolution. I've been shopping with cloth bags since the fall of 2006. It wasn't easy at first, but I eventually realized that more reusable bags stashed in the vehicle makes it very easy not to forget to shop with them. Another tip is to hang the bags, once emptied, on the door handle so you don't forget to take them back out to your car.

I reached a milestone this week. I used up the last saved blue plastic bag for recyclables from my pre-cloth shopping bag days. I still have a huge stock of white (and other shades) plastic shopping bags.

There are some folks who are blogging their personal trash challenges. Fake Plastic Fish is the place to visit if you want expert advice on how to avoid plastic in your life. 365 Days of Trash is a blog for recording and collecting one man's trash for a year. He's going to stash it in his basement so he can come to grips with how much trash he is producing. Crunchy Chicken is working on a project to help us all get rid of personal waste, ie: excess weight and the propensity toward over-eating. You can join in Project Waste here. No Impact Man, the one and only, has finished his year long stint making no impact on the environment, but his blog continues and is an excellent resource on how to decrease your impact on the planet.

I don't have a focused trash project like those above, but I am working to be more mindful of what I consume and what I throw away. The goal is to develop habits that produce less waste and to make purchases that take packaging into consideration.

What are your personal climate control goals for 2008?

Keep Your Plastic Bag Out of the Landfill

News on two areas of interest in today's ABJ:

An update on the suspected underground fire at Countywide in Stark. (You can more about the the original story here.) Turns out there's a whole lot going on under the surface:

"Abnormally high temperatures, the release of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide, and a 30-foot settlement in part of the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township indicate fire, said Todd Thalhamer. The California-based expert made recommendations released Friday by the state EPA.

According to Thalhamer's report, an underground metal fire in 2005 probably caused the surrounding garbage to smolder, and the compounds released produce the odors. Because the smoldering is at a lower temperature than a typical underground fire, it is not releasing toxic gases such as benzene because plastics aren't melting, Thalhamer wrote."

The landfill owner continues to downplay the story:

"Tim Vandersall, general manager of the landfill, has said he believe the problem is not a fire but a chemical reaction of aluminum waste and water.

Vandersall said Friday the landfill is safe and will be treated the same whether the hot spot is a fire or a chemical reaction.

``As I've said for six months, it doesn't matter what you call it,'' he said."

Remember that the landfill is not a government-run entity. It is a business and it is busily burying tons of Summit county waste every day. It's not like there is a whole lot of competition for its services. And it is not very likely that Summit county is going to convince its residents to heed the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) any time soon. So when the general manager tells us everything is OK, I for one have my doubts.

The new Ohio EPA director says he will wait until reading the report before acting on Countywide's renewal license. What do you want to bet that the landfill gets renewed? They may tie some provisions on to the license, but there's no way in toxic plastic hell that they'll close the place. Where will all our trash go otherwise?

Nobody really wants to face the problems of dealing with waste from our communities, let alone thinking about the total waste from 6.7 billion people. We are happy to put our trash in bags and bins and then forget about it. Somebody else will deal with it -- and they'll do it far from our homes so we don't have to smell it or see it or risk our lives from chemical explosions and fires.

Tagged on at the end of a Betty Lin-Fisher article about phone companies, is a response to a reader question about recycling plastic bags. The reader wanted to know where she can recycle her plastic shopping bags now that Tops has left the area. Tops used to provide a recycling bin at each store for shoppers to return those madly multiplying bags.

Lin-Fisher got a more detailed response from Acme than I did. Acme will NOT recycle bags, because it is just too damn inconvenient for them. According to Jim Trout, VP of merchandising and sales:

``We think recycling is best left to the communities. A supermarket, in our opinion, is not the place to do recycling,'' Trout said. Years ago, Acme did recycle plastic bags, but bags would be returned with things still in them, which made the bins unsightly and dirty."

The good news is that some Giant Eagle stores and some Walmarts provide plastic bag recycling bins. Missing from the article is information as to which stores provide the service. If any Akron area readers spot a plastic bag recycling bin, we'd appreciate it if you share the information here.

Convenience is the big enemy here, along with the capitalist drive to open more markets. Convenience has brought about the rise of non-recyclable packaging to ship fast and convenient processed foodstuffs all over the country and the world. Business leaders talk about opening new markets without thought as to what that really means. It means more stuff with more packaging ending up in landfills.

We need a new business model based on scientific research into sustaining a safe and healthy life on this planet for all people. Anything that is made should have a plan for its entire life-cycle from manufacture to shipping to use to reuse and ending with a precise recycling plan.

Do we want to continue throwing our toxic trash into a pit and covering it up with some dirt and crossed fingers that it won't ignite or leach into the water supply?

Summit Country Trash

Some interesting facts gleaned from an article in Wednesday's Akron Beacon Journal:

Summit county trash is about 453,000 tons per year.

Summit County recently has recycled about 17 percent of residential-commercial garbage and 83 percent of industrial waste.The state requirement is that 25 percent of residential-commercial trash and 50 percent of industrial waste be recycled.

The EPA goal is to make recycling available to 90 percent of residents.

I suppose I shouldn't be shocked at the low figure for residential recycling. When I was growing up, people dumped trash mindlessly without a thought to its eventual effect upon the planet. There are many still with that mindset who simply don't give a damn about trash.

It is disheartening to sort through one's trash and find so many types of plastic that are not recycled in Akron. Pictured above is a pile of plastic ready to be recycled in Austin, TX. You can read about their solid waste program here.

Don't forget to take your cloth bags whenever you go shopping. I have been doing very well with my bags lately. I had been forgetting to take the bags out to my vehicle after emptying them. I'd stop at the store and remember -- oops -- I left my bags at home and now I have to pick paper or plastic. Drat!

So now I always hang my cloth bags on the doorknob after I'm finished unloading. The next time I go out the door, the bags go with me and into my vehicle ready for whatever shopping lies ahead. My personal goal is to cut down on shopping as much as possible and to try to buy items in packaging that can be recycled.

Paper or plastic?

Shopping today at a Tops Store, now holding going out of business sales at various locations, I had with me my cloth shopping bags. So when the clerk began to bag up my groceries without asking, "paper or plastic?" -- I stopped her by saying -- "I brought my own bags, I'm trying to save the planet."

She gave me a disgusted look and said, "Lots of luck," then turned her back on me and swaggered away like I was some kind of nut.

Fact is, I have heaps of blue plastic bags at home, waiting to do duty as can/glss/plastics recycling containers. I have another huge sack full of non-blue bags that I resist throwing into the regular trash. Then I have a small stack of paper bags I use for paper recycling.

Which really is better, plastic or paper? Depends upon whether the study is done by proponents of plastic or paper industries. Recycling web sites give you the statistics and facts. Turns out it is a toss up. The best bags remain reusable string or cloth bags, like the one pictured above. (It's available here.)

Here are some interesting facts from the New England EPA:

* Plastic bags were first introduced in 1977 and now account for four out of every five bags handed out at grocery stores.

* Paper sacks generate 70 percent more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.

* Paper bags are made from trees, which are a renewable resource. Most plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which is made from crude oil and natural gas, nonrenewable resources.

* 2000 plastic bags weigh 30 pounds, 2000 paper bags weigh 280 pounds. The latter takes up a lot more landfill space.

* It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper. It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag. Energy to produce the bags (in British thermal units): Safeway plastic bags: 594 BTU; Safeway paper bags: 2511 BTU.

* Paper is accepted in most recycling programs while the recycling rate for plastic bags is very low. Research from 2000 shows 20 percent of paper bags were recycled, while one percent of plastic bags were recycled.

* Current research demonstrates that paper in today's landfills does not degrade or break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic does. In fact, nothing completely degrades in modern landfills due to the lack of water, light, oxygen, and other important elements that are necessary for the degradation process to be completed.

* Incineration can decrease the quantity of plastic and paper bags. However, incineration causes air pollution and creates ash which has to be landfilled.