Volume VI I No.10 Lost Latin Ecotopia The Values of Waste $1.50 No Advertising
Page 2 RAIN August/September 1981 Dear RAIN, Seems like I started hearing about RAIN shortly after subscribing to Manas. Then there was the enthusiastic recommendation in The Next Whole Earth Catalog. And in the last week alone this magazine has been described, by two separate sources, in nothing less than glowing terms. Apparently I've been missing out on something important. Enclosed is a check for fifteen dollars. Count me in. Peter D. Bailey Phoenix, AZ Vol. VII No.10 Dear RAIN, Loved the Rainbook- just got my hands on it last week, and it's going to keep me reading for the next couple years. I hope you're going to update it like The Next Whole Earth Catalog, which should be declared a National Resource by now. It is, by the way, where I got the current info on RAIN, so I can send you $15.00 instead of $10.00. The Rainbook was my first exposure to the appropriate technology movement and the underlying set of values behind it, what "Yith my being way off here in the Alaskan bush and all. My feelings run parallel to those of Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: "When you live in the shadow of insanity, the appearance of another mind that thinks and talks as yours does is something close to a blessed event. Like Robinson Crusoe's discovery of footprints in the sand." Which brings me to the question of why ZAMM wasn't mentioned in.the Rainbook. Is there any work of literature anywhere more relevant to the "underlying set of values" which make appropriate technology appropriate? I assume it has played its part somewhere in the history of RAIN; its mark is all over everything. The bush of Alaska is one place where RAIN technology has long had to be appropriate or else it was sunk (literally-in permafrost). The pipeline was the first megabucks operation to take the bush head on and they paid the price:,how symbolic of the entire technology built on the precious commodity they were after. It has been a pleasure to live and work someplace where appropriateness has always been relative to the lifestyle as well as its technologies. Such experience, and a healthy dose of RAIN, will certainly be of help when it comes to tackling the same problems in the well-entrenched "Lower 48.'' Very Truly Yours, Drummond Reed Nyack, AL Dear RAIN, Thank you for a truly fine June issue, especially "Whose Home on the Range!" Such well-balanced analysis of an environmental question is a rare thing. I am in agreement with Mr. Charles that the "Park or Pillage" mentality is going to lead conservationists into some hard times. Indeed, it may already have done so. Although fostering reasonable use of land is harder (within the American legal and social Aug./Sept. 1981 Journal of Appropriate Technology RAIN Magazine publishes information which can lead people to more simple and satisfying lifestyles, help communities and regions become economically self-reliant, and build a society that is durable, just, and ecologically sound. RAIN STAFF: Laura Stuchinsky, Mark Roseland, Carlotta Collette, John Ferrell, Kevin Bell, Steve Johnson, Steve Rudman, Nancy Cosper, Scott Androes, Tanya Kucak. Linnea Gilson, Graphics and Layout RAIN, Journal of Appropriate Technology, is published 10 times yearly by the Rain Umbrella, Inc., a non-profit corporation located at 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, Oregon 97210, telephone 503/227-5110. Copyright © 1981 Rain Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. Typesetting: Irish Setter Printing: Times Litho Cover Photograph: Ancil Nance
tradition) than condemning land for parks and wilderness, it is a course.of action we'd be better off stepping bravely into rather than being backed into, as we now are. With regard to "Ivan Illich on Ivan Illich," did he simply say: ' A lot of work is done in a home, generally It would be easy to never leave Rainhouse and still acquire a "global perspective." This has been especially true over the summer as visitors have brought us their stories from Japan, France, England and Sweden. first to come was Takashi Ishida from the Kanagawa Prefecture Government Office. "Jake" (his English tutor's name for him) . queried me for two hours on the nature and method of achieving Oregon's anti-nuclear legislation in our last election: There were a few language obstacles to hurdle right off. A major one involved the difference between a conservative and a conservationist. Jake's English was remarkably more manageable than my Japanese (how much can you rel,i.lly learn from reading Shogun?) but he lacked a certain political peppering. Another expression he had to struggle with was that of a "backyard revolution." "Revolution" he understood well enough, hut "backyard" was a word he'd never heard. I described a movement that coalesced a political base of power, house to house, and block by block. "Over the garden gates" organizing rather than out in the streets. He was "very interested." Japan, led by Jake's progressive prefecture, is embarked on a campaign they are calling The Age of Regionalism with goals of decentralizing government control and increasing citizen participation. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Not long after Jake's visit, Annie Bloch came for a couple of days. Annie lives in Paris where she has been communicating with RAIN on EIES (Electronic Information Exchange System). It was too early in'Mitterand's administration to get he.r feedback • by housewives, that in fact only serves to allow the household to consume more products of the wage-labor sector of the economy, in words twice as long and half as accurate, or did I miss something? I certainly prefer to see more articles by people dealing with specific problems, who can generalize on a socialist government for France, but she seconded Jake's interest in locally self-reliant r communities. Annie brought up the real conflicts between "Green Party" environmentalists in Europe, and the bread and butter issues of a large constituency. "For environmentalists to have any significant influence in France, they must address the economic issues that affect everyone. They cannot afford to separate themselves from the questions of unemployment and inflation." More universal lessons were learned from another visitor, landscape architect Michael Brown from the United Kingdom. Michael was one of the people behind the New Mills project we announced for sale recently. The predictable bad news from the Thatcher regime is the collapse of underfunded organizations, to say nothing of the very desparate times faced by England's even poorer individuals. Our Swedish visitors, Thorbjorn Ek and Goren Roseberg from the Research Group in Economic Geography at ~he University of Lund, came with the specific goal of researching intermediate level business developments "in order to keep jobs and capital in areas which are not highly industrializedwhere larger corporations abandon communities because they can no longer make significant profits there." We offered them names of people active r:iationally in shop closure and worker self-ma_nagement areas, and arranged appointments for them with Portland leaders with similar concerns. It was gratifying to be so useful. Our guests have confirmed what we have suspected; that there is a solid, loosely coorAugust/September 1981 RAIN Page 3 from their concrete experience, than partmystic ramblings of self-proclaimed philosopher princes, which is how I perceive Mr. Illich. • Thank you. Brian O'Regan Berkeley, CA dinated, international restructuring taking place. Th~t Wfi are all discovering our incredible dependency and vulnerability to big business and big governme.nt, and that as we leave the nest or are kicked out of it, we find out;ide the ";helter" more commonality than we ever dreamed. The more we alter our role in response to our independence,.the more we will be learning from and working with each other. Which leads me to introduce Scott Morgan Androes and Tanya Kucak our summer interns. There is an implicit agreement be.:' tween interns and RAIN staff: "You teach me whatever you know and can teach, and I'll do the same for you-we'know different things." With these two, I'm about as close to a,n ivy league education as I'll ever get. Scott is from Harvard and Tanya graduated from Princeton. We're all just getting to know each other.-CC
Page 4 RAIN August/September 1981 ·.·_ :. • . . . .. · •• . . . . \ t .-·. -....--'---'--"1,"---·,~ -••• • RR: fYr:------ ." ~ _ .co1 C~~ v.~ ,-_ . 10~~ U: D l S 0-"'.' , ~ . - 1 -:· < ·· -:-- --:-- 0 ....ni;!::No vo • ,.-.~M> ; 1·y , _.-... -·= . . .-_. •- •• ,,d.'"-{~:~ ~t\?.9-·. r\,~ ·-·. \ ,.·:··. . • .-. _._ . ·1o- :--:~~::,,. _;,,,,_ ,, "- . . ._ci:,.." . . • .• - -- \--~---- ·,.... • - --·:;{""' - • --~.a-;......:. - ~.....;._~-~_.,..,~~il--'--=:,~;-4-~. With \ • •, ;J'-~ - ~); •• ,("', '\ \ .>ff~..---> ,;..ciik ., ,-i. - \ - ,--~~ • - • - • ~~ \~~,@... ~ only minimal contacts with the out~ide world, the landlocked nation emerged as the most egalitarian society yet known in ii\_ \4" l .,.. ~~,~~: the Western Hemisphere. T~e rise and fall of the Allende regime in Chile during the 70s, the victory two years ago of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and the present turmoil in El Salvador all remind us that Latin America is a 7:egion in 7:1hich dramatic changes are taking place, yet most of us m the United States are (embarrassingly) too little versed in Latin American history, ·politics and culture to adequately assess either the roots or the substance of these changes. In an effort to broaden ou_r own historical understanding, we recently read a book entitled Ehtes, Masses and Modernization in Latin America, 1850-1930, edited by Virginia Bernhard (1979, $9.95 hardcover from University of Te~as Press, Box 7819, Austin, TX 78712). In one of the chapters: wrz~ten by Professor E. Bradford Burns of the University of ~alzform~-:-Los Angeles, we were startled to dis.cover the followmg des:rzptzon of a remarkably modern-sounding experiment in self-relzant development-which rose and fell in Paraguay more than a century ago! Copyright 1979 by the University of Texas Press. Reprinted with permission. Doubtless the most successful resistance to Europeanization took place in Paraguay, where, during the decades from 1810 to 1870, a native alternative took form, influenced in almost equal parts by the American and the European past. Since Paraguay challenged the trend to Europeanize more effectively than ari.y other group or nation, it merits ... special at~ention. Three caudillos dominated Paraguay in the 1810-1870 period: Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia (1814-1840), Antonio Carlos Lopez (1840-1863), and Francisco Solano Lopez (1863-1870). Francia charted the course for Paraguay's autonomous revolution which insured economic independence and possibly the only example of economic development in nineteenth-century Latin America. With only minimal contacts with the outside world, the landlocked nation under Francia's leadership emerged as the most egalitarian society yet known in the Western Hemisphere. He accomplished this unique development
by eliminating from power several mighty groups whose governments in the rest of Latin America perpetrated the area's economic dependency. Francia nationalized the Roman Catholic Church, confiscating its temporal goons, abolishing the tithe, and desreeing religious freedom. Thus he not only eliminated a potential rival but avoided the Church-State conflicts which eroded national harmony throughout most of Latin America. He removed the traditional, although small and modest, elites frorifpower and destroyed their base of prestige and wealth by nationalizing most of their estates. In possession of the majority of the nation's land, the government established scores of prosperous state ranches and rented the rest for a nominal fee to anyone willing to till the soil. No latifundia dominated the economy, nor did monocultural export deform it. Paraguay became self-sufficient in the production of food. While the establishment of a state iron works and state textile and livestock industries provided employment for thousands of Paraguayans, small handicraft industries further augmented national production, thereby meetng the simple, basic needs of the people. Through a rigidly enforced system of trade license~ and its own massive participation, the state prevented the growth of a native or August/September 1981 RAIN Page 5 foreign commercial class; no foreign interests were permitted to penetrate the economy; nor did foreign debts, loans, or interest rates hobble it. Francia regulated commerce and controlled the economy to achieve national goals rather than to permit a small group to satisfy individual desires. New information indicates that a rudimentary educational system, satisfactory for the needs of a .simple agrarian society, practically eliminated illiteracy. •Continuing on that autonomous course in the three decades after cFrancia's death, the two Lopezes, father and son, saw to it that Paraguay not only built a railroad, strung telegraph lines, and constructed its own modern steamship navy to ply its abundant waterways, but also put into operation Latin America's first iron foundry. The two caudillos achieved these innovations without incurring foreign debt and for the benefit of the Paraguayans. Thereby, Paraguay continued·to enjoy economic as well as politjcal independence, escaping the neo-colonial dependency characteristic of nineteenth-century Latin America. The rapid and genuine development of Paraguay under its own form of "inorganic democracy" alarmed the elitist governments in neighboring states whose own export-oriented economies had grown but failed to develop. They accused Paraguay of upsetting the balance of power in the Rio de la Plata. More realistically, they feared the appealing example Paraguay offered to wider segments of their own populations. Argentina, Brazil, and their puppet-state Uruguay joined forces in the War of the Triple Alliance to bring "civilizatioi:1" to "barbarian" Paqguay (1864-1870). The Paraguayan masses proved their devotion to-their caudillo by fighting tenaciously against their huge neighbors and keeping at bay armies many times their size for over five years. Financed in part by English loans, the allies "Vaged a war of genocide, killing approximately 90 percent of Paraguay's adult male population. During the five years of occupation following the war, the allies dismantled the popular institutions of Paraguay's autonomous revolution. They opened the nation to foreign capital and attendant debt. The land passed from the hands of the state and the peasants into huge un- 1 used or underused estates typical of the land patterns of the rest of Latin America. Paraguay's alternative to Europeanization was ended forcibly in 1870, and thereafter the standard mold'of nineteenth-century Latin American institutions characterized that nation.OD Want to learn more about the Paraguayan experiment? Professor Burns based his a-ccount in part on Paraguay's Autonomous Revolution, 1810-1840, by Richard Alan Wright (1978, $12.95 from University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM 87131). Other interesting material on the subject is included in Self-Reliance: A Strategy for Development(see review and access information elsewhere in this issue). Some of the older books on this period of Paraguay's fiistory which you may find at your local library are • very negative in tone, particularly in reference to the second President Lopez. One of these, Paraguay: An Informal History, by Harris Gaylord Warren (University of Oklahoma Press, 1949), notes that "many volumes have been written to condemn Francisco Lopez as the vilest excretion of his country." The reasons are not hard to find. Lopez was no angel, and he was as unconventional in his own day as Fidel Castro is in ours. He also shared the typical fate of leaders who lose wars and have the condemnation of their enemies recorded as history. Perhaps most important was Lop.ez's willingness to share his rule with his Irish-born lover, Eliza Lynch, certainly one of the most controversial and charismatic woman leaders of the nineteenth century. Two books which detail the Lynch-Lopez relationship during the incredibly bloody war of 1864-70 are Woman on Horseback by William E. Barrett (Frederick A. Stokes Compa.ny, 1938) and Madame Lynch & Friend by Alyn Brodsky (Harper & Row, 1975). -JF
Page 6 RAIN August/September 1981 -----·--------- FOREIGN ------- Self-Reliance: A Strategy for Development, edited by Johann Galtung, Peter O'Brien and Roy Preiswerk, 1980, 422 • pp., inquire for price from: Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications Ltd. 141 Coldershaw Road, Ealing · London W13 9DU UNITED KINGDOM With my faithful Websters by my side, I struggled through this worthwhile though· densely written book. Born out of an international think tank of professors, students, civil servants and technical assistants Self-Reliance, reflects the ponderous though sometimes illuminating tone often found in academic writing. While I often wished the authors knew more about the Appropriate Technology/Self-Reliance movement internationally, their writing does offer a historical perspective which is often lacking in A.T. literature. Commentaries on self-reliance by such people as Ho Chi Minh, Rousseau, Gandhi and Mao Tse-tung are contrasted with one another. A chapter which especially drew my attention consists of a series of "case studies," one of which centers on the rise of the Paraguayan self-reliant "utopia" of 1811-1870 (see article elsewhere this issue). Recognizing bpth the potential and the problems of a self7reliant development strategy, the authors offer a well-reasoned, conceptual view of their subject. If you have the persistence to plow through the academic verbiage, you'll certainly find much of merit. -LS "Appropriate Technology Sourcebook, Volume II, By Ken Darrow, Kent Keller and Rick Pam, 1981, $6.50 (plus $1.38 postage in the U.S.), 816 pp., from: Appropriate Technology Project Volunteers in Asia Box4543 Stanford, CA 94305 In keeping with the style of Volume I, which RAIN editors praised as an outstanding complement toRainbook (see RAIN III:5, 14), the Appropriate Technology Sourcebook, Volume II provides access to over 500 additional publications relating to village and community technology. Gearing the publication toward "community organizers, educators, policymakers, and scientists," the authors stress the connection betwen community organizing and appropriate technologies, describing them as ACCESS FromAppropriate Technology Sourcebook mutually supportive. The theoretical section of this book is small but potent. Although I disagreed with a few particular points, this is • a well thought out and illuminating resource guide. Acknowledging the political and eco- . nomic iµ,.pact of appropriate and intermediate technologies, the authors note that un- .equal patterns of land ownership can lead to technological choices "which may not benefit the majority of the population." Village elites can consolidate their position with the· help of technologies that were intended to alleviate poverty. The bulk of the Sourcebook is devoted to access on topics as diverse as bookkeeping, nonformal science education, water filtra-'- tion, and operation of small scale enterprises. Most .of the material is drawn from U.S. - based research and A. T. groups. A fair . amount is from the developing countries themselves. While brief reference is made-to the special needs of women in developing countries, the book could have been ixn- . proved by devoting a chapter to this topic. The Sourcebook is a valuable tool for dis- • se~inating information within and among developing nations. Essential reading for those considering a stay overseas. -LS Land Reform: Is it the Answer? A Venezuelan Peasant Speaks, Research Report '2, by Frances Moore Lappe and,Hannes Lo,renzan, $1.50, from: • Institute for Food and Development Policy 2588 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94110 While Oxfam's publication (se~ review above) provides an overview of land reform issues in developing countries, this IFDP publication is more narrowly focused. Through an interview with a Venezuelan peasant farmer and political activist, Carlos Rojas, the authors portray the day-to-day realities of Venezuela's attempt at reform. Poor nutrition (52/ of the children between one and six years of age and 43/ of those from seven to 14 years are malnourished), lack of financing (credit goes directly to p~ivate distributors of farming imports, not to farmers), and inadequate housing (deforestation has destroyed the materials used to build traditional housing) are all examples of the "improvements" land reform has wrought. In more than one case, government intervention worked counter to the goal of reducing povetty: "We found that where government investment in credits, inputs, and expertise was highest, the nutritional level was lowest ! " Carlos also describes the corruption of a . potentially powerful land reform organization~The federation. Ca:mpesirio de Vene- ·zuela-a mass-based, peasant organization fomied in the early sixties to protect peoples interests. Instead, the Federation has become a bureaucratic arm of the government. Recognizing the problems they are facing, Carlos' community has begun an experimental subsistence program. Slowly they are educating themselves about such agricultural practices as intercropping; uses of manure, companion planting, and animal raising with the goal of working free of the government credit system. Time will tell whether the community will be able to establish the selfreliant base they are working toward. The optimistic tone of Carlos' interview is tempered by the experiences of other communities and individuals in Venezuela. An historical overview (by Hannes Lorenzen) in
the opening pages underlines the message that Venezuela's land reform has been largely cosmetic. Valuable reading for a personal perspective·on the fallacy of land distibution as a sole solution to poverty. -LS Land for People: Land Tenure and the Very Poor, by Claire Whittemore, 1981, 55 pp., inquire for price from: Third World Publications 151 Stratford Road Birmingham Bil IRD UNITED KINGDOM "~early every developing country has introduced a programme which has been described as land reform. However, most of them have produced negligible results because they have not been designed to change the power structure." Land for People takes a critical look at the practice of land reform, presenting a biting analysis of the limitations of reforms which do not address the underlying causes of inequality. In a concise and informative style Whittemore, a former member of Oxfam's Public Affairs Unit, outlines the myths that surround and define land reform efforts and the impact of"quickie" solutions. Examining each of the large developing regions individually-Latin America, Asia, and Africa-she describes the problems unique to each. Common issues quickly emerge: Lack of available credit, intimidation concerning legal rights to land, the powerlessness of landless peasants, the insecurities of tenant farmers on leased land, and multinational land speculators. The inclusion of Oxfam's first hand experience in the field makes the problems vivid to the reader, while demonFromAppropriate Technology Sourcebook i1 1: ~~y FIL-th'~ ,_ wrrµ O"'!ED ! e~h Dry toilet using dry earth flushing action FromAppropriate Technology Sourcebook strating the evolution Oxfam has undergone in the past several years. From a disaster relief organization providing technical aid, the organization has grown in sophistication and capacity. Recognizing the pivotal role land tenure plays in development, Oxfam's emphasis has become one of helping people understand the issues they face and forming organizations to defend common interests. In one community that has meant organizing a marketing co-op to prevent speculation by middlemen, while in other areas Oxfam has attempted to organize landless peasants into unions to demand better wages and working conditions. • One chapter of the book outlines the attitudes and history of land reform efforts in the Third World. An absorbing example is India's voluntary land reform movementBhoodan, the Land Gift Movement-begun in 1951. Initiated by a disciple of Gandhi, the aim of th)emovement was to end landlessness by having landowners donate one-sixth of their holdings to the poor. Less than five million acres were collected, and eventually reverted back to their original owners. Another oft-mentioned model is that of South Korea, acclaimed as .an example of free-market land reform. While South Korea has accomplished a major redistribution, moving from acute dependence on rice imports to self-sufficiency, inequalities are creeping back into the system. Perhaps as Oxfam suggests, this is because the system is not compatible with economic policies pursued in their industrial sector. The book concludes with a chapter on the inevitable limitations of food and fiscal aid within an inequitably structured society. Much of this material is covered in greater August/September 1981 RAIN Page 7 depth in the Institute for Food and Development Policy's Aid as Obstacle ( see RAIN VII: 2). While offering no pat solutions, Whitteman's lucid analysis of land reform and its role in the Third World provides insight into a complex issue. -LS - -- -- -----·-------·--------- ECONOMICS - - ------- -- -- --- - -- Understanding Inflation, by John Case, 1981, 196 pp., $9.95, from: • William Morrow and Company, Inc. 105 Madison Ave. New York, NY10016 If everyone in America had read this book last year, I'd bet Jimmy Carter would still be president. Not that John Case has written an irresistable defense of the Carter administration, nor even that he found the skeleton in Ronald Reagan's closet. Rather, simply, that he has demystified the keystone of popular economics-inflation. And in the process brought reason to one of the m(?St irrational and misunderstood debates in the public domain. Untested but imaginative new economic theories (that are probably wrong) thrive in an atmosphere of uncertainty such as currently prevails in economics (among scholars as well as laymen); and where economic the- ,ory leads, political ideology follows. That's why both are now out on a limb. But here's John Case to save us with a heavy dose of undogmatic, common sense economics presented iri a style fit for the masses. "The main cause of inflation," says Case, "is that a lot of different groups have the ability to make effective claims on how the economic pie gets divided up." Thus prices go up but they don't come down. Big corporations have near-monopoly control of markets, small businesses are protected by licensing, government regulation and support programs, labor unions have the power to keep wages up, and most other groups have the political clout to get government programs in their favor. The solution to inflation, then, is not to abolish all these restrictions and allow markets to adjust freely-that will only take us back to the pain and dislocation that existed prior to the New Deal-but instead to limit the claims themselves, through wage-price controls. He makes a strong case for these, dismissing the standard objections and pointing out the problems with other remedies • (like induced recessions) . Case's simplified economic analysis is arguable at times but that's a small price to pay for an easy-to-read book that takes the mystery out of-a thorny problem _like inflation. Now if someone would just do the same for unemployment before the next election. -SMA
Page 8 RAIN August/September 1981 The Values of Waste by Rex Burkholder Recycling has changed in many ways since the first stirrings of this country's environmental movement. The acts of flattening a tin can or saving a bottle from the garbage heap are no longer the political statements they once were. In some places recycling has become • part of the routine of modern life; putting out the recyclables along with the cat at night. However, despite all the recycling of household wastes currently being done, only a very small part of the total wastes of our society is being diverted from the landfill or incinerator. And our options are quickly narrowing. Into our landfills are going many scarce and rion-renewablematerials such as aluminum, tin and glass along with the chicken bones and plastic wrap. Why, after ten years of 'progressive' legislation and an increasing public concern with matters environmental, have we still barely begun to recycle on a significant scale? Many of the institutional barriers to recycling present in 1970 are slowly b!:'ing removed and the gross amount of selected materials that are being recycled has increased tremendously since then. Nationwide the amount of glass being recycled has risen from barely one percent of production to between three and four perc.ent in ten years. In Oregon the rate of glass recycling is somewhere between 30 and 40 percent, due mainly to the effects of the mandatory beverage container deposit, or Bottle Bill. Indeed, a material which promises a: high monetary return has no lack of eager developers of recycling programs, for that material. Witness the explosive spread of news drop boxes scattered about metropolitan shopping centers and church lots. • Unfortunately, many common materials used in the home which are recyclable are also bulky to handle, expensive to transport, and ·bring low prices when, and if, they can be sold. Iri an all-too-familiar pattern, large corporations are busy getting into the recycling business. Well-known names like Weyerhauser (paper), Kaiser, Reynolds and Alcoa (aluminum) are selling attractive packages which rely on their large capital resources and extended markets to undercut smaller-scale, local-based recyclers. Yet . .. the large corporations refuse to handle anything that doesn't pay to be recycled. the ominous threat of corporate takeover is compounded by the high-grading nature of this urban mining scene. While the traditional, environmentally-oriented recycling effort attempts to recycle as much as can be recycled, the large corporations refuse to handle anything that doesn't pay to be recycled. The economic loser in this basic schism of values is the ethically motivated recycler, since each additional marginal material that is handled increases costs to the point where any possible competition with the large corporations becomes very unlikely. An added problem is the concentration of markets. For each material there usually are only a few large buyers, and often at great
distances. High cost of transport and unpredictable markets increase the marginal nature of recycling. Some materials could be reprocessed locally: either at new plants using new technologies (such as enzymatic hydrolysis of scrap paper into alcohol) or by retro-fittng plants originally built to produce goods from virgjn resources so that they could use recycled materials. In many places the native resources are dwindling to the point of forcing the shut-down of local,mills, devastating the towns and the people associated with mills. With minimal retooling such plants could use recycled stock, reducing the need for relocation and ret~aining of workers. In Oregon, for example, the wood products industry has been suffering a steady decline, a result of poor.forest practices if\ the past, exacerbated by a depressed housing market. Many small mills have closed down, the management citing onerous government regulations that have threatened their pulp-wood supply. Whatever the merits of these arguments, they could be largely irrelevant if plants were converted to use a greater proportion of recycled rather than virgin materials for paper production. There are processes which at present are too capital and resource intensive to be viable in any but centralized form. A prime example is the glass industry. In such industries the problem must be dealt with differently, by changes in transportation methods and improvements in handling through mechanizations. As virgin resources increase in scarcity and in cost of extraction, using materials a second, third, and fourth time will become increasingly desirable and economically attractive, hopefully creating and stabilizing markets and assuring a perman'ent place.for recycling in our lives, In our homes and towns the barriers to recycling are both institutional and attitudinal. One major problem is the reluctance of local governments to support home recycling programs as a component of their: solid waste disposal systems. The insistence that such programs "pay their way" ignores the huge subsidies which are sunk, literally, underground in landfills. Recycling currently relies strongly on the extra commitment and effort of the individual who must deliver recyclables to dispersed depots. In most cities these are all th~t are available to the interested person, resulting in a low rate of participation (along with a certain sense of pride). Drop-off recyclingx:enters are inefficient and, for most people, inconvenient. Many autos hauling smal(volumes of material is plain wasteful. Eventually, recyclable material will have to be picked up at the home, along with (and as routinely as) the other as-yet-unrecyclable'consumer wastes. Home collection already works in many cities, with varying levels of participation and enthusiasm. As of May 1978 there were 218 municipalities with separate collection programs nationwide. Most of these collect only newspapers (another case of high-grading). Others, like Modesto, CA, and An- ---- - --- ~ ---------- Recycling Access: August/September 1981 RAIN Page 9 Emphasizing the busi_nessprofessionalism of recycling has led to a fascination with numbers and a blind urge to increase and defend the "throughput" af a program. dover, MA, collect a longer list including those unnecessary but low money-return materials'such as glass. To ensure high participation levels it has proved helpful to enact anti-scavenging and mandatory participation ordinances. These are enforced sporadically but are effective when used. In addition to in~reasing participation they also dramatically increase the amount of material diver:ted from landfilling. Another advantage of legislating recycling collection is the opportunity of creating a stable market through contracting arrangements with users of the materfal. This protects "recycling" from the economic swings that forced severe restrictions on small, undercapitalized recyclers in the past. For such changes to take place his important that consumers, politicians, trash collectors, city engin,eers, and others be informed of the nature and necessity of recycling. The trend has been to emphasize the business-professionalism of recycling, in an attempt to pull away from the grayness of do-goodism into economic credibility. This has led to a fascination with numbers and a blind urge to increase and defend the "throughput" of a program. Such thinking has pitted some recyclers with "buy-back" programs (where cash is paid for returned bottles, etc.) against Bottle Bill advocates in some states, such as Washington and Montana. There, the "buy-back" centers fought the beverage container deposit referendum. They wished to include an amendment which would have had people returning their bottles and cans to local redempti~n centers (run by guess who?) instead of to the place of purchase. Supporters of this ballot measure said "no" to this and lost the support of this group. Those concerned with recycling shouldn't place themselves in the position of promoting wasteful practices and poor consumer habits to protect their business interests. Recycling began as art ethical reaction to the wastefulness of industrial consumerism-let's not forget its roots.DD Rex Burkholder worksiwith Cloudburst Recycling Collection Service in Portland, Oregon. • Before You Recycle ... The Organic Wastes Research Project: An Examination of Composting Alternatives to Landfilling of Organic Wastes, by Cloudburst Environmental I_nstitute, 1978, 64pp., $5.75. • • Don't buy anything that you can use only once, because you can't throw it away. Buy products built to last. When you are through using them, they can be passed on through thrift stores, garage sales or the be recycled for the aluminym and they contaminate the de-tinning process.) Amazingly, the plastic returnable milk bottle is less energy intensive than the glass type. -And lighter! An Experiment in Source-Separated Home Collection: Cloudburst Recycling, by Dave McMahon, Jack Miller and Ruth Ellen Miller, 1978, 103pp.-, $5.75, both from: Cloudburst Recycling Collection Service 2440NE 10th Portland, OR 97212 family. - • When grocery shopping, avoid buying more package than food. (In 1980 we'll spend nearly $50 billion to buy 80 million tons of packaging and then spend $1 billion to dispose of it!) Buy in bulk and re-use your con- •tainers. Favor fiber over plastic. • Refillable beverage containers are better than recyclable glass which is better than aluminum. (Avoid bi-metal·cans, they can't • Start a compost pile for your biodegradable waste at your home, or give to a gardening friend. • Large tools and appliances can be shared and rented when needed. •R1de a bicycle. • Pass it on. There is always someone who can use what you can't. And something you can that that other person is at wit's end to get rid of.
Page 10 RAIN August/September 198,1 Household Materials That Can Be Recycled Paper: accounts for 50 percent of all municipal waste. Newspaper is 16 percent of that total. And of that amount only 21 percent is currently recycled. It is pulped for re-use and made into insulation. Very easy to recycle and depending on markets well worth the time. new house. Consequently, a housing boom means a good price; a housing crash means a low price. Can be sorted with much labor into more profitable categories. Kraft Paper is brown paper bags and becomes corregated or kraft again. Better to re-use at store. Cardboard is 44 percent of all recyclable paper collected. Usually handled on a commercial level, with large volumes from grocery stores, etc. Becomes cardboard again, here or overseas. Glass: Seven percent of the waste stream, High Grade Paper enters a complex area. Many different grades of varying value. But if contaminated (with carbon paper, magazines, wet-strength paper, etc.) becomes Scrap Paper. Scrap Paper is valued around $3-11 a ton. Used for roofing, felt, chipboard (for boxes). Approximately one ton of scrap paper in a 75 percent of this is cont,ainer glass and is recyclable. It is used mainly for cullet (crushed glass which helps reduce temperature requirements in glass-making, saving energy). If it can be transported to the plant using less than 6 gallons of gasoline/ton of glass, it is energy efficient. But glas·s container manufacture is a centralized technology-those far away from these plants must find other uses. Refill them! Tin Cans: These are de-tinned, our only The Inside Poop On Chinese Ponds by Michael Stusser Large hand-dug ponds are the biological nexus for plants; animals and humans in the Chinese farming system. Human excrement (night soil), animal manures, and other organic refuse are put directly into the ponds to decompose anaerobically. Water hyacinths grown in some ponds cleanse the water and provide food for pigs. Other green crops, grown specifically for fish, are thrown into the ponds. Fish raised .in these ponds provide protein for humans. Sometimes waterfowl are kept in a section of thf pond. During droughts, the ponds are a reserve water supply. Every two years, the ponds are drained and a nutrient rich silt is harvested from the bottom. People carry this ·substance out to the fields in twin baskets suspended from a bamboo pole that is carried across the shoulder. The slurry is spread in the sun and then returned to the soil. Other wastes bypass the ponds. Human urine, collected in the house, is diluted with water in the fi~lds and used on vegetable beds as a ljquid fertilizer. Excess vegetable trimmings and weeds are cooked in a special stew for the family pig. Many families are too poor to eat their own pigs, but must instead sell them to meet expenses, still they are a means for recycling garbage into high quality manure. This manure is either composted briefly and applied to the fields or used as a food source for the whole chain of organisms in the pond. issue of RAIN. domestic source of tin. Using recycled tin cans saves 41 percent of energy needed to mine and process virgin ore. Scrap steel left over is·used in copper smelting and in new steel. (In Oregon, 75 tons of post-c_onsumer tin cans are recycled each month. In Portland, 50 tons are \aridfilled each day! A lot more work needed here). Aluminum: Easily recycled at a good price. Saves 97 percent of energy needed to process virgin ore. Also avoids the tremendous environmental costs of aluminum smelting. Steel aluminum is mostly re-used as the same type of products (containers). It makes more sense to refill aluminum than to recycle it'. This is for the most oart an unnecessary pro~ess. , Michael is an agriculturist who, until recently, was on the staff of the Farallones Institute Rural Center in Occidental, California. This account is based on his observations.during the Farallones/New Alchemy China visit which we told y_ou about in the Feb.lA:far. A longer version of this article appeared in Communities Magazine (No. 48), Box 426, Louisa, VA23093.
HISTORY Revolution in Seattle, by Harvey O'Connor, 1981, 300 pp., $7.50, from: Left Bank Books Box B, 92 Pike Street Seattle, WA 98101 I Change Worlds, by Anna Louise Strong, 1981, 430 pp., $7.95, from: Madrona Publishers, Inc. 2116 Western Ave. Seattle, WA 98121 In the current political climate, veteran activists may find the temptation to reminisce too great to resist. How providential, then, that these two volumes have recently been reprinted for the first time since 1963. Both books cover a watershed period in the history of socialism-the first thirty-five years of the 20th century. In America it was a time when labor radicalism came of age, matured, and quietly passed away. That cycle was especially pronounced in Seattle and is poignantly chronicled by veteran socialist Harvey O'Connor in Revolution in Seattle. The title is a bit misleading·. The Seattle "revolution" of 1919 was actually a five-day general strike intended by the 60,000 workers who took part (a large majority of the Seattle labor force) as a show of strength. It was certainly that. Not only did all the Seattle unions join together in an amazing display of solidarity, they also assumed much of the burden of running the local economy. For five days labor ran the city: labor decided what businesses would continue to function, labor distributed milk for the children, labor delivered all the essential services. It was a glorious experiment in management by the workers. So why did it end so soon? Because labor leaders were unsure of what they were trying to accomplish and with no goal in mind there was little point in continuing the strike. Revolution in Seattle covers more than just the strike itself. It begins by tracing the origins of Northwest radicalism and explores its early battles, including the struggles of the IWW to organize the woods, the free speech fights., and the Everett massacre. Later chapters deal.with the awesome post-war reaction that crushed whatever revolutionary spark may have existed in American labor. The chapter on the Centralia, Washington massacre of IWW members is truly frightening. For radical readers this will likely be a sad book for it demonstrates all too clearly how tame the American left has become since the days when labor ruled a city. On the other hand, it may be just the thing to rouse some ACCESS people out of their Reagan-induced blues. For another perspective on the Seattle strike, from one who reported on it, readers can turn to I Change Worlds, the autobiography of Anna Louise Strong. Born into an upper-class family, Strong studied philosophy at the University of Chicago, and became a respected school board member in Seattle. At the time of the strike in 1919 she was a reporter on Seattle's Union Daily . Later she would spend 15 years in the Soviet Union and would travel to Poland, Spain and China to witness revolutionary upheavals there. First published in 1935, her autobiography is thus several stories in one; it is a story of a successful woman in a man's world, of a journalist, of a world traveler, and of a socialist. But most of all, it is the story of one person's reaction to a wodd - -- WIND ----- "Wind Power: A Turning Point," by Christopher Flavin, Worldwatch Paper #45, July 1981, $2.00 from: Worldwatch Institute 1776 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 "Wind energy is a rapidly expanding field -with far more immediate potential than inost people realize," says Christopher Flavin. The Worldwatch researcher predicts that if the recent trend toward impressive technical achievement continues, wind may be in for a period of rapid development. Together with expanded hydropower facilities, wind could supply more than half of the world's additional requirements for electricity over the next two decades. Mechanical wind pumps hold the promise of improving the lives of millions of people in developing countries by supplying water for desperately needed irriAugust/September 1981 RAIN Page 11 caught up in the throes of change. Only two chapters of the book deal with the Seattle labor movement but they cover it well, providing precisely that which the O'Connor book lacks-a clear analysis of why the strike happened and why it was ineffectual. Most of the book is taken up by her years in the Soviet Union, where she was uniquely well-situated to observe the early years of the revolution with all of their confusion, turmoil and struggle. "I had the incredible good fortune," wrote Strong, "to be born in an epoch when the whole earth is tortured by the pangs of birth." Historians of social change are fortunate to have her recorded observations of that world. -SMA gation projects. But if this bright scenario is to be realized, Flavin cautions, important institutional constraints will have to be overcome. Insufficient capital has slowed wind research in many regions and some utilities still seem troubled by the "threat" of competition from wind turbine owners. The spread of wind pumps in the Third World has been hampered by lack of official support and by the failure of some development programs to sufficiently emphasize locally-appropriate designs and indigenous production. Flavin sees the support provided by na- •.· tional governments in stich·areas as .technical, •.research and tax incentives .as the crucial starter's gun need.ed·fo trigger wind's widespread use, and he notes that the potential for wind is such that even a modest boost from governments over the next several years might be enough to yield "a vibrant and self-sufficient industry. 11 With the current American administration clearly in mind, Flavin warns that to discontinue such support now "would be like stopping work on a major bridge when it is only a few meters short of completion." -JF
Page 12 RAIN August/September 1981 ... let our houses first , ·) j AncilNance
August/September 1981 RAIN Page 13 be lined with beauty, where they coIIle in contact with our lives, like the teneIIlent of the shellfish . .. Thoreau We have a habit of thinking that the deepest insights, the most mystical, and spiritual insights, are somehow less ordinary than most things-that they are extraordinary. This is only the shallow refuge of the person who does not yet know what he is doing. In fact, the opposite is true: the most mystical, most religious, most wonderful-these are not less ordinary than most things-they are more ordinary than most things. It is because they are so ordinary, indeed, that they strike to the core. What makes them hard to find is not that they are unusual, strange, hard to express-but on the contrary, that they are so ordinary, so utterly basic in the ordinary bread and butter sense-that we never think of looking for them.-Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building (see RAIN, VI:10,8) by Carlotta Collette I think that the teachers are right, those who teach us to "sit still." They suggest for us a quieter place inside that contains a bounty of information to live with. Randy Hager had such a teacher. He said, "Find the most beautiful piece of land and study what takes place there." Accepting that directive, Randy sat an hour each day for ten years. "We're in the process of realigning things that were shaken up when our ancestors came." At some point he began to feel tired of the waiting, impatient, and not a little foolish for his efforts. He had bought some land near where he'd grown up in Oregon, and was trying, with some "gentle persistence" from a friend, to decide what exactly he wanted to do next. In the midst of his stirring and casting about he had a vision: " If I use the word vision, I hope you'll understand." He was sitting in the trailer he lived in when he saw ("very clearly, but you could kinda see through it") a house, round, built of glass and stone, on a piece of land overlooking his own 20 acres. Now maybe it was the ten years of daily sitting and waiting, or maybe it was just that he'd promised he'd build himself a home before he turned 35 (which left him about a week), but whatever the reason, Randy decided that he wanted to build that house for himself. First he had to acquire the land. "I didn't want to go up to the lady who owned it and say, 'hey, I had this vision' ... but later when I did tell her about it she understood. She told me about her people ... she had Cherokee people in her." Then there came the problem of how to build it. "I'd never built such a thing, but I heard about a silo built of tongue and groove concrete slabs, so I made a deal and took that silo apart. It weighed 29 tons, each slab weighed 60 pounds, and I ended up moving the whole mess about nine times before I'd gotten them in place." He'd been told that three is a structurally dependable number, so with due consideration he built his house using combinations of three. The circle is 24 feet in diameter, it is 21 feet to the top of the roof. There are 27 windows in the roof, and another 27 in the "By choice we can create such an atmosphere around us that the idea of war won't everi be in comic books anymore." round. The central counter is in the shape of a nine. The threes are integral everywhere. "When I was looking for the supplies and all to build it, nothing went badly. There were no busy signals when I called people, no lines to wait in when I went to buy things." Thoreau said: There is some of the same fitness in a man's building his own house that there is in a bird's building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? cont.- Carlotta Collette
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