credits. $??? million in lost jobs. With a capital outlay of several million dollars per job, It limits investment funds available for other possibilities. All this investment will be made, assuming the plant can be made to work. Remember, only four of seven z such plants in the U.S. are currently operating. Yet other effects could be cited ... the decline in property values of homes in the vicinity, the use of Oregon's bonding capacity, making such things as YA loans and alternative energy projects pay higher interest costs, etc. The important question of HOW MUCH WILL THE PROJECT COST? must always be kept in perspective with the track record of those that are proposing to build the facility. The principal proponents are the Metropolitan Service District, Publishers Paper (Times-Mirror, Inc.) and Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc. WFI built the only similar facility in the U.S., in Saugus, Mass., and though consid ered a model for the industry, it has had millions of dollars’ worth of problems. And that plant was built for only $50 million. WFI has been involved in a long legal battle with the town of Saugus, which is trying to get WFI to pay their property taxes. One’s perspective is further sharpened when viewing MSD’s presentation of the project to the public and their actions. MSD has spent millions of dollars on their garbage-burning project already, all taxpayers’ money, yet they continue to hand out literature saying NO TAX DOLLARS WILL BE USED TO FINANCE THE PLANT. There is frankly no simple cure-all for the problem of solid waste. We need to turn our attention to the viable alternatives that include source separation, recycling, packaging legislation, secondary materials industrv promotion, possibly including temporary price supports, government purchasing practices with mandated recycled materials content, conservation, methane recovery systems and well-sited, clay-lined and properly operated sanitary landfills. Reasonable, safe, productive, economically sensible alternatives must be pursued or we’ll all reap the unfortunate results of the myopic decision making that has led us to the brink of “resource recovery." ® RECYCLING Rby Stan Kahn ecycling is currently a big little business in Oregon. In fact, at 55 percent, we have the highest newspaper recycling rate in the nation. The bottle bill has encouraged us to recycle 96 percent of our returnable containers, and this could be extended to milk, wine and juice containers. Metro says that 30 percent of our garbage is recyclable (the glass, metal, cardboard, newsprint, used oil, etc., handled in most centers), and that even if we recycled all that, we would still have enough to burn. This is based on a report entitled. Metro Region Recycling Conditions dated February '82. This report doesn’t include mention of scrap paper, compost, yard waste or demolition wood in 50 pages. Just those four materials make up 60 percent of our waste stream. Now those four materials are not often thought of as recyclable in the traditional sense, at least in part because they don’t have monetary value the way that newspaper and glass do. But they do have great potential. In just the past few weeks a private company has begun accepting separated yard wastes at less than half the rate for mixed garbage. And the City of Portland is considering composting its sewage sludge with a process that uses sawdust or scrap paper as a drying agent. Metro’s promotional literature says that garbage is too good to throw away, so they’re going to burn it to make energy. The problem is, those very same 560,000 tons annually would have far greater value to society if they were kept separate and recycled. Moreover, it will cost far more to burn our garbage than the energy we get from it . . . four to five times more per ton than current landfill costs. Probably the least palatable aspect of the garbage burner issue involves setting quotas for garbage production. If we don’t produce enough garbage, we will be forced to import it from a greater distance or to buy fossil fuels to keep a steady supply of steam going to Publishers Paper. Akron and New Orleans, for example, to keep material flowing to their garbage burners, have made recycling illegal! And it could easily happen here. Last year, the Metro Council passed flow control legislation which, in its original form, would have allowed recycled materials to be diverted from the broker’s door to the garbage burner. It took strong protest from brokers and recyclers to kill that provision. But if this facility is built, some time in the next 25 years we’ll likely find ourselves in the preposterous situation of importing garbage and/or banning recycling. It’s common knowledge that we face shortages of energy and raw materials. The energy saved each of the five times paper can be recycled is roughly equivalent to the energy created from burning it once. Publishers Paper Oregon City mill now saves $80 in energy costs for every ton of wood chips they replace with recycled fiber, and the air and water pollution associated with the use of recycled materials is far less than that which comes from processing virgin materials. Not to mention the trees left standing. If the same $283 million slated for investment in the garbage burner, which will produce up to 80 permanent jobs, were instead spent on small recycling industries, as many as 5,000 unskilled and semi-skilled people could be given jobs. There are small-scale energy bonds, pollution control bonds, industrial revenue bonds and generous recycling tax credits, all of which could be used to get these industries started ... at a phenomenally lower cost per job. Such a commitment would open up the possibility of reducing our waste production by 80 percent, making the remaining space at the St. Johns landfill and the proposed Wildwood landfill adequate well into the next century. This would eliminate all need for the costly, environmentally hazardous garbage burner. Of course, it would require proper incentives and substantial education, but the people of this state have shown their willingness to give far-reaching ideas a try. Lastly, the establishment of an 80 percent recycling system would require the simultaneous creation of small, diverse, competitive locally based industries using recycled materials. If we truly wish to create a stable full-employment economy, then it is essential that we begin using recycled materials to create some of the basic necessities of life. g] Don’t let your- self fall in love with a special lunch entree. The fickle chef changes his menu daily. Pretend you don’t care —“It’s better to have dined and loved than to have never dined at all. D E L EV A N S We break your heart daily 1425 N.W.Glisan 224-5597 .. 1891 . Visit our Victorian store filled with delightful discoveries. Life Environments • Unusual Cards & Stationery • Designer Jewelry • Gourmet Coffee & Teas 232-5069 • Decorator Baskets • Exotic Plants • Exciting Gifts The Knotting Chamber 232-1043 • The largest variety of quality knitting & weaving yarns you ’ve ever seen! .. . including our spring collection of cotton, silk & linen yarns • Designer Patterns 10% OFF with this coupon ALL REGULAR PRICED MERCHANDISE expiration date: August 15, 1982 Hours: Mon.-Sat. llam-7pm; Sun. l-6pm 3257 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, OR 97214 Clinton St. Quarterly 33
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