July/August 1984 RAIN Page 17 homeowners are slightly lower than in other plans. The owner of CHIP, however, is a large financing company. Communities are also recovering money through curbside recycling. For one community in particular— Woodbury, New Jersey (population 13,000)—recycling is cost-effective. Since passing an ordinance mandating home separation of recyclables three years ago, the city has achieved 90% participation and saved $280,000. Loc^l reprocessors buy'the recyclables, and the city, in turn, purchases recycled materials. The city actually saves money by providing compost rather than paying for landfill space. A growing number of renewable fuel projects show that a municipal corporation can generate funds for the city. Portland, Oregon, expects to earn $130,000 each year from sales of its methane to a roofing manufacturer. A digester at the sewage-treatment plant produces the methane (see RAIN X;3, page 33). If Ottawa, Kansas, fulfills its goal to produce alcohol using the waste heat from municipally owned power plants, it will enjoy a revenue nearly equivalent to its operating budget. The possibilities for making a community's economy more durable with local resources are as numerous as people are creative. To truly exploit the potential of local economic conservation, communities should undertake comprehensive economic conservation audits. First, a community's economic development office, together with representatives in food, energy, manufacturing, retail, finance, and recycling, would assess the quantity of food, energy, raw materials, and goods imported. (An audit done for Salem, Oregon [population 90,000] revealed that each year $6.33 million left the local economy for imported energy and $9.46 million for imported food.) Second, the group would gather the same figures for exports. High-school or college science classes could assess available land and soil quality to determine the potential for urban food production. Third, the group would survey all local financial institutions to determine the flow of investment capital. Fourth, it would process the results via computer databases to form a comprehensive picture of wherexapital was leaking and where retailers and manufacturers could match products, to find costs of achieving energy and food independence, and to discover what the city could begin producing and marketing (methane, alcohol, electricity, recyclables, and so on) and what imports the city could easily replace with local products. Once several communities in a region had these databases available, they could share selective results via computer telecommunications. The goal here would be to determine whether one community's materials or import needs could match another's export ability. More than likely, as Eugene's NEDCO has found, municipalities would discover that they could save transportation costs and time delays by trading with neighboring communities rather than with more distant ones. The growing trend of communities meeting more of their needs within their borders coincides with another pattern. Individuals everywhere are also discovering inner healing and spiritual resources. As these two trends develop further and converge, communities may become inspirational, culturally rejuvenated centers such as we have rarely known before in history. □ □ © 1984 Kris Nelson ACCESS: Community Economics Directory of Socially Responsible Investments, by George Pillsbury, 1983, 27 pp., $5 from: Funding Exchange 135 East 15lh Street New York, NY 10003 Lists mutual funds, alternative investments, investment advisors and brokers, and organization resources. —KN Source Separation the Woodbury Way, 1982, 72 pp., $3 from: The Woodbury Recycling Fund 33 Delaware Street Woodbury, NJ 08096 Documentation of Woodbury's ordinance mandating home separation of recyclables and its resulting cost savings. Woodbury representatives also appear in person to show "The Woodbury Way," a 10-minute slide presentation (1982); "Choose to Reuse in Woodbury," a slide-tape show . explaining the results of the feasibility study and proposal for mandatory recyling (1981); and "Recycling, the Woodbury Way," a half-hour Video produced by WKBS-TV, 3201 South 26th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19148. —KN Catalyst: Investing in Social Change, bimonthly, $36/year for individuals and nonprofits ($12/year for individuals making under $13,000/year), $108/year for corporations, from: The Center for Economic Revitalization 28 Main Street Montpelier, VT 05602 For the same subscription price, you now get Catalyst every other month when you subscribe to Good Money: The Newsletter of Social Investing and Inventing (see RAIN IX:3, page 13). Catalyst covers businesses, organizations, and innovative projects; it includes brief reports on developments in the fast-growing social investment field. Look for Good Money's 1984 Guide to the Social Investment Community ($10, available Junel).—K.N Cooperative Homeowners Insurance Program (CHIP) City of Mill Valley Administrative Assistant PO Box 1029 Mill Valley, CA 94942 415/388-4033 CHIP includes a city-endorsed home safety program, using home safety audits, to provide a return to the city's general fund rather than exporting all homeowner insurance premiums out of the local economy.—KN "Cities and the Wealth of Nations," by Jane Jacobs, The Atlantic Monthly, March 1984, $2 from: The Atlantic Monthly Company 8 Arlington Street Boston, MA 02116 A thorough discussion of the role city economies play in national-economics and ways cities can create mere durable' / ' ■ (
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz