represented the organizations with the "hands on" experience to know what they are talking about when it comes to the appropriate handling of waste matcrials. The neighborhood in mind was Whiteaker, Eugene's oldest neighborhood, the city's historic and cultural center, and recently the recipient of a one-of-a-kind grant from the National Center for Appropriate Technology to plan for maximum neighborhood self-reliance. The plan is not mine alone, but.I have recorded it as it appears here; and while these are only objectives, they rcpresent the shape of things to come-if we get behind and push to sce that it happens. So don't be misled by its smallness, because it is capable of unfolding in all directions, as rapidly as we let it happen in our daily work. Now, here's what we'd like to do: • Conduct a composition study and inventory, emphasizing waste audits for selected participating apartments, businesses or other large generators of wastes. This is a way of estimating the volumes and weights of recyclable "fractions" in the solid waste stream. • Based on results, and keyed to the quantities and qualities recorded, locate or otherwise develop feasible marketing strategies or other exchange functions. • Plan an educational and outreach campaign to increase public awareness and the practice of "source grouping" for recycling. • Research and design efficient and cost-effective collection systems to make source grouping easier and more acceptable than "disposal." Aim for diversity rather than uniformity. • Research and design materials transfer and storage systems appropriate to the quantity and quality of source-grouped August/September 1979 RAIN Page7 materials recovered and discovered. An example, if using drop boxes, would be to construct liners or bins with handles which could be lifted out by a portable crane. • Strengthen and work through existing local and laborintensive recycling organizations. • Include local young people by designing special attractions for them, including income opportunities. The same for older people, with the added proviso that their knowledge and skiU be respected and encouraged. Let them be our teachers. • Research and design central processing center(s) to facilitate a value-added approach to materials recovery. Include tool system. • Identify and provide for segregation, cleaning, repair and marketing of reusable items. • Stimulate secondary employment impacts by keeping materials organized and attractive, and by marketing in the neighborhood. • Keep accurate records. Generate good working statistics. • Develop strategic and necessary skills among project people: for example, lumber grading, metals cleaning and processing, marketing and bookkeeping. • Encourage source reduction for undesirable, hard-torecycle items. Encourage consumers to buy in bulk to eliminate excess packaging, etc. • Provide information on program accomplishments to public decision-making bodies so that more effective decisions can be made on what to do with currently wasted resources. • Think integratively and functionally, using the above goals to inform and direct daily actions. Planning, action, implementation and evaluation will happen continuously in each sector of involvement. -DK recycling approaches, including drop-off centers that use a buy-back system, a variety of curbside alternatives, hand sorting from mixed waste loads, and Grand Rapids own bag/tag system, ILSR recommended two approaches to Kent County, both emphasizing residential source separation of trash followed by diverse end-uses including materials recovery, composting and landfilling. Refuse derived fuel is included as one end-product, although not calculated for potential revenues as it remains an underdeveloped market. The Kent County report includes . projections of annual costs and revenues for both plans, as well as a four-year implementation plan. A good outline and proposal well worth your checking ou t. Garbage-to-Energy Packet, Waste Utili zation State of the Art Series, from: Institute for Local Self-Reliance 1717 18th St., N.W. Washington. DC 20009 Here's another valuable resource on the garbage-to-energy imbroglio - this one a compilation of letters and testimonies directed at federal bureaucrats and agencies - logged by Neil Seidman of the Institute for Local Self Reliance. Together these corresponJences form an extensive summary of the Institute's position that such plants are economically and environmentally unsound, with plenty of documentation to encourage people to push for source separation and the recycling of wastes. Very thorough and useful. Resource Conservation Consultants 1615 N.W. 23rd Ave., Suite One Portland, OR 97210 5031227-1319 A small consulting group with roots in the recycling movement of the last ten years, Resourcc Conservation Consultants has first-hand experiencc in a range of waste issues, from working closely with Portland Recycling Team, the nation's largest recycling drop-off system, to consulting with Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality. In the process, RCC has developed a series of briefs and short papers that would be helpful to community groups and waste activists. Here are a few: . • "Energy Savings from the Recycling of Selected Waste Materials" (S2.00) is a compilation of available literature with calculations for 23 recyclable materials which gives quick access to their relative recycling merits in energetic terms. Aluminum, for example, has a high estimated energy savings of 97 percent with secondary use, while glass- are you ready?- has a low estimate of 8 percent savings. That's one reason why gla.ss is better reused than recycled to make new glass. Rubber, on the other hand, is clocked in at 70 percent. .·"Compatibility of Recycling and Energy Recovery from Wastes" (S2.00) offers a worthwhile counterpoint to our own articles in the hot debate over garbage-co-energy strategies. In essence. this RCC paper concludes that a combination of recycling and energy recovcry offers the greatest resource and c:nergy savings, with the critical issue revolving around the scale of operation required for energy n:covery strategies to succeed. It's not a complete analysis by any means, and has little referencc to the actual cost/bencfit consideration of burning refuse derived fuels-such as toxic emissions. Nonetheless, this paper represents an important dialogue. R~ cyclers inclined to believe that burn strategies will actually pre-empt the development of an effective recycling cconomy need to come to grips with its arguments. Recommended in that capacity. • " Waste Exchanges: A Waste Recovery Information Tool" (S1.50) is a concept paper discussing a relatively new phenomenon- the transfer and re-use of waste products not usable by a "generating" business but economicaUy feasible for use by another industrial firm . Waste exchanges, simply, arc a method for facilttating that transfer-whether acting as an infomlation clearinghouse or an actual materials exCONT.
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