and some molds made out of various pieces of scrap. Using a blow into its action and thought process. example. Exploring such concepts, one begins to get a feeling for the web of issues-energy conservation, waste reduction, economic development, etc.-that come together in taking just one fundamentally sound idea like highgrading and pushing it in the direction of a desirable end-use. Highgrading, as Tom Brandt would say, is the frontier of recycling. Best set up on the lip of a transfer pit, it requires a whole different processing and marketing system. In principle, it is a low volumelhigh return strategy that produces greater economic leverage than those forms of recycling that process post consumer wastes-paper, bottles, cans. Integrated into a comprehensive recycling system, highgrading can help provide the front monies to augment high volume recycling ,operations that are necessary but less productive. Highgrading is a key to moving recycling out of the era of subsidization and into that of self-reliance. -SA Dear Dan, Tom and Don, I've read your article "Mine the Trash Cans- Not the Land" the rcquin:d three times. plus marking it up extensively, and it really is great that you ran on,e phase of recycling through "the high grading concept." , .. Attached are a few suggestions in answer to your inquiry about "volumes of high grade materials," I hope they arc of some interest to you .. , Cord ially. Al Hapke Somerset, California For about two and a half years I lived in Matancitas, Mexico ... where there is a $4 million sardine cannery. In connection with this operation, they of course had a weU-equipped machine shop, and out back they had over the years built up a big pile of scrap. One day I noticed that there was an itinerant smelter, a guy who knew a lot about metals, working around some holes in the ground We've Got to Start with Source Reduction Dear Ste\'e and Dan, Environm entalists may place all their hope and money on eparating ami recycling as the answers to the garbage crisis .. . but years of behavior patterns centered around beliefs in unlimited resources and a throwaway mentality, laced with a lack of government support, make institutionalizing recyclingeven an effective neighborhood depot system- a long hard batde. Looking at the options and solutions, I conclude that no single method can provide a simple answer to ou r waste problem. Combining different approaches will form a more comprehensive solid waste strategy. Mother Nature never said we had to lay all our bets on on!" solution! There is one strategy which does get very close to the winning number. It doesn't involve a gamble on government and IIldustry to get their acts together. It'is centered around the real issue: not how to get rid of all the garbage we are producing, but reducing it before it entt:rs rhc solid waste stream. Source Reductlon. Evcry product comlflg into our homes, busincsses and institu tions lcaves behind a waste stream. It is processed from raw materials through eaeh industrial step until it reaches the consumer. whcre all too often it is used for a short duration and then bccomcs waste itsdf. Consider alone:: that packaging makes up to 3-112 tons of every 10 ron August/September 1979 RAIN Page 9 torch and a hand rigged blast of heat, he was melting down the aluminum and copper and brass. Later he got around to making some of the iron pieces into pigs and bars. He used a couple of the young apprentices from the machine shop when he needed help, and the whole thing cost the plant practically nothing.... The products were then used by the machine shop to make nuts and bolts, repair parts for various machines and the sardine boats. Those guys can make a hair-spring out of an ordinary nail. The though't that comes to my mind is that there must be a number of machine shops and other metal fabricating shops in your area and maybe they could use some of the materials that you might smelt down out of local scrap, and you could also get their tail ends for increasing your volume of scrap. _. _ I don't know whether you have a person who knows about smelting of the back yard type, but from the information below, maybe you can find a Chinese resident who has worked in one of the operations in China and knows the trade.... Quoting from a book on Chinese economies! "In Wahun, a small blast furnace of 3.5 cubic meters, capable of producing 180 tons of steel per year employing 18 people in 3 shifts, cost only 200 yuan ($100) and was constructed by twelve people over 9 days in 1958. . . . A large number of small blast furnaces of capacity up to 100 cubic meters each, and a total capacity of 24,000 cubic meters, produced 50 percent of total pig iron output. and the quality was good. ... In your operation you distributed information asking people to set aside metal products. A related item that could wash both hands of metal segregation and much needed [education I is in the wrecker's yard and in the area of abandoned cars. People should know what makcs a car tick. ... Instead of having mechanics in the school room. set the student to work segregating metal for your smelting works and learning about generators, as an example. by segrcgating the copper out, etc.... These places are schools without doors. as the cxpression goes, and they are a prime source for metal separation. as well as mining the surplus created by a business environment that operates in a climate of planned obsolescence and waste. Your metal highgrading has the responsibility to encompass this obsolete car opportunity In the solid waste stream and is growing three times faster than the population. Creative consumption can help us do something now to curb thc costs to the cnvironmcnt and our pocketbooks. It means discriminate purchasing : bu ying bulk, refusing to buy items layered in plastic and styrofoam, avoiding itcms designed for onc-time usc, lookIng for long-life products, considering cloth napkllls, buying beer and beverages in returnabk bottks. Think about how items ean bt: reused. Encourage your local store to cooperate with environmental shopping awarencss, The whole appropriate technology movement is bcgging for involvement. The beauty of crt:ativc consumption is that cveryone can do ir now. No investment, no retrofitting, and very little research is nccessary to get started . , . just a conscious effort [(l help dam up the solid waste Stream that IS draining our pocketbook as well as the environment. Yours, Nandie Szabo Recycling Information, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality P.S. For some excellcnt ideas on how to push creative con sumption in your community. write to; Envi ronmental Shopping, 645 Madis()n Avt., 9lh floor, New York, NY 10022.
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