The Grassroots Recycling network that has been working on the Turner proposal
has gotten to work to refine its message and launch its campaign to promote
the 3 simple messages of: Zero Waste; Make Jobs Not Waste; Tax Bads not
Goods. They are developing position papers that could be the basis for
Democratic and Republican Party platform statements. They hope to have
drafts of these position papers completed by the May 17-19, 1996 NRC Board
meeting to encourage NRC to advocate those 3 messages as part of the NRC's
top priorities for advocacy this year. They hope to adopt these position
papers, with comments received in April and May, at the CRRA Conference in a
meeting on June 16. They will then circulate those messages widely through
the Internet, SROs and other interested networks. At the NRC Congress in
Pittsburgh in September, there will be organizing meetings to enlist
attendees in this campaign, and to have a final push in October to focus the
Preisidential debate in part on environmental issues and reuse, recycling and
composting specifically.
If you have any comments on the attached, please phone, fax or e-mail those
to me soon. We will have another conference call next week to review these
statements, and a third statement being drafted by Rick Anthony and David
Kirkpatrick on the tax and economic issues.
Thanks!
Gary Liss
Content-ID: <0_21977_829260252@emout07.mail.aol.com.31525>
Content-type: text/plain;
name="GREEN1.SAM"
I L 91665@@0250
I%io.
Create jobs Not -Waste
Draft, April 10tl-L,@1996
for Grassroots Recycling Agei-ida Conference
by Brenda Platt and Neil Seldmmi
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
During the last past 20 yecirs, the combined efforts of citizens, government
officials,
and business people have helped form the basis for an environmentally sound era
of economic growth, A prime example of that effort is recycling. The
general public
has embraced recycling for two reasons. First, it saves energy and other
resources,
and second, it save!; m@iterial.@ by takin@ discarded resources from the
waste stream
and turning them into valuable products,
But that's not all recycling provides. It can help revitalize existing
industries and
attract new industries to urbai-i and rural (,omrnunities- And, it can preserve
existing job,,; and create new jobs, Ptit simply, recycling is an ecoi-iomic
de'velopment
tool as well as an environmental tool. Rouse, recycling, and waste
reduction offer
one of the most direct development opportunities for cuiriinunities. Discarded
materials ire a local rt-,sourco that can cc)ntrihiitp to local revenue, job
creation,
business expansion, and the local economic base.
Just sorting and processing rocyclablts sustains 5 to 10 times more jobs than
landfilling or incineration. However, it is making now products from the
old that
offers the largest economic pay-Off, New recycling-based manilifacturers employ
even more people and at higher wages. Recycling-ba,;eci paper mills and plastic
Product manufacturers, for instance, en-ipl@)y 60 times more workers than do
landfills. ManufActuring with locally collected discards also adds value by
producing
finished goods-a drastic change from the current paricligm in which our
communities export raw materials and ii-ftpc)rt finished product-,, While
value is
added to discarded materials a-,, a re,@ult of cleaning, sortin-, and
baling, significantly
more value is added as a result of end-use manvifacturiiig. For example, old
newspapers may sell for $20 per ton, but new newsprint sells for $600 per
ton. Each
step ci cil)mmtinity takes locally means more 'obs, more business expendiwr@, on
i
supplies ai-kd services, and more money circulating in the local economv through
spending and tix payments.
Recyclijig-ba,-ied manufacturing reduces dependence on distant markets for
recyclables and can provide greater market stability. Local jobs are
created, local
mant.ifacturers have access to less expensive raw material-,;, and reduced
landfill
'deiats and local governments dollars that can now be Spent
space saves resi
elsewhere in th(, local, economy. t.,(ical ownership eiv-,ures that busint-,ss
remain in the region, and spin-off purchasing enhances the stability of the
local
retail business environment tnd contributes to the local tax base. In
addition, using
locally collected discarded material.,; for route or tc) manufacture new
products can
'bute to the local econo y and improve regional efficiency and
self-reliance by
contri m
I
o@4, 11,196 12: 1 -q I L c@ P - 9166520250
110. 2 5 P07-,,
producing goods that local would otherwise purchase fron-t
@)ut-of-stite
source,-,, Moreover, recycliiig-based manufacturing can be done on a
much smaller
scale than its virgin i-naterials CoUnterpirts, For example, steel
mills based on scrap
can be Li-, small as 10% the size of virgin-iroi-i-ore-based rnilt--;
and ,,till compete
effectively. This means that manufacturing cannot oi-ily find its raw
materials
locL)Ily, it can also sell locally and regioi-i@illy. We can begin to
miniaturize the
economy.
Product reuse offers communities sii-ailar economic bei-lefits. Each
year ArneTiccins
spend billions of dollars on diiper,,, new tire,,s, and new plastic,
glass, and metal soft
drink containers. @ome of this money rem;)in-,; in communities where
the products
are purchased, yet i majority flees the community for the home of the
corporation.
Coke ind Pepsi dominate the soft drink market. Two. companies-Proctor and
C@amble and Kimberly Clark-together produce 87% of the diapers sold.
And four
tire manufacturing companies own /'7'X@ of the new tire manufacturing
industrv.
On the other hand, reusable alternatives to these products refillable
bottle
washiiig, cloth diiper services, tire retre@ding@rea.te wealth and jobs
for local
communities. C(irnpanies offering rt-@Lisabl@, products tead to be
,;rnall and locally
owned and operated, pro%,iding local jobs and increased capital
retention to
col,nmunitic-,; around the count ry, Small businesses are one of the
most important
facets of iny stable economy, Locally owi-ted firms tend to be more
Stable. They
purchase more of their good,., -ind services from the local area, and
they tend to be
more. civic-minded. There are 1,700 tire retreading operations in
North America,
About 95% of these are owned and operated by small businesses.
Reusable diaper
,scrvicc,s employ 10,000 to 12,500 PeOFle- Each business employs .5 to
50 workers. A
complete switch to diaper services would generate 72,000 lobs
nationwide in this
.Service industry ilone. Refillable bottling operations are also often
smill-scale.
StevN,,irt's in Saratoga @prings, Nc@w York, sells its own brand of
soft drink, oran-e
juice, ai-id milk, all in refillable co.i-itainers ]'he company employs
170 people full-
time in its bottle plant ind dairy,
"Closing the loop locally"-by recovering more materials and developing
local
rcinanilifacturing, reuse, and composting businesses as mirkets fc)i-
these materials-
is the key to maximizing recycling-based economic development.
Implementation
(if the following strategies will encotirigt- such development.
Actively work to prevent wa.-,te and encourage reuse,
Charge by volume or weight for waste collection.
;Libstitute reusable products for d't3posable ones.
Mount i public educatioi-i campaign on wast(-, prevention.
Encourage commodity reuse through repair (e.g., appliance
repair), and
prociuct,5 such as cl(-)th diapen, and refillable containers.
Maximize the amount of reryclable and compostable material collected
for recovery.
Avoid w@--i-,te incineration, which proi-notes a throwaway
society and
competes with recycling for materials iTid funds.
o4;llv96 12:19 1 L S P - 9166520@150
tio. 27-15 IPO,4
0 Where trash is collected at ctirb,,ide, implement w(-ekly, year-round
curbside
collection of i wide rai-ige of recyclable and coi-npostable
n-Latf-,riatr, (including
f(@)od waste),
0 Make participitioi-i mandatorv.
0 Provide 1-touscholds with recycling containers and backyard
compos,ters, and
ed.ucate citizens to recycle and compl)st,
0 Establish a network k)f recycling drk-)p-off
a Reqttire garbage haulei.-s, businesses, and institutions to recycle
and compost.
a Provide adequate processing cap@icity for residential, commercial,
institutional, and ii-iki-ustrial
Create a loccil and regional recycling-based manufacturing infrastructure.
9 Buy r@)cycled-content products,
0 Manciate minimum recycILd-coi-ttent standards for cicrtain products
such as
newsprint, glass bottles, insulation, trash bags, and phone books.
, Utilize recycled materials in road construction projects.
o F-dt-icati-@ local manufactur(?rs on the c)dvaii,tages of using
recycled materials,
0 Ei-itist economic development agei-icies in recycling piinnink-.
0 Actively encourage recycling industries to locate in your community,
especially those thcit teprosei-it high-v,-ittie end uses and
"clo,,;ed lk)op"
recyciii-ig (such as- marking old newspapers into new newsprint),
* Offer financing incentive$ to recycling-based enterprises,
particularly those
that cirl;- community based.
0 Work witi-i industrial ip,-Ark businesses, developers, and
c)perato-rc; to include
ct)mrziunity-based organizations i,5 i-)artners in 'oint vei-itures.
I
I 1 - 113,DC, 1-7; -@7 URBAIL OPE ADM I ri
F'. 1
,6pril 10, 1920 Cgn-iment draft, SoMgthinir Big to PUSH
SOMETHING BIG TO PUSH:
NO WASTE BY 2010
initially envisioned by Daniel Knapp
Technically, it is possible that nearly 100% of our discards coned be
reuse4 recycled, or
composted rather than buried or burned. What can't be handled in these
ways can be
banned. 'Manks to two decades of good work by hundreds of pioneering
individuals and
companies, recovering and recycling materials instead of destroying them
has won the .
public's imagination. Wasting has never been more unpopular than in
these conselvauve
fims.
'Me time has come for innovative people who have been worldng quietly on
the practical
elements of creating a waste-free culture to link up. This is a
proposal to grow these
@ages a little faster by =ating a forum where people who are actually
working on 7efo
waste systems can connect with each other, share information and
oppo@ties, and
move the zero waste concept more toward center stage.
Now is an auspicious time to begin. 'Me world's first declaration of
intent to end the age
of waste has just been issued bv a i)lannin group in Canberra, the
capital city of
9
Australia. The Australia Crown't@tory Government is now circulating a
plan called
"No Waste by 2010."I 'nc centerpiece of the plan is the recycling
estate, a new discard
management initiative put forth as a complete landfill replacement.
Originally proposed
by Revolve, a scavcnging-based reuse, business founded seven yean ago,
the Recycling
Estate has been accepted as the basis for serious planning by the
territorial government.
Canberra, with 250,6M people, now has two large landfills up in the
hills at opposite
edges of the city. The ACT Government is proposing to replace these
landfills with two
recycling estates within the next @e to five years.
Australia's reyeling estates closely resemble a parallel development in
the United States
3
variously known as a seiial materials recovery facihty,2 a resource
recovery park, or an
integrated resource recovery faCil,ty.4 A.11 have in cou=on the
following features:
- competitive, fee-based disposal for source-separated materials;
- dropoff, buyback, and pickup modes of collection for the end=
discard supply;
- O=e prime disposal modes-, reuse, recycling, and composting;
- permitted disposal for twelve master discard categories;5
I]Vo Waste By 2010: Draft Waste Managewnt Strategy, ACT Government,
Waste Management, PO Box
352, Civic Squam, ACT 2608, Aus@,
2UYban Ore has published severw articles on this coocepl
3 Architcct Lynn FroewMe, designed one of these for a client
4jack M@, Robed Diener, and the Urban Ore worked on the IRRF design.
5 maswr di@ categories comprise paper, plant debris, puftwibles,
ceramics, soils, wood, metal, glus,
plastic. chetn@, textiles, and reusable goo&.