TO GRN Steering Committee
FROM Bill Sheehan 7-16-96
THIS IS VERSION 2, COMMENTS BY DAVE KIRKPATRICK
The following is a message I would like to send to the NRC email
list and recycle@envirolink, a technical-oriented listserve with 330
mostly US and Canadian subscribers. ... The time is
right to capitalize on this phenomenon and make a pitch for our
efforts.
Please read this and respond by Thursday (7/18) if you are NOT
comfortable with wording. Also, any takers for the job of info
disseminator (see end)?
Cheers,
Bill S.
*****************************************
Bill Sheehan
email: bill.sheehan@sierraclub.org
(comes to jennie alvernaz's email account)
work: 770-995-9606; fax 770-995-6603
home tel & fax: 706-208-1416
268 Janice Drive, Athens, GA 30606
*****************************************
TO Recycling Practitioners and Advocates
RE Real Questions Raised by NY Times Article: Next Steps
Originally aimed at New York City, the Tierney piece appears to be
fueling an opportunistic feeding frenzy by wasters and resource
extremists who want to cut back 3 R's (waste prevention, reuse and
recycling) programs nationwide and in Canada. Tierney's piece
and recycling-bashing columns based on it has been picked up by
dozens of major newspapers across the U.S. and Canada. Several
papers -- including the Sacramento Bee -- have reprinted the
original 7,500 word article. As Eric Zorn stated in the Chicago
Tribune, the Times piece "constitutes probably the most serious
public relations challenge the recycling movement has faced in a
generation."
While the attacks are deadly serious, they may also be a godsend.
It is time we got stirred up and angry. Waste prevention has been
largely forgotten. Recycling has been increasingly dominated by
large corporations -- waste haulers who want to continue high rates
of wasting, and recycling processors who benefit from high rates of
consumption.
DK sez: BILL - I STILL DON'T LIKE MAKING THE RECYCLING
PROCESSORS THE ENEMY - ALOT ARE SMALL COMPANIES.
THERE IS A TREND OF CENTRALIZATION IN HAULING AND
IN MRFS, BUT IN SINGLE MATERIAL PROCESSING AND END
USE MANUFACTURING THERE IS A LOT OF SMALL BUZ
ACTIVITY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
THIS IS PART OF WHAT IS EXCITING AND VIBRANT ABOUT
THE RECYCLING AND ENVIRONMENTAL INDUSTRY - I
THINK YOUR PIECE STILL PAINTS IT WITH TOO BROAD OF A
BRUSH.
MAYBE POINT OUT THAT WASTE HAULERS ARE
CONSOLIDATING, BUYING UP SMALLER COS. AND
SOMETIMES USING RECYCLING TO PRIVATIZE PUBLIC AND
UNIONIZED OPERATIONS AND TO INCREASE OVERALL
HAULING/DISPOSAL/ RECYCLING REVENUES WHILE AT
TIMES SQUEEZING OUT SMALLER PLAYERS.
I CAN'T SEEM TO FIT THE EMPIRICAL REALITIES OF THE
INDUSTRY WELL INTO SOUNDBITES!!
Bill sez: how about: -- waste haulers who want to continue high
rates of wasting (landfilling and incineration), and industries that
benefit from high rates of consumption.
Recycling hype is used to hide the fact that we are consuming more
than ever and that recycling has not significantly reduced wasting
nationwide. There is a real opportunity here to free
recycling from the shackles of *waste management* and lay out a
vision for 3 R's as an ALTERNATIVE to wasting -- and to redesign
solid waste systems from the ground up as reductiono and
recovery
systems.
If we can be honest enough with ourselves to admit that some of
recycling IS inefficient and ineffective, perhaps we can turn the
question around and ask, Why should recycling have to compete
with massive subsidies for virgin materials, landfilling,
incineration?
Why is so little being done to prevent waste, change wasteful
production systems and harness the social and local economic
benefits of reuse and recycling? How can resource extremists and
free-market libertarians masquerading as conservatives promote
wasting? We are the true conservatives!
If you agree that the time is ripe for advocating more -- not less --
resource conservation, you may want to subscribe to the GreenYes
email listserve. This is an open (unmoderated) discussion forum
focusing on policies and strategies needed to advance sustainable
resource policies. It is hosted by the Grassroots Recycling
Network, a new coalition of 3 Rs and wasting activists in the U.S.
Come learn more at our next meeting, to be held during the
National
Recycling Congress in Pittsburgh, September 16 - 18. Beyond that,
we are working on convening a winter conference for grassroots
3 Rs activists to set a national resource agenda for the next 15 years.
To subscribe to the GreenYes listserve, send the following email
message to: listserve@ucsd.edu (leaving the subject header blank):
add greenyes
(Post messages by sending them to greenyes@uscd.edu)
For information on the Grassroots Recycling Network, send an
email to: ...
or call:
DK sez: (HERSHKOWITZ AT NRDC HAS ARGUED THAT THE
LOCAL GOV'T SUNK COSTS AND SUBSIDIES IN SOLID WASTE
COLL., AND DISPOSAL SYSTEMS ARE ACTUALLY A MUCH
GREATER SUBSIDY FOR WASTING THAN VIRGIN SUBSIDIES.
WITH THESE SUNK INVESTMENTS, A NEW RECYCLING AND
REDUCTION PROGRAM REPRESENTS AN ADDITIONAL
MARGINAL COST. WE NEED INSTEAD TO REDESIGN SOLID
WASTE SYSTEMS AS RECOVERY AND REDUCTION SYSTEMS
FROM THE GROUND UP - PROBABLY AT TRANSITION
PERIODS WHEN A NEW TRUCK FLEET IS NEEDED OR A
LOCAL LANDFILL IS CLOSED.)