Re: Zero waste yes/Personal attacks no

helens@axionet.com
Fri, 22 Jan 1999 17:08:19 -0500


Thank you, Dave.

>GreenYes folks -
>
>Having just got home from the National Recycling Congress and just logged
>onto email after a few days, I wanted to respond to some of Steve Suess'
>postings. I appreciate his reporting on the Congress, its surreality in
>Disneymania, the sessions, the progress on articulating and selling zero
>waste, etc. However, I want to encourage us to realize that to move towards
>zero waste, we are going to need lots of folks, businesses, organizations,
>networks, citizens working at it from many different angles. It does not
>help to attack associates that are working towards the same ends with
>perhaps different means than your own.
>
>Having arrived Sunday night and departed Wednesday night, I missed the
>activities over last weekend, including the NRC members and NRC board
>meetings. I understand that Bill Sheehan had strategic reasons for not
>introducing a zero waste resolution at the meeting that weekend which he can
>explain on the listserve from his own perspective. However, having observed
>Bill's efforts over the last 2+ years as to push zero waste in Georgia and
>the U. S. as a volunteer at great personal expense and sacrifice, I wish to
>applaud him for his efforts and to ask the rest of us to not be so ready to
>fall into a typical progressive trap of attacking the leader.
>
>The second person Steve choose to single out was Ed Boisson. Again, with
>his work over the years, Ed has helped to move the recycling and waste
>reduction movement forward in innumerable ways. Most recently, his work
>with the Northeast Recycling Council to develop a protocol for a national
>economic impact study for the recycling and reuse industries will yield
>fruits for those of us trying to build the infrastructure for zero waste for
>years to come.
>
>Zero waste should not be a chant that we try to bully everyone into intoning
>in boring unison. Rather it should be a chorus with many harmonies, with
>each of us contributing our voices in ways that are unique to ourselves. I
>respect those who have a skepticism about joining the zero waste chant just
>because it's in vogue...and are rather pursuing their unique way to add
>their voice.
>
>As a GrassRoots Recycling Network steering committee member, I am excited
>about what we achieved in the sessions and at our forum at NRC. In the
>coming days, you should see lots of posts about zero waste resolutions and
>committees, producer responsibility resolutions, Coke campaigns, no new
>dumps initiatives, and virgin materials subsidy reforms. There are all part
>of GRRN's deliberate effort to build up a national and international chorus,
>involving many groups and individuals, to beckon us all towards a zero waste
>society. How fast or slow we move is dependent only on how much each of you
>and the millions of other recyclers pitch in to help... and how well we are
>able to move forward while respecting our differences.
>
>David Kirkpatrick
>See GRRN's website: http://www.kirkworks.com/grrn.htm
>
>
>

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