Re: [GreenYes] Fw: QUERY: What to do with used tires? [Q from Bra zil]

["Michael Jessen" <toenail@netidea.com>]

I couldn't agree more with Helen's comment that the real question is how do
we get on the road to sustainability and how do we get on the road to zero
waste.

[Mike and Jay are taking us down a road that answers the questions 'how do
we get rid of old tires' and 'how do we find the energy to create
concrete' -- but that road, arguably, leads us away from the more important
question: 'how do we get to sustainability'.]


Because we are often too willing to accept the easiest way out, a
financially expedient way out, and because we don't give our imaginations
and brains enough of a workout, humanity has stumbled to 50% answers to many
of our problems.

Waste is just one example. Climate change, species loss, water scarcity,
malnutrition, infectious disease, poverty, education, and consumptive
economies are some others.

Around the world at the moment the folks who make waste to energy systems
are pounding on the doors of anyone who will listen. Take a look at the
attached info below from Italy, as an example. It is also happening in a big
way in Spain, Britain, Ireland, the Far East, among other places.

Unless we ALL take a stand against second-rate solutions to waste reduction,
zero waste and producer responsibility will have an uphill battle. Another
20 to 30 years are at stake here. The time for progress is now! Let's not
fall into the trap of continuing to embrace yesterday's solutions.

I am reminded of this quote from Michael Patterson, a Massachusetts social
inventor and activist: "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?"

And that's my two cents.

Michael Jessen
toenail environmental services
5635 Highway 3A
Nelson, BC V1L 6N7 Canada
Office Phone: 250/229-4621
Home Phone: 250/229-5632
Fax: 775/587-9838
E-mail: toenail@netidea.com
Web: www.toenail.org/

"Begin today. Today is the day in which every moment counts. . . . One does
make a difference. You are the one." Julia Butterfly Hill

Italian groups urge more energy-from-waste
  Environment Daily 1168, 28/02/02

  Italy will only be able to meet legal targets set in 1997 for greening
municipal waste management if it accepts higher levels of incineration,
industry groups said last week. More incineration would also have other
benefits, including displacement of fossil-fuelled electricity and power
imports, the groups said.

Based on a new study, the pro-incineration plea was made by the Institute
for the environment (Ipa), funded mainly by Italy's principal industry
association Confindustria, and a national consortium for separate collection
of plastic packaging (Corepla).

The study's aim, Ipa's Vittorio Biondi told Environment Daily, was to show
that the 1997 "Ronchi decree" - which requires 35% of municipal waste to be
separately collected by the end of 2003 - cannot be respected without more
waste incineration.

Italy currently incinerates a relatively low proportion of municipal waste
in European terms, especially in the centre and south where virtually all
waste is landfilled. The Ipa/Corepla study builds scenarios for how many new
plants would be needed in different areas, suggesting up to 40 in the
centre/south.

According to Mr Biondi, another key aim was to look at the obstacles to new
waste incinerators. "The most important barrier in Italy is social
acceptance", he said. "So we tried to find examples of new plants built with
the support of local communities".

A further conclusion of the study is that burning more waste could
substantially reduce Italy's energy deficit. New incinerators could add 17m
megawatt hours per year of electricity output, it suggests. This is
equivalent to 5% of national electricity consumption, and two-fifths of
average annual power imports.





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