RE: [greenyes] Worthless Workshops in Sacramento

[Bob Armantrout <troutsfarm@no.address>]

This is exactly my point as well, Pat. Those of us who are out in the trenches trying to manage businesses that are actually in the business of dealing with the waste streams get very little airplay. 
 
Those who can afford to sit around and figure out how to restate figures to their best greenwashing advantages have a different row to hoe. I have watched our own county folks call meetings with us haulers and processors only to ignore our suggestions and requests for information concerning the disposition of materials in the taxpayer funded programs. The county game seems to one of optics - not actual recycling. 
 
In other words, how we can make things appear to look is much more important than the facts.
 
For those of us who are haulers and processors in our community, the facts are as easily obtained as opening ones eyes on any given day.
 
Maintaining balers with tonnage capacities capable of baling plastic dense enough to fit enough into a container to pay its freight costs alone is a constant battle. Educating the public about the need to avoid using plastic bags at the store falls on us in the private sector.
 
As many of you know, the differences between a material being technically recyclable and economically recyclable are of utmost importance to having a system that actually works. Sure, HDPE grocery bags *can* be reused in the manufacture of plastic lumber. The cost-benefit of handling the bags, removing contaminants, and then adding them into the feedstock is not even close to the miniscule value of the minute amout of material in each bag.
 
For this reason, our local manufacturer of plastic lumber no longer can accept bags econmically, although the County still tells everyone that plastic bags recyle here. The fact is *they don't*.
 
Sorry for the rant, I get a little spun up over this kind of stuff.
 
Bob Armantrout

Pat Franklin <pfranklin@no.address> wrote:

To Helen's question, "What voices are missing at these "educational
seminars" as a result?" I say, "voices telling the truth that no one wants to hear."


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