It is a treat to experience two of our nation’s experts
(Pat and Jerry) on Bottle Bills discussing the topic on GreenYes.
This is an example of why this list is worth reading!!
Maybe it would be helpful to jump in here and share with
everyone how GRRN defines a ZW Community … it is one that has achieved
90% recovery rates, not 100%. The reasoning here is that if a community
actually achieves such an amazing level then in fact they have put their community
on the Path to Zero Waste, and that is the true goal here… to do the best
we can by considering the elimination of waste in every public and private
decision we make.
I support Jerry here in seeing the Oregon BB actions as an
important step forward for all of us. In fact, we all need to start
talking about how to educate the Obama EPA on this very topic and get them on the
Path to Zero … using the Oregon case study as a teaching tool. Of
course, no program is perfect, as this one is not … but the power of it
is that it is happening NOW, thus making it media worthy and an opportunity for
all of us to come together and form a stronger voice.
I also want to support Jerry’s concern about having “ZW
goals without strategies to implement”. It is a victory
for the ZW Movement for me to say that we are today in the transition zone
where in many ways we have won the politics and the vision-thing, and now it’s
time to deliver. Of course, in many areas of the nation that are
not on the West Coast this statement is not true… but in many places in
the USA and in the EU, we have won the philosophical debate, and now it’s
time to create on-the-ground strategies. I have personally
experienced this when I am asked to travel somewhere and speak and I launch
into one of my many versions of “ZW Is The Right Way” speeches, and
the client/audience says “we got it, so now what do we do?”
Yahoo and congratulations to us all !!!
Now the next level of work begins … how does a community
get to 50%? Then 70% Then 80% And then 90%? We need to
map out the journey with a clear public policy agenda with a timeline (10
years?), a financial price tag and a political price tag. And
we need to say what happens to the remaining residue. I am currently a
proponent of the German approach of “landfilling bio-stabilized residue”
as the cheapest and most flexible approach, and also serves to defeat any talk
of building a local incinerator, which is neither cheap nor flexible! What
the Germans now require is that any mixed waste with a biodegradable fraction
in it must be stabilized before burial. In practice, this means putting
the material through an Anaerobic Digestor (AD) or a mixed waste composting process
(open windrows) before burial.
Finally, I want to say that Pat Franklin knows more about Bottle
Bills than most of us ever will (except maybe Jerry), and she has done more to
promote them than anyone I know. Now is the time to join forces and
invite the Obama EPA to our party … so let’s see how we can build a
bridge for them to come across and join us.
Eric
Eric Lombardi
GRRN President
"We don't have a waste problem, we have a resource
opportunity."
From:
GreenYes@no.address [mailto:GreenYes@no.address] On Behalf Of Jerry
Powell
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 9:12 AM
To: greenyes@no.address
Subject: [GreenYes] Zero waste goals alone are not enough
Pat
Franklin's recent posting both compliments and condemns the Oregon Bottle Bill
Task Force for its recommendations. As a Governor's appointee
to that body, I suggest that Pat reconsider her criticism that the recommended
80 percent redemption rate in the Task Force's final report to the 2009
legislature doesn't represent zero waste for beverage containers. Pat
needs to do a little research before making such comments.
Too
many zero waste advocates see a governmetally-adopted 100-percent no-waste goal
as a major achievement. In many cases, it is not. I've seen
way too many communities adopt such a zero waste goal, and then do absolutely
nothing to try to acheive it. Yet, in many of those communties,
zero-waste advocates claim victory, when in fact, they are getting
snookered. Goals without programs are merely words.
In
Oregon, we aim to raise the mandated redemption rate in steps towards
zero beverage waste. The plan is to attain the 80 percent goal, then
raise it to 90 percent and require that this level be attained.
We'll then move it higher again. That is a politically viable way of
not getting snookered and to realistically attain zero waste. In other
words, we have a well-defined strategy to attain the goal, and not just
have the goal by itself.
I'd
also encourage folks to read the Task Force's final report in which the
beverage industry and grocers have agreed to fully fumd and manage the recovery
system, at no cost to the consumer or taxpayer. In other words, true
product stewardship.