You see, in the beginning there was a job to be done and someone in the community did it: the garbage hauler. Eventually enough folks let that individual do what needed to be done that they largely ignored the business altogether.
Perhaps you think this a strange way to approach the subject of recycling and trash, but hear me out, please. The issue is not one of not caring. I believe we all care about our environment and our neighbors... but only, of course, if we know about our neighbors and the environment. And we can only know about these things if we are thinkingÑthat is cognitive and sentientÑbeings.
Recycling, as I will demonstrate, is a very simple business. Why is there such resistance to it? Easy: lack of meaningful mind-thought.
Observe: I sat and thought about the mass of trash I produced; I admitted that trash was a part of my life; I further admitted that I have mostly acted as though it weren't part of my life, but have let someone else dispose of it; I decided to dispose of it and to minimize what would be abandoned to the landfill.
Gasp: On October 1, 1990, I commenced with a number of my neighbors on my block in Fort Bragg a collection collective. Each household separated glass, plastics, paper, metals and vegetable matter from everything else (snot tissue, cellophane wrapping, paper milk containers). I collected each household's set asides, took the recyclables to the recycling depots, and took the rest to the dump. Prior to October 1 the average household produced a full 32 gallon can of garbage each week, after that date each household has generated just 2.5 gallons of garbage each week!
Take heed, don't heel, hustle: Review what I have done, consider its advantages for Mother Earth, for our health, for your pocketbook. Don't behave as you have been conditioned toÑletting somebody else manage your life by carting off your garbage while you carelessly wave it bye-bye. Separate the recyclables and haul the trash; Speak with your neighbors; Organize your immediate neighbors and make a community.
If you live in town it goes like this (if you live in the country simply link up with no more than eight of your nearest neighbors):
¥ Get a box for newspapers.
¥ Get a smaller box for junk mail.
¥ Stack them.
¥ Get a small box for all your metal cans, plastic and glass beverage and food containers: wash them and flatten as appropriate.
¥ Get a small wastebasket-sized plastic container with a lid; put your kitchen food scraps in it.
¥ Generate as little other stuff as possible (for instance, you might take a glass container to the store and transfer milk from paper to your glass container, leaving the store with the unwanted carrier).
¥ Build a compost box out of scrap wood and place it in your yard. Put the food scraps (no meat) in the compost box.
¥ Take the recyclables to the nearest recycling depot.
¥ Take the junk mail to the post office and let them have the junk you don't want and never asked for (you can get a mailer at the post office to have your name stricken from the list of names sold by the marketeers of addresses).
¥ Call around and get the use of a yard and garden chipper (that's what I did, called around) and mulch your prunings and yard stuff. If you do this you'll match me and my block; we went from sending 32 gallons a week per household to the dump to just 2.5 gallons per household!
We do it for much less than the professional garbage hauler. We move recyclables, not garbage. You should do what I do on my block. I ask for a $5 donation each month from each household and I pick up everybody's separated stuff. I put all the kitchen stuff in my compost. I chip up all the garden debris and use it on my vegetable garden walkways. I take the recyclables to the depot and earn enough in aluminum to just about pay my way into the dump! It takes me about an hour each Saturday, including chipping up the garden stuff.
I recommend you only take responsibility for one side of a block, dividing the block into two parts with the alley. You don't want to go into business, after all; you just want to do your part in your little community. And community it will become! You'll meet all your neighbors and speak with them. Good will come of your endeavor. Support and cheerfulness will imbue your block. Things will be casual enough you can delay pickup by days if you're going out of town.
Do what I'm doing, work with another half block near by and trade off going to the dump with whoever is doing pick up on that block. I have a little truck and it costs me the same if I take one bag or sixteen (there is a minimum gate fee), so it works better to consolidate with at least one other block. Believe me, my half block produces just one 32 gallon garbage can a week! If I wanted to store all the trash I could wait months before I had a full load for my eensy-weensy pickup. We save so much money that we're setting aside funds for a larger, better chipper that several blocks can use.
I don't want to talk about professional haulers. They're obsolete because you can do it. If you haven't heard the news, I'll simply say this. Professional garbage hauling in this country is fast becoming an oligarchy with all the corporate misjudgment and belligerence and degradation of local business that attends big conveniences. Waste Management, Inc. which now owns all but you and me in this county, was fined $19.5 million by the Feds for business crimes last month. Bid-rigging, price-fixing, bribery. Three former Sonoma County supervisors, some former mayors and other former public officials work for them in Sonoma County. They're a big convenience that steals your autonomy. But really, speaking plainly, you're just giving it to them if you do business with them. You, friends, are your own bottom line.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2004
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited