Commentary: Planning for recycling's future

"Clean up your mess!" said our parents as we were growing up and developing skills (or not) of personal responsibility. When we became adults with our own homes to run, it befell on someone to "take out the garbage." Graduating from potty training to grown-up toilet use required a habit of flushing, if family decorum was to be maintained. But nowhere in these basic life practices was there a mandate that every person in a household "reduce, reuse, and recycle," unless, of course, you lived in a home like mine run by a waste czar.

The stuff from city drop-offs or curb pick-up is only recycled because a resident or business has volunteered to be responsible for that part of their waste stream. There are no laws requiring any of us to recycle our trash (solid waste) like there are for using sanitation (sewer or septic) systems, for example. Yet, when we choose to not recycle, we add to the landfill, and lose resources that could have been utilized by being made into other products. And, landfills come with their own environmental and sanitation issues affecting land, water and air.

In the 30 years I've listened to debates over solid waste management in Northwest Arkansas, not once have I ever heard a political leader promote having a law that says that it is your responsibility to reuse or recycle your waste in the programs provided by the city or county. No one wants to face an angry mob, and politicians tend to believe that requiring personal behavior changes, and mandating that residents and businesses utilize available solutions, will lose them elections. And so, the landfills pile higher.

But, and this is a big "but," Fayetteville has set itself a huge goal of reaching an 80 percent diversion from landfilling by 2025. For advice on just how to accomplish this, the city has hired Kessler Consulting of Tampa, Fla., to help develop a master plan for the ways and means of designing programs and changing policies so that solid waste won't be wasted, but will be recycled into resources.

Fayetteville diverts about 20 percent of its waste from the landfill, but that is not just because of recycling. In 2014, recycling diverted 5,687 tons (9 percent), but composting diverted 7,011 tons (11 percent). That left 50,443 tons (80 percent) to be landfilled from just one town in just one year. So, to reach an 80 percent diversion, we're going to have to flip-flop those percentages in 10 years. That's going to take a mixture of methods, changes, commitments and political backbone from everyone, not just loyal recyclers. Mostly it's going to require an acceptance of responsibility for what we have purchased that becomes useless to us. This kind of responsibility drives changes in shopping habits and consumption levels as well as packaging and product materials and designs for recyclability. In San Francisco, for example, "disposable" restaurant containers are made to be composted. Nothing occurs until there are market demands, and until we need to avoid waste because it costs us too much or laws require it, we will not create a demand for the changes, like compostability, which we need to see in products.

Last week, Fayetteville's recycling division and the Kessler consultants held an input session outlining what might be in a master plan. They also summarized the status of current programs and gave the results of a recent trash audit. Public participation in the process of developing this plan is vital, and the city is requesting that people help by taking an online survey at recyclesomething.org. As the master plan is being developed, there can be a continuation of input from residents through contacting the Solid Waste Department in Fayetteville, and/or by talking to your alderman (see: accessfayetteville.org for contact information).

The recent waste audit found that 26 percent of residential waste and 30 percent of commercial waste consisted of paper and containers that could have been recycled, but weren't. Residential and commercial food waste made up about 18 percent, and other organic material an additional 11 percent, all of which was thrown away instead of composted. Obviously there is a tremendous amount of difference to be made in how wasteful we are, if we will just make that difference. But first, we must decide if we are mature enough to take responsibility for what belongs to us.

Fran Alexander is a Fayetteville resident with a longstanding interest in the environment and an opinion on almost anything else. Email her at [email protected].

Commentary on 04/14/2015

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