Letter Helen Venada presented
to county Solid Waste Advisory Committee
posted 04/16/02
I'd like to take five minutes to make a citizen comment to this meeting of our esteemed SWAC members...who volunteer many thankless hours of their time and thought to an unappetizing issue. I am Helen Venada, long-time garbologist, both as a professional and as a citizen activist.
I have been dismayed and disturbed, to say the least, over the current solid waste management scenario in our county. Personally, I'm still straddling the fence on the WMI contract because I've listened to good reasoning on both sides of the argument and now take a wait-and-see stance because I trust that King County and Seattle would make a careful decision in choosing a similar contract. I'd like to offer here another perspective.
Obviously waste management is a very important issue here...and globally. We can be grateful that this community cares. How we manage our waste is directly related to how we manage ourselves and how we choose to maintain our collective way of life and sustenance.
In the original version of the movie, "Planet of the Apes," an elder orangutang wisely remarks that, "We are all on the same road to the future...but we must remember that we CAN always change lanes!" I believe San Juan Islanders want to be on the road that sends less garbage to the landfill and in the lanes that, ideally, will generate more community peace of mind and less road rage. Both sides of the contract issue, as I hear it, want aggressive waste reduction as a priority in our local waste management. I'm excited about the possibilities of the proposed state grant submitted by SJC to build an aggressively pro-active re-use program; I hope all of us can put our differences aside and join forces to help invent and implement some really good improvements; Jon has many great ideas for a truly comprehensive reuse effort.
Activism in waste reduction begins at home and with individual responsibility. Surprisingly, I have friends who don't take the time to recycle but who consider themselves nonetheless environmentally-aware. I know even more people who don't take awareness with them when they go shopping so that they will bring home less garbage (e.g. packaging, garbage food). I'm far from perfect myself, a self-professed somewhat-fanatic resource conservationist; its very difficult in our society to be perfectly environmentally conscious but we could all do better. Even when we're able to recycle more types of materials, recycling is just a band-aid on the waste problem (just think of the transporting alone)...it can cover up the laziness and complacency of a wasteful society.
The way we use/abuse paper, for example, should be re-thought; we could save money and resources by simply using both sides of all but confidential papers. It pains me to see a perfectly good piece of paper with just a few words on it thrown in the trash (or even recycled) when it could have easily been re-used and not exported. Instant 50% waste reduction! that saves resources and money [e.g. this is printed on the backside of extra copies of last meeting's agenda].
What else can an interested citizen do with his/her energy and passion over this issue? Become an environmental watchdog of corporate performance and a lobbyist at all levels of government. Teach re-use to the kids, at home and in school; conserve at work. Think sustainability.
The European Union will soon ban all electronics from landfilling, ultimately to make manufacturers responsible for managing wasted materials (some hazardous) of that industry. It's reported that some European countries have already instituted manufacturer take-back programs for packaging. This is an area, for example, where citizen activists can do the research work that solid waste staff, involved in doing a good job of daily operations, is too busy to get to. Do your research, submit well-thought out and documented ideas to SWAC for review so that the committee can make recommendations to staff, and we can all actively participate in cooperative solutions.
Helen Venada
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