Opinion: How Can I Contribute To Furthering Planetary Repair?

Next Fall marks the 60th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the publication of which opened the eyes of the American public to the overwhelmingly negative impact that humans can have on the natural environment, calling attention to the dangers of  bioaccumulation, corporate disinformation, and the domino effect of unintended consequences.  Silent Spring served to focus the work of two generations across a spectrum of environmental repair movements – inspiring activism that persists to this day.  Among the outcomes of that original inspiration were the Clean Air and the Clean Water Acts of the late 1960s thru early 1970s.  

Just like the successful efforts to eradicate smoking for improved health, the efforts to repair our environment must be sustained.  Here, I propose a four-part system, that we can all engage with right now, to further repair of the planet.

Zero Waste
One of the levers that seems to move a great deal of weight in this effort of healing and repair is that of “zero waste’” The key idea behind it is to mimic the earth’s own wisdom and create circular paths of generation, consumption, waste production and re-generation.  A small group of concerned Amherst residents have been meeting throughout the pandemic to study Zero Waste practices and consequences and the possibilities for action in our own town.  Working as Zero Waste Amherst (ZWA), we hope to put our shoulders to the lever together, to develop and implement policies that will reduce our local waste stream, produce consequential, positive impacts for our environment, and perhaps, in the long run, save our town a little bit of money (see also here).

Our research has revealed best practices in Europe, Asia and in many American communities (e.g, Boulder, Colorado; Ann Arbor, Michigan;  Berkeley, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Burlington, Vermont; and Portland, Oregon to name a few), that have dramatically reduced their waste stream to great effect.  It has become clear that in addressing this circularity of use to regeneration, that the reduction of two items can do a substantial amount of the work needed to begin to return the earth to where it was just half a century ago  (see also here).

Twenty-eight percent of the  “throw aways” in the US (and where is “away” in this picture of earth’s circularity?) are composed of food scraps. This includes waste from food preparation, as well as food that goes un-eaten or unsold.  Forty pecrcent of food grown in the US goes unused.  Roughly 16 percent of the stuff we throw away is plastic.  The American Chemical Society (the plastic industry’s lobbying arm) itself has said that 40 percent of plastics are made to be thrown away.  Again, where is away?  Left to decompose in the environment and leach toxic materials into soil and groundwater?   All plastics except those identified as numbers  “1” & “2” (look inside the triangle on the bottom of containers) are poisonous (e.g. carcinogenic, endocrine disruptors, etc). And according to National Geographic, that 40 percent figure may be a considerable understatement. National Geographic estimates that as much as 79 percent of plastic waste ends up in landfills globally. That amounts to 6.3 billion metric tons since plastic production began six decades ago. And if present trends continue it will be 12 billion metric tons undergoing toxic decay in landfills by 2050.

Efforts made to reduce waste on these two fronts can have exponentially positive effects.  Toward that end, Zero Waste Amherst has started contacting local towns for a Central Valley effort (including Amherst, Northampton, Hadley, South Hadley and Easthampton), which is at the moment working on getting compostable organics out of the waste stream (a first step of many) as it is so impactful and also because it produces a valuable resource (compost).  We seek to avoid long distance trucking of compostables so as to minimize the environmental impacts of transportation.  Martin’s Farm in Greenfield is the largest composter in the state and stands ready to support emerging community compost programs.  But generating more local capacity to receive and compost organics would be even better.

ZWA has participated in a study contracted by the Amherst DPW with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality Engineering to look at solid waste best practices. The report was presented recently to Amherst’s. Town Services and Outreach committee in the hopes of beginning a needed conversation about the Town becoming more proactive about solid waste. We now know how to do this kind of waste reduction. We just need to get started. Stay tuned and request action from your representatives in town government.

Bylaws and  Education
A few years ago, China, the export destination for many of our recyclables, outlawed the import of most recyclables from the US because our “recyclables” largely failed to meet the new purity standards that China established in 2017. Since 2018, the volume of materials recycled in the US dropped precipitously with the vast majority of “recyclables” being redirected into landfills or incinerators (though the situation looked to be improving just prior to the pandemic). Here, education, alternative services and more aggressive regulation go hand in hand to show an alternative to dumping and burning and consequently poisoning the earth.  For example, Massachusetts has a downward-ratcheting waste ban for businesses producing above one-ton of waste annually, (later to be ½ ton, etc.) requiring recycling and offering the RecyclingWorks Program created by the 40-year-old ‘NGO’ Center For Eco Technology to show the way for composting and other alternatives. Here, we see the effective pairing of  prevention (a law) with alternatives (free assistance).  Carrot and stick. The Commonwealth has long been a subcontractor for innovation: interstate snow plowing, unemployment services, guidance on converting dumps to transfer stations (reduces air/water pollution) and reaching for stretch codes in city building inspectional service (energy use).  These free consulting and training services work with most sectors: business, city, school, institutions, multi-family residence, but have less to offer for the private home ( however see ‘Reduce Waste at Home’).  They offer a free ‘invitation’ model once a city achieves ‘green community’ certification, as has been the case in Amherst for a decade.  The part many of us were doing in the ‘60s has been professionalized.  And I say, let the pros do it.  They have the time, skills, technology, experience and connections. Our role has changed to networking and referral on the one hand and on the other meeting with/informing resdients and their reps and to speak up for missing components in the system as well.  

Hauler Reform
Hauler reform occupies the third slot amongst the interventions that I want to highlight and refers back to the single-family residence issue.  The U.S has seen the same consolidation in the trash industry it has in most others like the airlines and auto industry. There are fewer companies, fewer choices, and higher prices.  Since the six year old Amherst Plan for Solid Waste study and the eleven year old Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s organic waste management study  our local service has changed quite a bit in that we have gone from three local haulers to USA Waste and Recycling now holding a monopoly on single family residential waste services in Amherst.  We have also seen a good deal of consolidation nationally in that seven companies now serve 50 percent of the nation. Big Pharma, big banks, now big haulers can quash competition, diminish local control and of course raise profits.  But the hauler is necessarily part of this local reparative effort in that they must stop moving product out of state to bury in Ohio landfills or burn in Finger Lakes area incinerators.

Extended Producer Responsibility And The Work Of The MRF
The final piece is that of extended producer responsibility, an environmental protection strategy that makes the producer responsible for the entire life cycle of the product. Locally, a central Municipal Recycling Facility (MRF) can play a key role by dividing incoming recyclables into their respective chain of supply back to the manufacturer.  

The Levers Of Planetary Repair Are Within Our Reach
I have briefly introduced four levers that we can pull to greatly transform the way that we deal with solid waste and the way that our waste practices impact the general health of planet.  They are levers that are within our reach.  Pulling those levers instigates the use of known, accessible technologies and knowhow, and would replicate successful work being done in communities across the country.  Specifics will of course vary based on local politics, economy, resident involvement, and other factors in the specific locale. Some applications involve  a greater commercial, or public, or governmental role but clearly,  there are impactful things that we can do right now here in our own community.  The point being – we must begin to place our hands upon the levers. We can see the myriad success stories and yet we are making glacial progress while the planet burns. Zero waste solutions might be thought of as the low hanging fruit of saving the planet.  We already have the technology, the knowhow, the examples of success. And the move to getting the organics out of the waste stream, demands much less of us than say, weaning ourselves from using fossil fuels.  This is a good and not particularly onerous place to start.

And so, to keep things moving, the folks at Zero Waste Amherst, plan to produce a monthly (or perhaps even bi-monthly) column in The Indy to raise public awareness and build the needed third rail (business, government, citizenry) to instigate action for further planetary repair. You’ll be hearing more about the prospects for town-wide composting in our next column.

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Chad Fuller is a founding member of Zero Waste Amherst and a former Organizational Development/Community Development Consultant