Here are my notes from Neil Seldman‘s Talk about Recycling in the US to our class on Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Neil Seldman Talk
Sustainability, decentralization, democracy, development, solid waste
New Rules – laws needed for sustainable economy
Economic development in rural areas.
Garbage, solid waste
Municipal Solid Waste – throw out 250 million tons a year
Construction and demolition waste – 250 tons a year
500 million tons a year of valuable raw materials
US wastes 12 billions tons of materials a year – waste from extracting raw materials from objects we consume
Garbage – controlled at citizen level
Last 7 mayors of NYC have tried to build incinerators and failed
Recycling:
Environmental benefits – less waste
Economic Perspective – cheaper to use recycled materials
Landfill vs Incinerators
US is limitless when it comes to landfills
500 million to build an incinerator = 1 billion over 20 years
Recycling is much cheaper – costs the same to pick them up as garbage
NYC – understand how garbage is collected to match the cityscape with technology
NYC = too hard to have bins for recycled materials because of density
1 job from 10 million pounds of garbage
many jobs for recycling centerss
grey matter – used will create jobs
deconstruction = ex offender credit
Predicts that recycling will win out over incineration and landfills
Plastic made from plant matter is the new wave of recycling
Recycling is Propaganda
2 companies control 16% of the total garbage hauling market in the US
They make more money from landfills than recycling
Wall Street hates Recycling – because it costs so much to build a landfill
Right Wing Intellectuals
Recycling is a communist plot – Governments think this
Since Obama was elected, the right wing anti recycling groups have been joined by the liberals
Entitlements – for people – social security, etc…
for corporations
economics and local control
Focus on 3 Technologies:
Anarobic Digestion – food waste keep it segregated, don’t mix it, shred it and let it rot to get Methane gas which can be used
Building Deconstruction – made to think about how they can be taken apart – Mercedes Benz builds it cars to be reused – the same applies to buildings
Repair and Reuse – take 5% of the waste stream and its worth more than it would be as trash
Best Example: St. Vincent DePaul in Eugene, Oregon
Design for Reuse
Activists who organize for recycling
Intellectual History Behind recycling – comes from the era in the US where industrialization was making an impact
Thorsten Veblen – Conspicuous Consumption
Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture
Paul Goodman
Electronic Waste – goes to China
Study garbage you will never be unemployed
Documentary: “Exporting Harm”
Book: Plastic Ocean
