SCH Talks Trash!


Last night a small but very engaged group of community members got together to talk about how we in Cherry Hill and as a nation, deal with our trash and recycling.  A diverse group of panelists was assembled to educate and answer questions about what happens to our waste after it leaves the curb.  I started the night off with my own confession that I am fascinated by trash.  I told the group how I started my education a few months back with a 2 hour crash course on “trashology” with Steve and Chris from CH DPW.  I was then invited to take a field trip to FCR Single Stream Recycling Plant in Camden, which was fully documented in a previous post on this blog.  I provided some not so trivial trivia facts about trash such as:

  • For every one can of trash you place curbside, 71 barrels of waste were generated upstream, in manufacturing all the stuff we buy, use for a short time and then thrown out.
  • Municipal waste only makes up 2% of the entire US waste stream.  The rest is manufacturing, agricultural and mining waste, construction and demolition debris and other assorted wastes. 
  • That 98% is not unrelated to the 2%:  It’s all the waste that goes into the products and processes that keep us alive and happy.
  • According to the EPA, over 60% of the material in landfills is potentially compostable.  Organic waste composting will be a key component to solving our waste problems.
I then turned the program over to Maggi Liebe , Camden County Environmental Education Coordinator, who chided me for stealing most of her presentation!  Maggi stressed that most of these “progressive” new policies in waste management are actually based upon centuries old agrarian habits, like composting and reusing things instead of throwing them out.  Maggi then introduced Fred Neary, from FCR Recycling , who showed us a video and described the fascinating process of how the single stream system sorts the material (described in detail in a previous blog post).  Next up was Joe Figliola, from Recycle Bank, who told us about how RB works,  how to sign up and redeem incentives and how many trees/barrels of oil has been saved through our recycling.  Lastly,  we had a lengthy and lively question and answer session with Maggi, Fred, Joe, Steve Musilli and Chris Higgins from CH DEP.  Questions ranged from detailed nuts and bolts recycling rules,  the financial nitty gritty of recycling and the effect of consumerism on our waste crisis.  
I was delighted that our small group was so enthusiastic and engaged in the conversation about trash and recycling.  In fact, I ultimately had to cut the discussion so that people could get back home to their families during this busy time of year.  A huge thank you to our wonderful panel and to the community members who joined us last night, many of which were new faces to SCH!  
Next up on our Fall Calendar of Events is Green Drinks.  Come on out to Flying Fish Brewery on Wednesday, October 1 from 6-8pm for an informal, ongoing get together where like minded folks get together to network about sustainability and just hang out!  Our inaugural Green Drinks will be at Flying Fish, but subsequent get togethers will be held the first Wednesday of every month at PJ Welinghams.   A few days later, SCH is organizing field trip to the Collingswood Book Festival to hear author, Elizabeth Royte  talk about her enlightening and entertaining books, Garbageland:  On the secret trail of trash and Bottle Mania: How water went on sale and why we bought it.  Meet us under tent 2 at 11 am on Saturday, October 4 to hear this innovative author.  See the side bar for more details.

September 25, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized

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