Scuttlebutt

By Mitch McFarland

    “Intelligence” used to refer to analytical intelligence, which the Psychology Dictionary defines as “the ability to analyze, compare, evaluate, critique and judge.”  In the last few decades the definition of intelligence has evolved to include other skills besides being able to memorize all the U.S. presidents in order.  Indeed, in the 1980s a Harvard psychologist, Howard Gardener, proposed that there are eight kinds of intelligence such as spatial, musical, mathematical, linguistic, interpersonal, etc.  J.S. Bach might have been a musical genius, but his interpersonal intelligence level led him to be considered a temperamental jerk by his contemporaries.

     I don't know where it fits into Gardener's categories, but for me one form of intelligence is the ability to break bad habits and replace them with good habits.

     I love my routines, but it is easy to fall into routines that we don't bother to re-evaluate once in a while.  This can lead to continuing bad habits, especially if they don't materially affect our lives.

     A type of game that I like to play with myself involves examining my routines and habits to see if they actually match my intentions.

     Seventy years and billions of Madison Avenue dollars have been spent telling us the way to live.  If you listen to them (and we all have to) everything is always getting easier and better.  Last year's new and improved product is not worth your consumer dollars anymore, because now there is a newer, bigger and more improved product available.  More stuff for your garbage can.

     Perhaps you have guessed by now that I am moving toward a discussion of waste reduction and recycling.  No, I'm not going to berate you for your shortcomings, but I would like to pass along some hints to reduce your landfill contribution.

     I just got off the phone with Jerry Ward, owner of Solid Waste of Willits.  They contract with Point Arena for landfill and recycling services through a subcontract with Recology.  I make a game out of recycling and I wanted to get some feedback from him on my practices.  He laughed at me and called me a recycling nazi.  He is not the first to do so and I wear the badge proudly (with the small n).

     Here is one of my “tricks”:  there are many #2 (HDPE) items that are simply too small to make it through a sort line.  Some bottle caps, the plastic ring around ice cream cartons, and lots of things if you look.  I take a rinsed out laundry jug (#2) and put a long slice in it.  Over time I fill it with little #2s and recycle them all together.

     Cat food can lids probably don't end up as Toyotas either.  After letting my dog lick the can and lid clean I place the lid back in the empty can and squeeze the sides of the can closed.  More and more wine bottles have screw tops made of aluminum.  If you pop the little seal out of those caps you can crush that pure aluminum top and put it in with your cat food lid.

     Then there are metal bottle caps.  Way too small.  They can go in a rinsed out regular metal can and when half full or so, collapse the side and toss in your recycle can.

     You know all those pieces of mail that are held together with funtack, that silicone like substance?  Before recycling that mail, I remove that stuff as I can't imagine it helps anything.  I didn't ask Jerry about that as he was already calling me a nazi and I didn't want to push it.

     Another one works for #1 PETE containers.  I see more and more of them being used.  Some are large like what salad mixes come in and others are tiny like the cover over AA batteries (the cardboard back is, of course, recyclable).  Those PETE containers click closed nicely, so you can put little ones like from the batteries, in the big ones and click it closed to recycling them all together.

     I asked Jerry what he wanted customers to know that would help his processes.  His answer was all about contamination.  His contamination rate has risen to around 20%.  That is really high.  The biggest part of the problem is the Point Arena drop-off (although curbside contributes as well.) Unincorporated areas surrounding Point Arena are served by Recology and though I have not spoken to them recently, I'm sure contamination is a problem for them as well, so we all need to be conscious of what we are doing (not a bad piece of advice in general).

     What it is important to know is that just because something is theoretically recyclable, doesn't mean there is a market for it, so to processors, those items are contamination- basically something they have to pay to landfill.  Examples include aluminum foil, plastic and rubber hose and drip line, tires, wire, cloth, film plastic and, of course, the cursed styrofoam.  Then there is all that stuff that is obviously garbage like diapers, food scraps and, yes, dead animals.

     Although Jerry told me it doesn't matter to him, I keep a wine box next to my desk for paper, paperboard (cereal box materiel), and mail.  By resisting the temptation to crumple waste paper it can be stacked in a box and contain up to 25 lbs of paper.  I tie the full box with sisal twine, which recycles with the paper, prior to recycling it.

     In further pursuit of having clean loads, I tear the tape off cardboard boxes while breaking them down.  Those plastic bags that the postal service uses usually have a big address label on them.  The bag itself is recyclable, but I cut out those adhesive labels first.

     And speaking of film plastic, it is definitely a no-no in recycling, but it can be recycled at any Safeway and also Harvest Market (perhaps others).  It can become composite lumber and other things, but must be processed separately.

     You probably know most of this already, but will this information influence your waste diversion habits?