Life among the NIMBYs

[SlatchJim]

Just got back from the So Cal Waste Management Forum.  The conference title was "Zero Waste?"
It was a collection of state officials and politicians gathered to discuss ways to increase recycling and reduce loads to landfills.  I was an adjuct speaker for a session on business perspective, and my spiel was on 'overzealous state financial burdens on compliant brownsfield redevelopers.'

The guy that spoke before me is in charge of the Riverside County landfills household hazardous waste collection and load checking.  His talk focused on CRT monitors and how everyone in the world sends them to this spot in India that has no idea what to do, but collects your money anyway.  Long to short: lots of really dumb and toxic uses at the good end, and just plain old fashion dumping on the bad end.  Here in CA, it's the law to send our CRTs out for recycling to THIS specific location, where no actual recycling occurs.  It's because CA has no plan to permit a facility to handle their own CRT waste stream properly.  Stockpiles, scratch that, mountains of the former monitors are abandoned in the Yuma area.

The question came up, how can we collectively change the mindset in CA to force our own state to deal realistically with our own wastes?  I offered blog protests, increased press, hopefully leading to legislation that permits a facility to either landfill the glass safely until technology provides a solution, or build our own smelter to remove the lead from the glass (like NY has http://www.nulifeglass.com/).  Any other better ideas would be appreciated.

Side Note.  The city of Malibu is having a EPS collection event soon for people looking to recycle surfboard foam.

[pdxmike]

Slatch--if I can't help you, can I at least congratulate you for bringing up the issue?  Oregon--Portland especially--has a similar situation in regard to land use.  Planners here are sickeningly smug about Portland's national reputation for progressive land use planning and regulating.  Portland is seen as an oasis with no traffic jams, great mass transit, high incomes and education, etc.  The statistics bear that out.  But that's not because it's really true, it's because Portland's planning hasn't ended its sprawl and other problems, it's just pushed them across the river into Vancouver, WA and surrounding areas, where they don't show up in Portland's statistics.  Portland has horrible sprawl, and it's called Vancouver (or increasingly, Vantucky).  And incomes are high here because the middle class increasingly has to move outside the city limits to find affordable housing, which is scarce in Portland due to the same regulations that are being praised. 


It seems to be exactly the situation you have with CRTs.  Mandating recycling doesn't end CRT waste if all it does is move the garbage pile somewhere else. 


Same thing with people who claim electric cars use no energy, or any of a number of "green" things where the wastes are just moved out of sight.  So again, I'm being no help to you, but it would be great if more people start raising the issue as you are doing, whether it's CRTs or sprawl or anything else.