It's difficult being in the recycling business in New Mexico. We often feel 30 years behind everyone else. We hear of $70-150 landfill tip fees on the coasts; ours is $3.85/cubic yard residential. California has goals to reduce waste going to landfills by %75 by 2010 but we as a state have a 12% recycling rate. We read of innovative uses for carpet, tires, glass in other parts of the country while it seems the only use in New Mexico for these types of materials is to line the sides of roads and ditches. There IS a lot of local enthusiasm for the "green movement", for recycling, etc. just not a lot of will shown by our lawmakers.
However, in the latest issue of BioCycle, there is an article about a yard waste recycling and composting facility in Kansas City, Missouri. I have roots in KC going back all of my 42 years and then some. One thing that always startled me on visits to the area was a skepticism toward recycling. I have a cousin who actually asked me "why should I recycle." When an Uncle from the area heard I was in this business, he turned me on to Missouri Organic Recycling (MOR); his friend started it years ago with his dad, or some such. Last time I was out there, I dragged my parents out to their (MOR) facility. I might just be the only person who visits dumps on their vacation. Anyway, I haven't felt so at home. With the exception of standing water, the facility looks very similar to ours.
Now back to the article in BioCyle. On the cover is a picture of food waste that looks very similar to large loads of food waste we get here on a regular basis. When I opened the magazine to the article, sure enough, MOR was the featured facility. Change the name from MOR to Soilutions, and ignore all the stuff about the state and all sorts of agencies throwing money at them from both sides to get the food waste collection program running,the article could be about Soilutions. They have the same challenges, the same goals, the same successes. MOR is just 10 years ahead of Soilutions.
So it gives me hope to see that we at Soilutions are developing innovative programs that, while they may not be avant-garde in relation to the rest of the world, they are on the right track to be on a par with the heavy hitting composters of the country.
2 comments:
Take heart, Walter-
New Mexico is 'behind the times' in many things. Some like it that way, some would prefer to meet that resistance and speed up the progress a bit. Both the traditional lifestyle and the paths we're choosing point to greater recycling in NM.
NM has chosen to maintain its agricultural foundations, and wise abuelitas and smart students at UNM often have small gardens in their yards in town- some are enormous rose gardens, some are potted salsa gardens, all make life better.
With the econopocalypse, I expect we'll see even more people staying at home, looking at their neglected yards and deciding to trim out the overgrown bits and start gardens of their own.
Some of our yards are caliche and gravel, pure sand, or perfect adobe. All of them need some degree of irrigation.
Compost being the remedy for just about any soil, I'm betting that people will gravitate to professional composters like you guys as they look for some way to 1) make their backyards more enjoyable to spend time in, and 2) make a viable vegetable patch, and do both as inexpensively as possible.
My prediction, as well as my hope, is that recycling, particularly organics recycling, will become the predominant way of doing things. As agriculture along the Rio progresses, even the larger farms will depend on compost to help them trap more of the nutrients and water in the soil and keep it from running off into someone else's drinking water.
People will begin to recognize on their own that tipping fees at landfills, no matter how cheap, still mean you're paying someone to bury a useful resource on their behalf.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Although, not a day goes by when I am not thankful for innovative gardeners, and every week I field questions from people wanting to start a vegetable garden for the first time, I sometimes forget the beautiful melange of traditions and lifestyles that make NM what it is.
Things ARE changing, just sometimes imperceptibly. That's why we love our land of manana.
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