What, me? Recycle?

“The faults of others are easier to see than one’s own. Observe what you yourself have done and have not done.” -Buddha

As a journalist, I have the privilege of watching much of life from the outside in. I can find a problem, find someone to criticize the problem and come up with a story that hopefully people want to read. It’s also easy to see the good works of others, report on those good things and go home and forget about it.

I write about recycling on a fairly regular basis and have learned a tremendous amount from interviewing some of Marion County’s greenest citizens. While I can note these individuals’ fine accomplishments, I had to wonder, how green am I personally living?

To find out, I took advantage of the skills and training of a Marion County Master Recycler. In August, Silverton resident Erik Petersen came to my home and did the unthinkable. He dug through my pile of trash and with the lift of an eyebrow upon his first inspection; I knew I was in trouble.

Combined into two torn plastic kiddie pools, I had old car seats, a bent hula hoop, plastic plant buckets, shredded tarps, a variety of broken toys and other miscellaneous items that have sat removed from my life in a far corner of the yard.

Of the things that stood out, the plastics were the biggest problem.

“Plastics can live years and years when they are thrown away,” he said. “They are environmentally the worst offenders.”

If it has the three recycle arrows and a number, Marion County recycles it. While the plant containers did, the car seats did not. Following the county’s motto, “When in doubt, throw it out,” the largest bulk plastic items were relocated to the trash along with many cheap plastic toys accumulated from years of boxed fast food lunches and big box store dollar toys for kids.

“You just want to make sure all the plastics are as clean as possible,” Petersen said. “If it isn’t clean, they may not recycle it because it’s just not worth the effort. With the big plastic pots, you can just leave them on the sidewalk and people will come and take them,” he said. “Right now there are a lot of people doing raised container gardening and these are just perfect.”

If leaving them on the street isn’t the preferred option, he said a listing on Craigslist or Freecycle Salem often get them to a new home quickly.

Moving on, we sorted through a pile of lumber and old plywood, remnants of past projects of ideas gone untouched. While wood can be ground down, mulched and eventually turned into soil, Petersen said this was not the best option for much of the pile.

“The Salem ReStore just loves leftovers from a home remodel project,” Petersen said. “Leftover pieces of lumber or PVC that are usable...can be resold to someone who has a use for them.”

This pile was moved to a separate location with a note to self that the ReStore in Mount Angel would get a visit from me.

While discussing the obscene amount of waste my small family had produced in recent years, I also learned I need to do more to break items into individual components. Take off large metal pieces, remove plastic wrapping, take off duct tape, etc. This helps ensure the bulk of the items are properly recycled and not reintroduced into the waste stream.

One thing was certain at this point: my garbage pile is getting smaller and the recyclable piles are getting bigger. However, we now stood before the 32-gallon grey trash bin that isn’t representative of my years of thoughtless buying habits, but the day-to-day life of my family and me.

At first whiff, Erik stands back, his eyes roll into the back of his head, but he stands firm, prepared for the task at hand. Perhaps I should have removed the bag of dirty diapers before he arrived.

We carefully set out two old plastic lids destined for the recycle center and filled them with the first of several clear plastic bags that held my daily leavings. There were bits of watermelon, snotty tissues, some leftover chicken, yogurt lids and more. With a gloved hand, Petersen carefully sifted through the mess pulling out plastic bags that held cucumbers or kiwis, a plastic soda bottle and other assorted recyclables.

“You can reuse the plastic bags in the vegetable or bulk sections,” he said. “If I buy oatmeal, I can take the bag home, rinse it out and use it again. I can typically get half a dozen uses out of them before I throw them out.”

While he was able to dig out a few recyclables, the bulk of the trash was food scraps that not only took up trash space, but also impact the environment in other ways.

“Every process something has to go through uses energy and resources,” Petersen said. “When scraps go into the trash, they add weight to the truck making it use more fuel. You have to go to the store to buy soil for your garden, using fuel. It all adds up in the end.”

Just don’t put meats or oily foods in a compost bin because it could contaminate soil and attract animals.

A Google search for homemade recycle bins shows a myriad of options that range from cheap to expensive to build. There are also many compost bins for sale. Every April, Marion County offers Earth Machines for a third of the regular cost, but other options are available at hardware and farm stores.

By the end of session, the amount of items I was about to send into the waste stream was reduced to an eighth of its original size. Not bad for an hour’s work. Instead of a full trash bin every week, I could reduce that amount by half.

Petersen said while my day-to-day-impact on the waste stream wasn’t horrible, I still had much I could do. By considering the long term implications of my purchases, the Traver household can make a difference in Marion County and make me a more informed writer because of it.