After reviewing the text of the Seattle ordinances that ban Styrofoam and plastic food containers and implement a “Green Fee” for plastic grocery bags, I am not as annoyed with the Seattle City Council as I had been, but I am even more disgusted with our State Legislature. We all knew about the liberal policies of the Seattle Council, but the State created the framework upon which Seattle crafted the regulations.
The left wingers in Olympia must have known they didn’t have the votes to pass a state law that accomplished their goal, so they appealed to the left leaners to help them set the stage for cities to pass local ordinances. That way, they didn’t have to take responsibility for screwing the constituents; that fell to the local government bodies.
They did this, knowing full well there was already a city chomping at the bit to jump on the band wagon.
Even though all Seattle residents are not flaming liberals, there are plenty of folks willing to be bent over by their government and take the punishment without revolting. They collectively deserve what they get. If you listen to the namby pamby comments by some Seattlites in the media, they seem to be resigned to the screwing and are willing to roll over and take it. Taking this abuse suggests that the citizens have conceded that city officials know what is best for them better than they do.
You know that saying about a camel getting his nose under the tent flap. I don’t want to speculate about all the havoc this camel will cause.
For me, I listen to the debate about recycling then I watch to see where the recycled products go that the dutiful citizens separate from the garbage. I find it a little amusing when I hear reports that the recycling companies periodically divert the “recyclable” waste from the recycling path back to the waste stream and the garbage disposal system.
Government tells you to recycle or else…..You separate the stuff….. the volume of “recyclable” waste overwhelms the system…..the market is flooded with product…..the inventory explodes with too much “stuff”……the price falls and the company can no longer reprocess the product at a profit so it just dumps the excess back into the dump.
I don’t know the real motives of the left wingers in dealing with these bags and styro food containers, but I am sure they will reveal themselves as time goes by. I do know that the government has learned to shift the burden of responsibility to business owners that generally sell these products. It is much easier to control a few hundred businesses and armtwist them into compliance where policing hundreds of thousands is virtually impossible. Once again, the consumer is not the one held accountable. Once again the small business person takes the hit.
There has to be fairer way to get where we need to get with the environment. I suspect that if we really knew where some of these turkeys wanted to take us, we might revolt. Since they feed it to us steadily over time, trustworthy citizens are duped before they know it.
I am just happy I don’t live in that nut house. For now……
No Loss for Words 
Separate, Incinerate, CoGenerate
by Steve DanaThe State of Washington determined last year that our state needed to reduce the amount of material deposited in the waste stream (garbage). They passed a bill in the legislature that set the stage for cities like Seattle to develop local ordinances making it illegal to use Styrofoam clamshells, plastic food and beverage containers and enabling them to levy “Green” fees for plastic bags. Their intent was to reduce the consumption of not just plastic things, but clearly biodegradable items as well. Even though paper bags are not covered by the Seattle ordinance, they will be in the next wave.
I prefer to look at the massive volume of waste as an opportunity for a business rather than a penalty.
I look at the massive volume of waste we deposit in land fills and see millions of dollars worth of product being buried in the ground. If that bothered the legislature a lot, they should have offered incentives to change behavior rather than penalties.
I remember the time when there were people at the dump that salvaged much of the stuff we dumped. The trucks dumped the garbage on the ground and the salvage sorters jumped all over it.
Today, we encapsulate our garbage in plastic bags inside plastic bags. Then, we bury it in the ground in a dry landfill where no oxidation takes place. No significant biodegrading is taking place when there is not water or oxygen; particularly when these plastic bags are left intact.
I make no claim of ownership to the idea that at a minimum, we should be shredding the garbage bags to facilitate oxidation of the contents.
But there is more to this idea as well.
The shredding would allow a machine to separate different types of waste so that those items that are clearly biodegradable can be composted, while the metals, plastics and other non-biodegradable items would be separated and reprocessed. For materials that are organic, but not particularly biodegradable, we would incinerate and capture the energy in a co-generation plant. It might be that we don’t need land fills.
Certainly there are issues to be dealt with regarding the burning, but this whole process could be a business opportunity rather than a business penalty. This would be a system that is the friendliest to the environment. Why isn’t Greg Nickels pitching sorting and incinerating?
I would offer tax credits to the companies that developed the plants to move this plan ahead. I might offer public land to set up the plants as well.
We pay millions to transport our garbage out of the region. We pay the railroad and the county that receives the trash. If my system turns waste into a marketable commodity, the value of your garbage could reduce or eliminate the cost to the consumer, rather than creating additional burdens.
Since nobody in our region is talking about this idea, I doubt the publicly stated goal is the real one they don’t want you to know about.
What do you think? Does my idea have merit or am I clueless?
Posted in Environmental, Snohomish County Political Commentary | 1 Comment »