George
Washington was a pretty prudent President—certainly the greenest of our chief
executives if you consider the number of portraits spawned by the US Treasury
Department—so I’m certain he’d be as interested as I in knowing just how much
carbon is released into the atmosphere by the industry involved in the creation
of the bill’s presumed value.
Just
to throw something out to jump-start the discussion, I’m going to propose that
every dollar carries with it a 20-cent environmental burden, but I wouldn’t
argue with estimates of either half or double the amount. The point I want to
establish is that of the baggage itself ... we’ll save haggling the amount for
later.
What
brought this line of thinking to the fore once again was a recent conference on
recycling in which one presenter after another wore out the term
“sustainability” with a familiarity that eventually brought me to the
uncomfortable realization that I was probably the only person in the room who
was lost as to the meaning of the term within the context of waste management.
Part of my confusion lay in terms of definition as it applies to our use of
resources. Sustainability where some semblance of a stable environment is
concerned is one thing, but in the present context, with growth both in
population and productivity proceeding exponentially, it is quite another. While
indeed I think we are obliged to do our part in lessening our burden on limited
resources as effectively and efficiently as possible, it is important that we
weigh carefully what measures are meaningful within this context and which are
in fact counterproductive.
Conversion
and Recycling: Friends or Foes?
This
is a question many have asked, particularly over the past decade as the concern
for energy resources again reared its ugly head. Given the opposition to WTE by
those claiming to speak on behalf of the “environmental community,” those
favoring the development of alternative practices to accompany recycling efforts
have looked at a variety of waste conversion technologies (CTs) to carry them
toward the goal of greater diversion rates. The effort has been laborious,
painful, and fraught with failure on both the technological and political side,
but in the past year progress is being made on both
fronts.
After
decades marked by inadequately funded research and development programs, a
number of CTs have begun to show commercialization promise. At the same time the
political climate has changed with the emerging recognition that markets have
matured thanks to the diligence of those involved in the success of recycling
programs.
The
largest boost, however, has come from the marketplace where fuel prices have
risen to reflect both the realities of international politics and
supply-and-demand driven by the emergence of a truly global economy. With the
cost of feedstock more than covered by typical tip fees, appearance of
governmental incentives to reduce dependence on foreign resources, an improving
price-competitive situation, the ability to preserve landfill airspace at the
outset, and the opportunity to drive diversion into the upper third of the
wastestream renders opposition to CTs an increasingly untenable political
position.
Carbon, Productivity, and
Efficiency
There’s
an argument against energy from waste that says that by prohibiting it, there
will be less energy for us to use. I don’t buy it since energy, productivity,
and population are inextricably linked and that therefore we’re going to employ
the energy it takes to achieve the productivity necessary to maintain whatever
population or population growth rate we’re hoping to
sustain.
We
in the waste industry are not in business to decide how much population the
planet can hold or how much industry should be allowed to provide for it. We’re
not in a position to affect the productivity or the efficient use of resources
on the front end of the materials equation. What we can and must do, however, is
become as efficient and productive in the management of materials on our side of
that equation by subjecting all of our diversion practices to critical and
honest scrutiny. If we do so, it will lead us to the balance point between
recycling and conversion.