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Garbage has been in the news lately. On Thursday, a judge in Richland blocked large shipments of trash from Hawaii from going to a landfill in eastern Washington. This happened after the Yakama Nation filed a lawsuit claiming the garbage would bring with it significant environmental risks.
Just across the Columbia River, the Oregon town of Arlington has enjoyed a relatively low unemployment rate compared to the rest of the state, thanks in large part to the landfill that employs locals and supports businesses run by many of its 610 residents. And they're not alone. Many rural economies are driven by the business of garbage.
While Arlington welcomed the jobs and revenue the garbage business brought with it in the late 1908s, some people object to living and working near landfills. Many Willamette Valley winemakers are unhappy about a recent proposal to increase the size of a landfill in Yamhill County.
Do you work for a waste management company? Do you know where your garbage goes? What role does trash play in your local economy?
GUESTS:
- Michael Lang: Conservation director for Friends of the Columbia Gorge
- Kevin Barry: Director of the Klickitat County health department and acting director of the Klickitat County solid waste department
- Dennis Gronquist: Gilliam County commissioner, former mayor of Arlington and terminal manager for Walsh Trucking at the Arlington location
- Ramsey McPhillips: Owner of McPhillips Farms and member of Waste Not of Yamhill County
- Jackie Lang: Director of sustainability and community outreach for Waste Management
Tagged as: economy · environment · garbage
Photo credit: maol / Creative Commons
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My sympathy to pinot susan! The smells are atrocious, as well as the other concerns you raise. I have lived in Yamhill County since 1990, and have been fighting the operations at this landfill ever since. Two owners later, they claim that there "is no danger" (right, Will Robinson!) yet just the site itself (next to the South Yamhill River) has the potential to pollute the aquifer that runs approx 20 miles in either direction underground.
The sights and smells of the (currently) 14 storey high mountain of garbage are unliveable at best! Coming home from the Coast with my kids, we have been accosted by the smell in our (windows rolled up, air-conditioned) car.
The current and former owner's history of exploiting the ever-changing host of county commissioners by changing (and currently attempting to change) State mandated Land Use zoning laws to accommodate and expand the County's definition of 'County use" to "Regional" landfill. This has, over the years, made this small, vineyard and winery friendly area of the Willamette Valley host to the garbage of our own county, plus most of the Portland metro area, the state of Washington, and was previously witnessed (by me personally) British Columbia, Canada!
A a former winery owner, I was appalled at the overloaded garbage hauler trucks (in the 90's) that used to end-run the highway weigh stations along Hwy 99W. The trucks would detour through Newberg onto Hwy 240, thru small towns on their way to the south end of McMinnville, where the dump is located several miles out of town.
Farmers still farm on land immediately adjacent; but like the New Orleans fishermen, whose product is contaminated by association with their geographic area, you won't see me buying food from produce stands in that area to put on my family's table!
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Years ago, when I lived in NYC, we sent our garbage into the Atlantic off the Long Island coast and proudly built an under sea mountain of garbage.
When I moved to New Mexico, and to this day, we dither with nuclear garbage keeping, and no resolution is at hand.
Today, we have become aware of a vast "puddle" of plastic in the middle of the Pacific ocean which is generating new and monstrous creatures.
A friend of mine recently did battle with Portland city hall because she did not want to use private garbage cartage, saying she never elected or cause to be chosen, the garbage system used currently. Of course now she has to take her stuff to the dump herself! Some trade-off!
Now -- Hawaii wants to send its refuse to this neighborhood - namely the east Washington/Oregon area. (I just want the tropical breezes, the big waves, and beautiful bodies).
Why can't we just have a sane public policy to deal with our refuse like we deal with so many other public issues? It is a problem that is not going away and is actually quite important to everyone's quality of life.
Or is this program the way toward good public policy?
Respectfully (at 0615 hrs - yawn),
Neil Goodman
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You ask: "Why can't we just have a sane public policy to deal with our refuse like we deal with so many other public issues?"
I wonder: if we don't have it now, what would that sane public policy look like?
Respectfully (at 0712 hrs - still yawn!),
Dave
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I just returned from doing relief work in Port au Prince, Haiti: a city on an island that has obviously not come up with a way to manage its garbage. Trash piled in the streets, as there is very limited municipal service. The rivers are piled so high with garbage, that often the water can no longer be seen running its course. Pigs and dogs rummage through the massive piles and the stench permeates the air. Second to the destruction from the earthquake, the garbage issue moved me to great sadness.
I have always been one who hates to waste, but my trip to Haiti motivated me to an even greater degree. My family generates 1 can of garbage per month. We are currently having discussions about how we can further reduce that volume. Since we already recycle all we can and compost our food scraps, we are now faced with harder choices (such as products we like which are packaged in non-recyclable plastics).
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Hawaii sending trash to Washington feels similar to receiving bottled water from Fiji. It shouldn't happen. But Hawaii's case is different - there are only so many square miles of island so landfill space is a premium.
I prefer that Hawaii send its trash to the mainland rather than dump it in the ocean, but there are concerns with unintended environmental consequences. How is Hawaii doing with its efforts to recycle, reuse and never use in the first place?
One of my favorite places to visit is the Metro Transfer Station on Highway 30. I've thrown away a lot yard debris over the last decade and I'm always amazed by the amount of useful material I see there. MTS constantly reinforces my belief to consume more thoughtfully.
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The pic Michael Lang just talked about is here:
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/07/hawaii_trash_could_be_headed_t.html
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I am from Hawaii originally and even as a teenager I understood the problem and encouraged recycling, but Hawaii is FAR behind the curve in recycling. The other problem is the migration of mainlanders to Hawaii without restriction. One cannot address the problem of the amount of waste produced in Hawaii without addressing the problem of people moving from the mainland to Hawaii. Until that flow is stemmed, the amount of waste will continue to grow. So the real long term resolution must be a combination:
- Slow down migration of mainlanders to Hawaii
- Increase recycling, composting and reusing in Hawaii
- Education of adults, most of the kids get it
- Financial penalties for those who exceed limits
- Financial rewards for those who reduce trash
- Incinerator for proper materials
- Since the vast majority of the goods used in Hawaii is imported, there must be some reciprocity to take back the waste generated by the product imported, from where it was imported
- Change the attitudes of many in Hawaii to one of more sustainability
It is a major problem and must be addressed at some point, on a major scale.
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Dave,
Tell Emily there has not been a commercial shipment of pineapple from Hawaii anywhere in over a year. Almost two now.
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Why not? Where do they come from?
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Dave, didn't Dole pull out of Hawaii?
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There are only two pineapple plantations left in Hawaii. Maui Pineapple Company and Dole’s on Oahu. The Dole plantation is basically for tourists, and the pineapple grown there is primarily for tourists to bring back with them. Maui Pineapple also has focused its business on souvenir fruit.
Once Del Monte shut down, that was the end of real, large commercial shipments Emily referenced.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Feb/02/ln/FP602020326.html
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This side conversation caught my attention since my father is a farmer on Maui – I’m a fourth generation Hawaiian living here in Portland. I just want to mention that Maui Land and Pineapple is shipping pineapple to the mainland, they own Kapalua Farms who is currently exporting organic pineapple, ‘Kapalua Gold,’ to your local Fred Meyers. And, its crazy delicious.
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BBanks, this is correct, but the volume is relatively small compared to the real true commercial shipments in the past. My response was to Emily's comparison with the shipment of garbage. Since the smaller shipments are easier to process, it is easier to try and prevent insects and seeds hitching a ride. IIRC Maui gold also comes from Costa Rica, so I don't think one can tell where the actual pineapple one is eating came from.
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Great topic! PLEASE tell listeners they can recycle ALL plastic for free @ Far West Fibers on SE 17th and Holgate (donations welcome), and Metro's website tells how to recycle EVERYTHING, even styrofoam, carpet, etc. Also, we must all conserve water, a precious resource, and collect and use "gray water" for plants. I love your show and listen often. Thank you, deb
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What happens to all the plastic wrapping this trash? Is it biodegradable?
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I live in McMinnville, where the Riverbend Landfill sits beside the Yamhill River floodplain. Beautiful Yamhill County attracts tourists who come to visit the heart of wine country, and are treated to the sight and smell of a giant mountain of garbage as they drive down Hwy 18. Waste Management wants to expand this noxious eyesore, endangering the watershed with trash from places outside our county. Even though all environmental experts say this is a very bad idea, the local government keeps overriding the permit denials. Watching concerned citizens valiantly fighing "big business" sometimes makes me feel like I'm in the middle of a Carl Hiaasen novel!
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Hey, there. Just wanted to interject a question that noone seems to have consciousness of...
Hawai'i is land of native people which has been colonized by us, and is now a tourist destination for many of us over here on the mainland. Aren't we responsible for the trash situation as much as or more so than the natives???
Thanks.
Zachary Rouse
Lents neighborhood of Portland
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During my vacation to Hawaii (Oahu & Kauai) last spring, I was disappointed to see that no one recycles or composts. Everything goes in the trash, which made me wonder where all that garbage goes. Now I know...they ship it 'out of sight and out of mind'. It saddens me that many cities Oregon are doing so much to decrease the amount of garbage we create just to have other states and countries dump their waste in our backyard.
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There is so much to say on this tropic it is hard to know where to begin. Here in Yamhill County, we watch giant garbage trucks pouring through the county on a daily basis, bringing garbage from all over the area. This is insane. Why are we moving garbage from place to place? If every town had to see the garbage that it produced, people would probably stop making so much garbage.
Landfills are an archaic method of disposing of goods, dating from a time when people threw out things that decomposed in a matter of days. Now we know that we are throwing away things that can be recycled, composted in a meaningful way, or should never have been made in the first place.
Landfills are the biggest source of methane gas, the WORST greenhouse gas known to science. There is NO monitoring of the amount of methane that is produced by a landfill, but it is thought that only 50% of it is ever captured and flared. Now we are being told that a "green" source of electricity is coming from landfill gas. (LFG) NOT TRUE. Methane is only a part of what is in LFG: the remaining elements (dioxins, being one of them) are equally dangerous in other ways. The means by which electricity is generated from LFG is dirty and inefficient, yet companies making electricity from LFG get huge tax credits. Electricity production does nothing to reduce the amount of methane that is ever captured.
Landfills should be prohibited from accepting ANYTHING that decomposes and thus creates methane. The state of ORegon is woefully behind the curve on requiring comprehensive composting of food scraps, paper, green waste. This alone would be a huge step in decreasing the amount of toxic gas that is emitted by all landfills around the country and the state.
In addition, in Yamhill County, we have room for OUR garbage, just not everyone else's. If we could eliminate other people's garbage, could do meaningful recycling, and composting, along with enhanced dry waste management, our landfill would last a long time.
ilsa perse
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Farms are no more useful or 'natural' then garbage.
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Regarding the photo of the bales, full of holes (http://media.oregonlive.com/environment_impact/photo/garbagebalesjpg-05f796033a43ac7b.jpg)
This is what they look like BEFORE shipment? Kind of hard to believe they'll stay sealed during the entire trip. I see they have attempted repairs using duct tape - that really instills confidence in the whole idea!
I did some googling on this and found this quote (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/us/23garbage.html):
"Thinking the approval was imminent, the company began collecting garbage in September and shrink-wrapping it in plastic.
For a time they stored the garbage at the docks, drawing complaints about gnats from neighboring businesses. Then they began storing it in a yard in an industrial park here in Kapolei."
Drawing complaints about gnats from neighboring businesses - the bales cannot be sealed all that well if they are attracting (or releasing?) gnats to the point that it causes the neighbors to complain.
I guess Wiliam McDonough is right - "away has gone away" (http://books.google.com/books?id=E7dHf3DuyfEC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27#v=onepage&q&f=false) -
Seems a bit ironic that plastic bags are being banned while wrapping garbage in eight layers of plastic, then burying it, is presented as the responsible method.
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In the two-hour version of this show, I would have asked this question!
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I believe Mr. Lang brought up some very good point a long with one of the callers. I'm an industrial designer here in Portland, I've worked as a garbage and recycle truck driver, and I lived in Hawaii on Oahu for four years.
First Mr. Lang brought up the fact that the city of Honolulu need to to establish a recycling program! Hawaii touts itself as being very precautionary about allowing invasive species into the islands, I'm a little shocked that they would ever allow something from there to potenually harm someones else land, not very good Aloha Hawaii.
One of the callers mentioned the carbon pollution of transport of the garbage some two thousand miles. This is a very powerful point and should not be over looked.
All over Hawaii, signs, tv and radio spots, print advertisements encourage vistors and locals to "Protect the land" or “Malama Ka Aina, Pulama Na Mea Oiwi,” ("care for the land, cherish the spirit and the culture of the land and its people")
Given their spirit of wanting to do good. Hawaii should set it's sights on establishing state wide "craddle to craddle" certified product requirements for all inbound products to their state. In the mean time establish a state wide program that looks at waste as a resourse and not something to pass off to someone else would be a great start.
Thank you.
James Yarger
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The idea of the article is that you can get money out of garbages, yes it's true there are some existing state that make provide likelihood out of the garbage, they are segregating some of the materials and sell it to junk shops. Isn't that a great idea?It is just matter of being resourceful because that's the only thing that will save us during the times of bad economy. It isn't just prove livelihood it will could also be as source of revenue in the local economy. Those individual who are having hard time to earn money will learn to recognize the value of personal finance. In today's economy that money is too hard to earn maybe financial literacy should have to instill.
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Comments are now closed.
One of the many serious issues surrounding Riverbend Landfill in Yamhill County, located in the floodplain on the banks of the S. Yamhill River and just a short distance outside McMinnville, is NO off-site monitoring of the water or air by the State of Oregon or anyone else. Consequently the 500+ people who live within a 3 mile radius are consistently exposed to the airborne pollution generated in the dump from toxic materials present in the landfill material - one can see TVs, computer screens, batteries, paint cans, you name it, any day. And no one is monitoring the air for potential health issues or any other consequences of this pollution.
I live about 1.5 miles from Riverbend and have personally experienced discoloration/spotting of the material on my outdoor lawn chairs since moving here. No one, DEQ or othewise, it seems is concerned about what we/our children are breathing or drinking in the water taken from our wells or drawn by cities downstream for their water supply !!