Flow Of The River

Waste Management in Switzerland: Recycle, or Else! (Part 1)

What if you got fined for putting your old computer in the trash? That could happen in Switzerland. I found this out while visiting my sister, who lives in Chavornay. This small village near Lausanne is perched on an ancient plateau between the Alps and the Jura Mountains. Humans have been living here for 14,000 years. I wonder what the place would look like if they'd been throwing out today's trash all that time!

Minimizing household inconvenience is not this community's goal. No curbside recycling here; residents bring their recyclables to a central waste and recycling center for sorting. Success requires economic incentives, hence the fines for non-compliance.

I accompanied my brother-in-law with his recyclables to Chavornay's recycling center. We drove a load of paper, plastic and glass down a small hill, past a few old houses and farm buildings, some hiding walls originally built around the 1200s, and passed through an open gate into what looked like an outdoor warehouse next to railroad tracks.

There in the open air, I saw dumpsters so large they reminded me of the cargo containers we see stacked in the US as a reminder of our international trade deficit. One dumpster held old broken furniture. Another had branches and logs. A third had old carpet. There were smaller dumpsters for glass, plastic, compostable materials, and a slew of other stuff. Under a small roof stood barrels and bins for people to throw out all sorts of things -- batteries, household appliances, tools, cell phones, computers, and yes, right in the middle of all this was a half-filled barrel of unwanted medicines. I looked around for a law enforcement presence, but found none.

It's remarkable what this community recycles. I visited their website to see what they say about it. There's predictable stuff like:

• Paper
• Glass
• Plastics
• Metals

Then there's less obvious stuff:

• Large items, like skis, furniture – tables, couches, carpeting, mattresses, box springs, treated wood.
• Household appliances – lighting fixtures, mixers, drills.
• Clothes.
• Oils – vegetable, mineral, motor and machine oils.
• Compostable materials – food scraps, plants, kitty litter, ashes, sawdust, turfgrass leaves, branches, etc.
• Inert household materials such as rocks, stone, porcelain.

And then there's a whole category of materials that may be dropped off at the recycling center, but businesses are also required to accept them back:

• Light bulbs
• Batteries
• Electronics – TVs, stereos, computers, telephones, etc.
• Stoves, washers, refrigerators, freezers
• Household hazardous wastes
• Expired medicines
• Tires

Next time: So what's left for the garbage can? What happens to the materials once they leave the center?

John Haugland works in the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office.

Earth Day in Chicago

Earth Day at Daley Plaza in Chicago.

EPA Regional Administrator Mary Gade encourages participation in the Earth Day Challenge. (She's a blogger, too.)

EPA bloggers Chris Newman and Beth Murphy work at the EPA booth in Daley Plaza.

EPA's Todd Nettesheim wants you to recycle your old cell phone.

With grant money from US EPA, the City of Chicago has purchased pharmaceutical collection boxes like this one.

Meanwhile, back at the Metcalfe Federal Building, the unwanted medicines collection continues under the supervision of two plainclothes Chicago police officers.

The unwanted meds collection in our building filled almost the whole barrel. Looking pleased are Vicki Thomas (Great Lakes Program), Region 5 Administrator Mary Gade, and Great Lakes National Program Office Director Gary Gulezian.

Karen Reshkin works in EPA Region 5's public affairs office.

Earth Keepers: Faith Convening for the Environment

Many people don't often think of faith and the environment as synonymous. At the Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) , we see the two terms almost like a unique symbiosis. It is an interdependent or mutually beneficial relationship between two separate organisms, or in this case two separate institutions. Protecting God's creation is not a new concept. Some of the environment's greatest advocates like E.O. Wilson and Bill McKibben have written about this idea for decades. 

Earth Keepers is a network of 10 different faiths and over 150 congregations across Michigan's Upper Peninsula (U.P.). These faiths include Roman Catholic, Episcopal, United Methodist, Baha'i, Zen Buddhist, Lutheran, Jewish, Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist, and Quaker. In 2004, this network signed a covenant stating their commitment to protecting the environment of the U.P. through support to organizations like the SWP. The challenge then presented itself. Just how do we set the stage to achieving the goals of the covenant?

It started with the first Clean Sweep Earth Day Event in 2005. Hazardous waste drop-off sites were established at 20 sites spanning the entire U.P. People from some of the most remote corners of the U.P. came out to drop off old batteries, oil-based paint cans, and the like. In only 3 hours that day over 45 tons of household hazardous waste was collected and properly disposed. At the same 20 sites in 2006 over 320 tons of electronic waste was collected. And in 2007, U.P. residents dropped off over a ton of old and unwanted pharmaceuticals, including $500,000 in controlled substances.

The term Earth Keepers garners great support in our little corner of the planet. People now see it to represent a partnership like none other and this is just the beginning.

Next time: What's Earth Keepers doing for 2008?

Natasha Koss is the Membership Coordinator for the SWP.  She also coordinates the partnership with the participating Earth Keepers congregations.