Last Monday I attended the Chico City Council’s monthly Sustainability Task Force Meeting, chaired by Mayor Ann Schwab. If there’s one thing you should know about Task Force Meetings, it’s that THEY ARE YOUR MEETINGS. THEY ARE TOTALLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND THEY RELY ON YOUR INPUT AND WHEN YOU DON’T COME THE MAYOR MISSES YOU. She said it, in so many words. You can get in the loop here: http://www.chico.ca.us/city_council/home_page.asp. This particular one was, for the most part, a presentation and discussion on the future of WASTE in Chico. That’s A LOT to think about.
      A representative from the Butte County Solid Waste Division spoke for a long time about efforts at the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility (the artist formerly known as the Neal Road Landfill). In the past several years, there has been an unprecedented drop in pounds of waste brought to the landfill. This is due in part to both mandatory and voluntary recycling efforts, especially in the construction business. It’s in part due to more people recycling as a source of revenue. It also is a reflection of the economy plummeting since 2006. This is mostly a positive thing. The folks at Neal Road want to see less trash buried. The folks on the council want to see less trash buried. The representatives of our two city waste haulers, Waste Management and Recology, they want to see less trash buried. And the interested citizens and business representatives that attended the meeting also want to see less trash buried. Nobody likes trash.
     Here’s the thing though, less trash means less income for the Neal Road Facility, and they need to hit a certain bottom line in order to afford the fees landfills must pay to ensure there is money for maintenance and cleanup after they are closed, not to mention the salaries of the minimal staff and the costs of maintenance and current projects.
It’s sticky like the inside of a dumpster.
     The rep shared a lot of information, some facts and figures, and an estimate of how long until the landfi---er, Recyling and Waste Facility is full. He shared some really interesting developments too. Had you heard of Landfill Mining? Me either. But it’s obvious in a way, and kind of cute. It’s like a hide-and-go-seek game we’ve invented to keep ourselves entertained: hide millions of tons of valuable material in a pile with dirty diapers and Styrofoam packaging, then see how fast you can dig it all up again to make more new things! The only losers would be any species and ecosystems harmed or obliterated by the processes in between. Still, kind of a fun game.
     They’re also in the process of building a system to reclaim the methane released from the landfill for power. Though it’s not released into the atmosphere (it’s currently burned) harnessing it is a much more sustainable (and profitable) option. Other hopes and plans at the facility include building a recycling plant on site. The hope is that, in the future, rather than being able to dump everything in the hole, haulers will have to pass through a recyclables audit, and can either sort their own or pay to have staff do it. These recyclable materials could be a source of income for the facility, but again, the money to create the system will have to come from somewhere.
    Like, I said, sticky dumpster.
    It seemed to me that a lot of these problems would be solved before they ever even happened if the responsibility for materials and their lifecycles did not just rest on the shoulders of city government. What if consumers, and bygolly, manufacturers were required to be responsible for their own things? I was told that this was a big component of the city’s plan, working down the supply chain.
     This meeting was just an informational presentation. There is a sub-group devoted specifically to the issue of waste, and I asked to be added to that mailing list. Are you interested? You can be added too. Get in touch with General Services Administrative Manager Linda Herman at lherman@ci.chico.ca.us.
      But wait, there’s more! There was an exciting presentation about a recent collaboration between the city, PG+E, Butte College and Chico State to help improve homes. They do an audit of the house as a holistic unit, create a prioritized, step by stap plan for the most effective home-improvements, and provide training to contractors to apply these systems to their buildings. It struck me as an innovative program, that was well supported, and is coming up with inspiring results. How often do you hear something like that?
      At the very end, there was an announcement from the rep of a new business in town, GRID Alternatives. This is a group that provides training to volunteers to do solar installation for qualifying low-income homes. They’ve had great success on the East Coast and in the Bay Area, and just arrived in Chico a few weeks ago. Check them out here: http://www.gridalternatives.org/
     I’ll be at the next one on Monday, Oct. 3 at 5:30 pm. See you there?