written 2017
North Carolina’s recent “garbage juice bill”, Bill 576, requires DEQ to allow spraying of municipal landfill wastewater into the air to help it evaporate. Clean Air Carolina explains that this bill allows “taking toxic landfill wastewater accumulating for years and then blasting it through a high-speed fan that turns it into tiny particles in the air is a public health concern”. Basic human instinct (at least mine) is to react with disgust at the idea of spewing liquid waste into the air. In comparison, sorting manually through solid waste - even before it has been sitting, seeping, and accumulating nasty wastewater for years - is gross enough. Nevertheless, two years ago, Mecklenburg County Solid Waste Division contracted Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc (GBB) to sort through residential waste. According to Brad Kelley, on-site project engineer of GBB, the local temporary workers were equipped with heavy duty protective gear; they were motivated with donuts, coffee and Gatorade. Nevertheless, despite incentives and protective gear, the task and constant stinging smell of decaying anthropogenic waste are so nasty, that the first few days, several workers just walked out on the job.The purpose of getting a crew to sort through residential trash was to develop a waste characterization study(http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/LUESA/SolidWaste/ManagementPlan/Documents/Mecklenburg%20County%20Waste%20Characterization%20Study%20(2015).pdf), which will help improve the County’s waste management system which can help with improving recycling behaviors.
Brad Kelly concluded: “The main take-away from the sort is that (…) about half of all recyclable materials are still ending up in the trash.” While the county has engineered this study which showcases that Charlotte citizens can easily reduce their waste in half by simply recycling, some citizens are already privy to what goes on in residential waste bins, by simple observation of the volume of trash they produce vs. that of their neighbors.One of these people is Pamela Murray. She is a waste generating minimalist. Her mantra is reducing and re-using; recycling comes last.
Pamela moved to Charlotte in 1989 after graduating from Georgia Tech. From the first Earth Day on, she has been concerned about reducing, reusing and recycling. Pamela is currently an institution within the bicycling community (see BikeFest, Charlotte Spokes People, Bike Benefits, PMTNR, Cycling savvy) – she has that same perseverance when it comes to reducing waste.
Part of Pam's waste reduction regimen:
1) She produces one 8 liter bag of waste a week.
2) She recycles and composts hard core.
3) She knows her plastics and typically avoids them – she always has her own shopping bags, she uses and reuses cloth rice and flour bags for grain, breads, tortillas, bagels. Any plastic that she does inadvertently end up with goes to the Harris Teeter recycling box.
4) She plans her meals wisely and doesn’t waste food
5) She buys heavy duty tin foil which she uses several times – for example for baking potatoes and brownies
6) When she eats out, she does not use straws or lids, she declines extra bags for her food.
7) She travels with her own set of silver ware and chopsticks in a nifty container always found in her basket on her bike.
8) She scrapes out lipstick tubes and toiletries with a popsicle stick in order to use up every ounce.
9) She shops wisely – always in bulk and uses up everything
10) Glass jars, old candle tins, bottle tops become plant containers
11) She avoids using too much dishwater soap (thus the bottles they are contained in!) by cooking with cast irons that do not need soap to clean them
12) She bikes to the grocery store with a Travoy trailer. Because everything goes into the trailer, she does not need (plastic) bags. When she buys meat, she requests meat paper instead of styrofoam meat trays. For produce, she doesn't use plastic bags.
13) She buys durable bike tires (she gets 12,000 miles out of them and has ridden 28,000 miles since 2011) and durable clothing.
14) Once she suggested cutting up old bike tires to use as rubber bands to tie ponytails!
15) She reuses plastic wrapping (especially from bulk toilet paper packing) to line her trash cans at home, from which she often pulls out the recyclables from her daughters’ rooms!
So, anyone who feels irked by the “garbage juice bill”, and wants to reduce their “garbage juice impact”, yet suffers of severe political fight fatigue, well, they can immediately make a difference by following Pamela’s lead of waste reduction by starting with an inventory of their waste production and instantly changing their waste producing and improving their waste minimization habits.
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| Pam and her belongings |
Brad Kelly concluded: “The main take-away from the sort is that (…) about half of all recyclable materials are still ending up in the trash.” While the county has engineered this study which showcases that Charlotte citizens can easily reduce their waste in half by simply recycling, some citizens are already privy to what goes on in residential waste bins, by simple observation of the volume of trash they produce vs. that of their neighbors.One of these people is Pamela Murray. She is a waste generating minimalist. Her mantra is reducing and re-using; recycling comes last.
Pamela moved to Charlotte in 1989 after graduating from Georgia Tech. From the first Earth Day on, she has been concerned about reducing, reusing and recycling. Pamela is currently an institution within the bicycling community (see BikeFest, Charlotte Spokes People, Bike Benefits, PMTNR, Cycling savvy) – she has that same perseverance when it comes to reducing waste.
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| Pam's treasure basket |
Part of Pam's waste reduction regimen:
1) She produces one 8 liter bag of waste a week.
2) She recycles and composts hard core.
3) She knows her plastics and typically avoids them – she always has her own shopping bags, she uses and reuses cloth rice and flour bags for grain, breads, tortillas, bagels. Any plastic that she does inadvertently end up with goes to the Harris Teeter recycling box.
4) She plans her meals wisely and doesn’t waste food
5) She buys heavy duty tin foil which she uses several times – for example for baking potatoes and brownies
6) When she eats out, she does not use straws or lids, she declines extra bags for her food.
7) She travels with her own set of silver ware and chopsticks in a nifty container always found in her basket on her bike.
8) She scrapes out lipstick tubes and toiletries with a popsicle stick in order to use up every ounce.
9) She shops wisely – always in bulk and uses up everything
10) Glass jars, old candle tins, bottle tops become plant containers
11) She avoids using too much dishwater soap (thus the bottles they are contained in!) by cooking with cast irons that do not need soap to clean them
12) She bikes to the grocery store with a Travoy trailer. Because everything goes into the trailer, she does not need (plastic) bags. When she buys meat, she requests meat paper instead of styrofoam meat trays. For produce, she doesn't use plastic bags.
13) She buys durable bike tires (she gets 12,000 miles out of them and has ridden 28,000 miles since 2011) and durable clothing.
14) Once she suggested cutting up old bike tires to use as rubber bands to tie ponytails!
15) She reuses plastic wrapping (especially from bulk toilet paper packing) to line her trash cans at home, from which she often pulls out the recyclables from her daughters’ rooms!
So, anyone who feels irked by the “garbage juice bill”, and wants to reduce their “garbage juice impact”, yet suffers of severe political fight fatigue, well, they can immediately make a difference by following Pamela’s lead of waste reduction by starting with an inventory of their waste production and instantly changing their waste producing and improving their waste minimization habits.
