The trappings of a mini-MRF - available for designation.

[Arthur Boone]

My interest in waste reduction and recycling began in 1981 when new president Reagan indicated that affirmative action (my work for the previous 9 years) was dead. On a trip to Virginia I saw my first landfill and was amazed at all the stuff getting thrown away and buried. 

Back in Oakland, between the Ecology Center's programs in Berkeley and the drop-off program at Merritt College, I got the basics and, in September, 1983, restarted the North Oakland Recycling Center. 

Digging through garbage cans/carts/bins was an avocation; like cadaver surgery for a young medic. After several attempts to understand what I was seeing, I learned about the loop (long before the circular economy [a fancy phrase] got circulated), and Dan Knapp's twelve categories. As I became more depressed by the mechanization of materials diversion, I wondered if a mini-MRF (first called a Sortarium) could be useful and in 2015 rented a friend's garage to set up my laboratory. All hand labor but, most noticeably, 90% diversion to markets and composting, what was left was 1) items with no markets in the stream of commerce, also described as "obstacles to zero waste" and, functionally, this "stuff" could be seen as trash (these are all man/woman-made objects that had no place to go). and 2) "garbage" which I defined as tiny pieces of things that may have had a market but no one had yet figured out how to separate all those little pieces into meaningful fractions. 

Now, turning 84 in March and my friend planning to sell their house, this experiment needs to come to an end; interested parties are invited to see what's working and how before my project vacates the premises in mid-February. The great teaching value of this facility is explaining to the unaware how many materials and products can have another life. Any attempt I have made to convince building or property managers of the value of such work has been met with deaf ears. "Leave it to the hauler" is the feedback; someday that will end. 

Arthur R. Boone

Center for Recycling Research, Berkeley

510/910-6451 / arbo...@gmail.com

[Nancy Poh]

There was this story my neighbour shared regarding her holiday trip to Singapore in the 1970s. While walking the streets there, she was discarding her orange peels as she ate them. She noticed a young student walking behind her, picking up her litter.  Obviously, the "Keep Singapore Clean" campaign launched by its PM on 1 October 1968 had been effective. 

How to refuse, reduce, re-use and recycle should be one of the curriculums in the educational programme. Monkey see monkey do. Children can be inspired to do more in reducing waste if they can see for themselves ways that could be done. I run a bike shop but one of the books I like to share with my new staff is not about bicycles. It's title is, "Green style = Un style en vert = Grüner Stil = Groene Stijl" and it is filled with photos of eco-friendly products, some of which are made with discarded material. You should be able to check it out at the following link:

https://archive.org/details/greenstyleunstyl0000unse/mode/2up

Children in schools should be exposed to books like that. Why are they using new material in their art and craft projects? Instead of telling them to get new material to create something, they should be encouraged to figure out what they can use on hand to create something that will be useful for their home or school or that could help the homeless or people with disabilities.

We should work on the proverb, "one man's meat is another man's poison". I have a Karcher iron that is still functioning but its cover is broken. Though the model has been discontinued, it would cost me RM974 just to replace it and it has to be imported from Germany. I am sure languishing in someone's storeroom or possibly your friend's garage, there is a unit of the same model which is not working but with a perfect cover. 

We often have floods here. Many electronic or electrical items were damaged by water, some of which can be repaired if parts are available. How do we connect these people so that we can reduce these items from being sent to the landfills sooner? Recently, my sister sent me a bag of plugs for electronic equipment. I am sure that some of the plugs can be re-use for other equipment. How do we connect these items with people who need them or to places like Fixit clinics?

Don't "Leave it to the hauler". Leave it to the children to decide through the right education which involves the 4R, ie, refuse, reduce, re-use and recycle.

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