Wiggity Wiggity Waste!

During one of my final days at work in Portland this winter, a customer came in with some light bulbs, some batteries, and a camera. Often times people don't understand what kind of waste goes to the hazardous waste disposal facility. Actually, I think this is a reflection of how little people understand of waste in general. Anyway, just so every knows, cameras are not hazardous. This particular camera caught my eye. It looked new, I recognized the model, and it was really nice. I told her she could simply throw it away with the rest of her solid waste at home, but asked if it was still under warranty. I continued, by asking what was wrong with it, maybe it could be repaired? She said it started out being a great camera, but just stopped working one day. She said she didn't want to bother with repairing it because it's already been replaced. Fine. One of my favorite coworkers, Craig Lyons, the Salvage King, had found an old camera a week prior, and used some compressed air to blow dust out of its gears to get it working again. I thought I'd try the same. I told this responsible, yet slightly ignorant citizen, that I would relieve her of her burden of waste.

When I had a free moment, I flipped on the power switch, thumped it, blew on it, and then set it down cause it wasn't working. I went home thinking it was no big deal. I wasn't able to turn on a broken camera that someone was throwing away. Stranger things have happened. But, like many things, it wouldn't get out of my head. I was reminded of something a really weird guy told me one time, "The average person is pretty dumb, and half the population is worse off than that." It occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to notice if I fixed the camera unless it was getting power to turn on. So, when I returned to work, I dug the charger out of the trash, pulled the battery out of the camera, charged it up, returned it, and flipped the power switch to on so that I could begin "fixing" it. Well, the camera came to life and worked as it was designed to before any of my pokes and prods began. The only thing I could find "wrong with it" was that the battery was dead. Is that a good enough reason to throw it away? I think most people would say no. But obviously that lady didn't want it anymore - so it was just garbage to her. One person's garbage is another person's treasure. True, but it's how we manage this garbage and treasure that define our problem with waste.

To draw a contrast between societies, in very general terms, if a Bulgarian person saw someone throwing away a camera that worked just fine, they'd likely be thinking, "What an idiot. I could sell that to a guy I know!" But at the same time, if a Portlandian person saw someone throwing away a plastic bottle, they'd likely be thinking, "OMG! You're gonna kill a bird! Let's recycle that or make something useful from it!" One is not better than the other. The point is, the concept of waste. The problem is not that this camera lady is dumb. The problem is that there is a meme in our society that is responsible for very easy outlets for things we no longer want. But that outlet is not environmentally, socially, nor economically responsible. Waste is not just something that you don't want anymore. If something still has a use to someone, it's a resource.

To prove this point, I used my new position with Trash for Peace to create something wonderful from trash! Trash for Peace is an education based non-profit that collaborates with school groups to build recycle bins from “trash” to illustrate how creativity and innovation can solve the problem of waste. It's a great fit for Portland, but I struggled to make it fit in Bulgaria.

In fact, Bulgaria still does not have an infrastructure for recycling so making recycling bins didn't seem like a worthwhile endeavor. They have containers for collecting recyclable materials, they have recycling centers that process those materials; but they do not have a collection strategy, nor, most importantly, a mentality for recycling.

Many people in Bulgaria will tell you that recycling is a Gypsy job. What they mean is that the Roma dig through municipal dumpsters and collect things they perceive as having value, ie - paper, metal, etc.  Really, though, this is just an excuse so that they don't have to think about recycling anything, including items of lesser monetary value, like plastic and glass.

An example of the trash collection strategy.

Actually, many things are recycled in this way, but the waste management system as a whole leaves so much to be desired. The government is haphazardly trying to develop the existing system, but the giant disconnect between people and government is usually an impenetrable barrier. In the many small towns and villages of Bulgaria, waste collection does not happen on a regular basis and often runs out of funding. This is not perceived as such a big problem because, inevitably, someone will throw away their embers/ashes from their stove which catches all the garbage in the dumpster on fire. Waste incineration, albeit unintentional, is one of the main ways waste is managed here. 

An example of the disconnect between government and people can be seen below in a picture by Greg Kelly (Peace Corps Volunteer, 2005-2007), where the municipality of Sliven tried to implement a cheaper and more durable plastic garbage dumpster. It was a valiant effort, but obviously there was a misunderstanding. A big one. A misunderstanding that carried over to the introduction of a recycling program.

As I understand it, certain parts of Bulgaria initiated a municipal recycling program in 2005. The idea was to introduce waste separation in order to wrap people's heads around the idea of recycling. The municipalities put out some recycling containers into the streets, with no educational or marketing campaigns whatsoever. It's fairly easy to read the side of the container, though, to know what's supposed to go inside. Unfortunately, they didn't do anything else. It was explained to me that the plan was to have these containers in place for three years so people would be familiar with them, at which time they would be in a position to introduce some kind of collection infrastructure.

So, for three years people watched the municipal garbage man mix all of their separated recycling materials with their trash and haul it all to the landfill together. Okay, so it didn't take three years for people to give up on the idea because there was obviously no point in them separating things if it was all going to be mixed together anyway. It didn't take too long at all before these recycling containers became just containers.

This container is for plastic and metal but as you can see it's just filled with garbage.

This container is for paper and cardboard, but again, it just holds garbage.

With the pollution awareness campaign I ran last winter, I decided that I would encourage proper disposal and draw attention to the concept of waste as a resource. Instead of constructing a recycling bin out of plastic water bottles, I built a garbage can out of the lids from plastic water bottles. These lids are 100% unrecyclable in the USA, not because of the type of plastic, but because of their size. Where recycling fails, I will succeed in showing that they can still be used as a resource and not have to be waste! 

I spent three weeks collecting materials for this project. While in the restaurants and bars that I frequent, The Motor Bar, The Sea Wolf, and the Three Lions Pub, I explained what I wanted to do and asked if they would help me collect these materials instead of throwing them away. It was a great way for extra flirting time with the waitresses! After a week or so, I noticed that people at my gym, Fitness Classic, drank a lot of bottled water so I asked if they would collect for me, too. They ended up being the largest contributor, by far. Below is a series of self-explanatory pictures that illustrate the construction procedures

Three weeks worth of collecting waste from local restaurants and my gym.

This is not necessarily a safe technique I would promote.

By the way, that printer in the background is from 1996, and still working. Thanks, Hewlett Packard.

Built to hold the most common size of plastic bags handed out in the local stores.

100% of the materials I used to create this fully functional, super attractive garbage can, came from stuff that would otherwise have been considered waste. Everyday these things are thrown away, all across the world, but I've used them to create something aesthetically amazing and extremely useful! And it wasn't difficult. All it takes is wrapping one's head around the concept of waste as a resource and incorporating it into your way. And maybe a little tickling of your creativity to get it going again. In this case, an old plastic bottle cap is not so different than a fine digital camera with an uncharged battery. A mentality of waste is a waste of mentality!

I have 4 or 5 presentations in schools scheduled in the coming weeks. I will take my beautiful garbage can with me to show an example of my extreme innovation skills and push my agenda for treating waste like a resource. Hopefully I will inspire some kids to be more creative themselves.