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Updated
June 9
, 2008

 

A weblog about the politics and affairs of the old and glorious City of Albany, New York, USA. Articles written and disseminated from Albany's beautiful and historic South End by Daniel Van Riper. If you wish to make a response, have anything to add or would like to make an empty threat, please contact me.


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June 9 , 2008

Throwing Money Into The Albany “Landfill”

Reality finally arrives while Jerry Jennings continues to dream of bigger dumps and more revenue

The Albany City government is having a big collective panic right now. Not just The Mayor, mind you. The entire common council, the comptroller, the second rate lawyers in the corporation council, all of them. They’ve finally figured out that they’re in big trouble, and not a one of them has the slightest clue what to do next.

Their problem is that it’s beginning to look like the New York State Department 0f Environmental Conservation (DEC) is not going to approve Mayor Jerry Jennings’ desire to expand the Rapp Road “Landfill.” From the opening paragraph of a lovely document sent to the City by the DEC, dated May 23:

Overall, the [City of Albany’s application to expand the landfill] was found to be lacking adequate support and detail for its many discussions, conclusions and recommendations. It lacks specific milestones, deliverables, and timetables for most proposed actions. It delays decisions about a long term disposal solution and other waste management practices until after 2011. As such, it is of limited scope...

That was the nice part. (Here’s a pdf download of the document, if you have time look it over.) I can just hear the City officials saying to each other, “Geez, this never happened before. The State always used to look the other way and give us permission to take Pine Bush land and cover it with imported garbage. How come they don’t like us any more?”

The Albany Dump Up Close, Near The Proposed Expansion
The Albany Dump Up Close, Near The Proposed Expansion

The way the City politicians tell it, the entire problem is Save the Pine Bush (SPB.) This angry, stubborn and irate band of taxpayers say the City government should not be in the business of importing garbage into the City. And they say garbage should not be dumped onto the sand of the Pine Bush, over an aquifer, next to people’s homes and businesses.

SPB also says that if the City wants to sell bonds, they should use the money to meet the tremendous demand for housing in downtown Albany. You know, renovate abandoned houses and fill them with taxpayers, that sort of thing. Create a populous, livable City so we can properly preserve our green spaces.

What’s wrong with these Pine Bush people? Don’t they trust their elected officials? Don’t they know that the City needs to import garbage to balance the budget? Didn’t the City officials solemnly promise this time to “never ask for another expansion of the dump,” cross their little hearts and hope to succumb?

Of course, this is the fourth time they’ve asked for an expansion of the dump since 1989. And this is the fourth time they’ve said that they’ll “never ask for another expansion of the dump” ever again.

Condemned Pine Bush In Early Spring, As Seen From The Last Dump Expansion
Condemned Pine Bush In Early Spring,
As Seen From The Last Dump Expansion

Most of the garbage in the dump does not come from City of Albany households, which account for only nine percent of the garbage in the dump. The other 91 percent comes partly from the State and from other municipalities. But most of it comes from corporate haulers, some of whom send their waste hundreds of miles to take advantage of our cheap rates. And some of that private waste is the nastiest and stinkiest toxic sludge you will ever encounter.

Supposedly, but not really, the City needs the revenue from the dump to balance the City budget. But no can prove that this is so because the finances are a virtual secret. In truth, there is a massive glut of landfill space in this country and this region, and the only way to attract haulers is to charge half price and keep expanding the dump indefinitely.

Mike O'Brien
Mike O'Brien

“We need to talk,” Michael O’Brien, 12th ward common council member said to me one evening recently. “We should open a dialogue with concerned citizens and try to find alternatives, but do so in a timely manner so that it doesn’t impact the City in a negative fashion.”

“Mike,” I said, “we’ve been trying to open a dialogue with the City since 1989. We started the current round of discussion in 2005. The only thing you guys pay attention to is lawsuits.” By “we” I meant Save the Pine Bush, which I married into.

Now, understand that the honorable member from the 12th ward was not talking to me about the stalled “landfill” expansion because I’m one hell of a guy. It’s because I regularly go home and talk to The Wife, who is personally leading the fight against the dump expansion. And it looks like she and Save the Pine Bush have got all the cards, while the City has a hand full of bupkis.

James Sano
James Sano

The pull of The Wife channeling through me was so great that evening that after a while 9th ward Common Council member Jim Sano sidled up to us and joined the conversation. He quickly agreed with his colleague, we all need to talk. We need to find solutions to the disposal problem. We can’t be too hasty about this or there’ll be no place to dump the garbage and then everybody will suffer.

And then Sano started rattling off years. “We’re looking at implementation by 2011... in place by 2017... and then we can start by 2022...” Uh hum. I recall hearing this conversation back in 1989, “Find a new site by 1992, up and running by 1994, close the present site in 1999, and by 2002...”

If these elected public servants thought I might be willing to go home and tell The Wife to stop holding up their dump expansion, they were sadly mistaken. Later that evening I reported this conversation to The Wife, who was in her apron busily cleaning up the kitchen counter like a good spousette. In response to my story she started to laugh, snarl, spit, shout, scream a little, wave around a spatula and stamp her little feet. I’m surprised she didn’t throw dishes at the wall.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that this high powered conversation that I had with these elected officials took place in the back of the main hall at the Polish Community Center out on Washington Avenue Extension. Earlier I’d been outside in the parking lot around sunset gazing up in the sky and admiring the towering mountain across the Thruway that they call a “landfill,” currently the highest point in the Pine Bush.

Mt. Jennings Seen From The Polish Community Center Parking Lot
Mt. Jennings Seen From
The Polish Community Center Parking Lot

This mountain of mostly imported garbage is Albany Mayor Jerry Jenning’s most lasting legacy, his monument, the symbol of his reign. The impressive peak of Mt. Jennings comes from the dump expansion in the late 1990s, which included filling in the trough between two lesser mountains of garbage. But somehow the trough and the extra land sacrificed to the dump filled up a lot faster than The Mayor and his minions said it would.

Inside the Polish Hall, in the shadow of the garbage, the two elected officials and I were talking trash because we were killing time during the recent Albany County Democratic Party meeting. This happened during a long roll call vote demanded by the leading candidate for our 21st congressional district, Phil Steck. In an impressive display of political willpower, we watched Mr. Steck take control of the Party meeting and wring out of it an official endorsement of his candidacy.

Phil Steck
Phil Steck

Earlier that evening, Jerry Jennings had attempted a show of political strength over Mr. Steck, but only succeeded in displaying his growing weakness. The Mayor gave his orders, and most of the committee members from the City of Albany obediently got up from their metal folding chairs and walked out of the hall. This left that evening’s Party decisions to the suburbanites. And to the City dissidents like me.

I stayed seated with my own 1st ward common council member, Dominick Calsolaro. We watched as Jennings signaled to his loyalists to walk out. “I think,” Dominick mused, “that us misfits are soon going to take over the Democratic Party.” Yup, that’s us. Misfits.

What was Jenning’s point in ordering a walkout? He certainly demonstrated that there are still a bunch of Democratic Party committee members who still take orders from him and refuse to ask questions, but so what? Judging by the fair number of us from the City who stayed in the Hall, the obedient ones are dwindling.

Common Council members O’Brien and Sano were supposed to have walked out on The Mayor’s orders, but they didn’t. The truth is, I have no idea why they stayed. Perhaps they were gathering information on the misfits. So maybe that’s why they ended up talking to me.

Tom Nitido
Tom Nitido

Mostly, the two of them were attempting to explain to me why the Common Council had voted the week before to approve bonds for the “landfill” expansion. According to them, City Comptroller Tom Nitido told them to do it. “He told us the City’s bond might go down if we bond two years from now when the expansion comes through,” Sano explained.

Did you catch that... two years? Even that appears to be wishful thinking on their part. And a few days later, the comptroller was telling the daily papers that he said no such thing.

Here’s the story that I heard about the “landfill” bonding vote. The Mayor skulked around in the hallway outside the common council chambers at City Hall wringing his hands because he was one vote short for his bonds. But then, 11th ward member and loyal Jennings minion Glen Casey showed up characteristically late, and Jennings ordered the vote to be taken immediately.

Glen Casey
Glen Casey

Casey always skips the public comment period, out of contempt for the public I assume. He once was caught by a TV station secretly reading magazines during an important debate, and he has the highest absentee rate on the Council. The Wife and I once tried to find his house in his ward, but no building exists at the number listed on the City website. Nor did his listed email or phone number work at that time.

I wonder if Casey got bawled out later on, leaving The Mayor outside the chamber doors like that. But he might as well have left the Mayor wringing his hands in frustration. While I was sitting in the Polish Hall waiting for the roll call vote to start, I asked Dominick a question that had been bothering me.

“If the dump expansion hasn’t been approved can the City legally float bonds? Are they allowed to sell them before approval comes through? Aren’t they breaking some law?” Dominick frowned and owned up that was a very good question that he was going to look into. Hah.

Dominick, as we all know, in general considers bonding to be a bad fiscal idea. He’s been known to rant and rave at his colleagues in the common councilon the subject. And he doesn’t think that Albany should be on the receiving end of the garbage business.

Later, in back of the hall near the bar, I brought up the same question with O’Brien and Sano. Is bonding without approval legal? They said, “Oh it’s okay, we won’t sell the bonds until the approval for the ‘landfill’ comes through.” Anyway, they said, the lawyers at the City corporation council said it was legal.

Wrong. Throughout his reign as Mayor, Jerry Jennings has dreamed of building a mega-dump down in Coeymans, some 363 and a half acres on existing farmland, wetlands and Hudson River estuary. This massive crap pile would have been the perfect stopping point for garbage barges floating upriver from New York City, a real cash cow for someone.

Jim Travers Says This Goya Painting Illustrates The Coeymans Dump Battle Between SCRAP And Albany.Jim Travers Says This Goya Painting Illustrates The Coeymans Dump Battle Between SCRAP And Albany.
Jim Travers Says This Goya Painting Illustrates The Coeymans Dump Battle Between SCRAP And Albany.

Jennings would have realized his dream of toxic horror in Coeymans if not for a fellow named Jim Travers. Now, I want you to know that Jim is a real nice guy, a former Albany South End resident who would literally give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. But when it comes to injustice of this sort, Jim is stubborn as a angry mule and doesn’t know how to give up.

Jim and a group of local citizens (who call themselves SCRAP) has been fighting the proposed Coeymans dump for some 15 years. So far the City taxpayers have spent probably more than ten million dollars to make this dump happen. But it really looks like it’s not gonna happen. So all that money is gone. You wonder why the City of Albany is running a deficit?

I mention this detail because at one point the City passed a bonding measure to build the big Coeymans dump, which has yet to receive approval from the State. Jim and his group sued over the legality of the bonding. And they won the case. Resoundingly.

You might think that the City of Albany corporation counsel’s office would have some dim memory of this legal spanking. They are, after all, allegedly lawyers by profession. And they routinely handle the lawsuits swirling around the Coeymans dump. But no, they told the common council that bonding an unapproved dump is without legal consequences.

Check this out. Here’s what happened a few days after my conversations at the Polish Hall, where I mentioned to three - count ‘em three - common council members that I wondered if bonding for the unapproved dump expansion was legal. There suddenly and mysteriously appeared a new measure on the agenda for the next common council meeting:

51.61.08 AN ORDINANCE REPEALING ORDINANCE 31.42.08 ENTITLED “AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING CERTAIN PROJECTS BY THE CITY OF ALBANY, NEW YORK AT A MAXIMUM ESTIMATED COST OF $6,991,000.00 AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $6,991,000.00 SERIAL BONDS OF SAID CITY TO PAY THE COST THEREOF (LANDFILL EXPANSION)” AND ORDINANCE 32.42.08 ENTITLED “AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING CERTAIN PROJECTS BY THE CITY OF ALBANY, NEW YORK AT A MAXIMUM ESTIMATED COST OF $1,700,000.00 AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $1,700,000.00 SERIAL BONDS OF SAID CITY TO PAY THE COST THEREOF. (PINE BUSH RESTORATION)”

Apparently, it suddenly occurred collectively to the leaders of our City that the annoying guy with the blog is loudly questioning the legality of the “landfill” bonding. And they remembered that Mr. Loudmouth is married to the terrifying female who is responsible for holding up the latest dump expansion, the very same implacable harpy succubus who has been suing the holy crap out of the City over Pine Bush issues for the last 30 years.

The simple fact is that the expansion of the “landfill” probably is not going to receive approval from the State of New York. If approval comes through, it won’t be any time soon. So what was Jennings up to pushing through this premature and apparently illegal bonding?

The Mayor has a habit of playing financial sleight of hand, you know, raising money for one thing but spending it on another. His main trick is to launder the money by dropping it into the City’s general fund. Once everybody forgets where it came from, The Mayor can spend it on whatever he wants.

Pretty slick, eh? No accountability, no records of the transaction. I’m telling you, if Jerry Jennings decides to start importing cocaine instead of garbage, he’s got the machinery in place to hide the profits.

Jerry Jennings
Jerry Jennings

So okay, what happens next? Well, as I mentioned briefly before, the City was supposed to have a waste disposal plan with an environmentally friendly dump in place by 1994. Perhaps, instead of continuing to screw around, perhaps it’s time our city officials start thinking of a workable plan. Or is that too much to expect from this current City administration?

There are a lot better ways to handle that nine percent volume of the “landfill” that comes from City of Albany households. That’s the dialogue the elected officials all of a sudden are interested in joining, now that the DEC is not being cooperative. How do we construct a viable, affordable and environmentally acceptable waste disposal system? What’s the plan, now that the old one is going defunct?

Dominick Calsolaro
Dominick Calsolaro

Much earlier that evening at the Polish Hall, I announced my intention to go get something nonalcoholic to drink at the bar in the back of the hall. (I never drink booze at these political events, my mouth runs enough as it is.) My 1st ward common council member, sitting next to me, asked me to get him a BOTTLE OF WATER.

After a long circuitous trip through the crowds, during which I got a ginger ale for myself and talked to a dozen or so people, I finally brought Dominick his two dollar BOTTLE of water, and refused his money.

“When you’re done drinking the water,” I said to him, “you can take the plastic BOTTLE out in the parking lot and fling it across the highway onto the pile.” He looked puzzled, and then grinned with embarrassment.

Damn, I love irritating elected officials.

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Comments:
If you are having difficulties posting a comment, please email Daniel Van Riper. We are experimenting with our spam filters, and we do not want to exclude any legitimate commenters, just spammers!


Posted by: Jim Travers
Posted on: 06/10/2008
Comments
:
Hello Dan, thank you for posting your view on Albany being down in the dumps.

I'll comment more extensively later on the landfill but think that a bit of an explanation is necessary for folks to better understand my choice of photo.

"Saturn Devouring His Son, a disturbing portrait of the god Saturn consuming one of his children, was one of six works with which Goya decorated the dining room. According to Roman myth, it had been foretold that one of the sons of Saturn would overthrow him, just as he had overthrown his father, Caelus. To prevent this coming to pass, Saturn would eat each of his children as soon as they were born. His wife Ops eventually hid his sixth son, Jupiter, on the island of Crete, deceiving Saturn by offering a stone wrapped in swaddling in his place. Just as the prophecy had predicted, Jupiter eventually supplanted his father."

That's according to Wiki.

To me it means Hiz Onerous One has eaten up enough of our time and money.

In seeing that he's run out of children to eat, he'll soon finish off what little of Time he has left. And then he'll starve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son

Saturn : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_%28god%29

Chronos : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronus

I actually lived in Arbor Hill, though I would often be seen frequenting meetings that were held throughout the South End. During all my years in Albany I continually worked to lighten the load being borne by those living under the oppressive burden of poverty.

It made sense then to be involved.

It still does.


Posted by: nycowboy
Posted on: 06/11/2008
Comments
:
I think the DEC probably has referred to this project as "Albany's Little Piss-ant Dump in the Pine Bush".

The entire landfill is some 120 acres, barely enough to justify the DEC to be interested in it compared to some of the other landfills they have to oversee. Probably the fact that it's such a small landfill and the expansions have been so small in the past, is why they've glossed over the real problems with expanding in the very limited Pine Bush ecosystem.

Seneca Meadows is 700 acres of active/closed face, and wants to double it. Franklin County wants a 300 acre active face expansion (for a total of 600 acres with buffer) of it's landfill on two miles from the Canadian Border. Even the 52-acre once proposed Coeymans Landfill is tiny compared to most of the other landfills in the state.

It reminds one of the 50 MW coal plant that they are fighting over in Jamestown. Not 500 MW or 2 GW, but 50 MW of electricity.

I'm glad at least that the DEC is making the City think for once, and not worry too much abotu a silly little $3 million dollars.


Posted by: Dan Van Riper
Posted on: 06/12/2008
Comments
:

nycowboy- You've got it backwards.

Allow me to point out that the State offices in the region use the Rapp Road dump for their own waste disposal, thus the State has always had a keen interest in the fate of the dump. Back in the 1990s, the State may have been responsible for as much as 20 percent of the volume of the dump.

Thus, we were always suspicious of the State DEC when they greatly lowered their standards to make fast approvals of dump expansions in the past. In other words, the State did not hold their own dump to the same rigorous standards they were applying to other, much smaller more "pissant" dumps around the State.

So what has changed? I'd like to think that the State has become enlightened about these issues and is cleaning up its act. Perhaps it is.

Then again, maybe the State has decided to take advantage of the massive glut of landfill space and declining tipping fees. Thus they can jettison entangling relationships with the owners of the Rapp Road dump and cut costs.



Posted by: memyslfni
Posted on: 06/12/2008
Comments
:
I am no expert on the dump, but it just seems to me that everyone complains about it but has no solutions to fix the problem. what can be done that would be satisfactory to the "Save the Pine Bush" members and SCRAP?

What is the solution except "not here".

I am not trying to be flip, I actually agree that the landfill should not be expanded into the Pinebush but what is the fix for all this?


Posted by: Dan Van Riper
Posted on: 06/12/2008
Comments
:

Excellent question, memyselfni. Unfortunately, there are no easy instant answers, that's why we need a community based plan for waste disposal. What we don't need is what we got: a poorly conceived business model that is sputtering to a halt.

But remember, the problem is a lot more manageable if you understand that we don't have to manage 91 percent of the garbage that is currently going into the existing dump. As for the remaining nine percent, there are a lot of strategies both high and low tech to reduce that remaining waste stream.

The problem we've faced is that the City has not been interested in even considering these strategies. As far as they've been concerned, as long as the State keeps granting them more Pine Bush for more dump space they have no reason to look for improvements.

Judy Enck, who is currently environmental advisor to Governor Patterson, told me back in the early 1990s that we had the technology to recycle ninety percent of the waste stream. Today it's closer to 100 percent, and recycling is a lot more economical and profitable today.

And as Dom Calsolaro is fond of pointing out to anyone who will pay attention, the City probably isn't making a profit on the dump, not when you factor in all associated expenses. What we got now is a fiscal sham. So maybe any reasonable alternative to what we're doing right now will be an improvement.

Meanwhile, here's SPB's page on "landfill" issues, including some discussion of strategies to reduce the volume of the waste stream:

http://www.savethepinebush.org/Action/Landfill.html


Posted by: AlfredMoisiu
Posted on: 06/12/2008
Comments
:
There's really only one side to this issue... and I'm suprised to hear anyone call pin this affair on DEC.

I've always been pissed off that the city only recycles #1 and #2 plastic. In the past I've bitched about it, only to be given some cock and bull story about plastic prices. Polypropelene (#5), which is what most dairy (other than milk) and many takeout containers are made of has a much higher value than it did in the past.

The whole thing is a fucking disgrace.


Posted by: AlfredMoisiu
Posted on: 06/12/2008
Comments
:
Actually, I hadn't looked at bulk plastic prices in a few years... http://www.polychange.com/a/

PP scrap is worth almost the same as PET on the market today, even more in some cases. We're literally burying tons of money for no good reason.


Posted by: memyslfni
Posted on: 06/13/2008
Comments
:
There is an outfit called Recyclebank that offers a points incentive for thosae who recycle. check out their website:

http://www.recyclebank.com/

This would be great for the city.


Posted by: Jim Travers
Posted on: 06/15/2008
Comments
:
memyslfni, you've asked:

"I am no expert on the dump, but it just seems to me that everyone complains about it but has no solutions to fix the problem. what can be done that would be satisfactory to the "Save the Pine Bush" members and SCRAP?

What is the solution except "not here"."

Your observation is quite incorrect. I also believe Dan's response to you is incorrect in him believing that "Unfortunately, there are no easy instant answers..."

There are easy instant answers and the City has known of many solutions that have been available to them for years. Implementing the changes they call for is where things get a bit sticky.

Trying to get the city to move in the right direction in dealing responsibly with its solid waste issues has at best been discouraging. Perhaps now they will listen to DEC and finally take their recommendations seriously.

Where Dan is right is where he says we need a community based plan for waste disposal. The model we have been using is two decades out of date and no longer relevant to today's situation.

The first thing that the city needs to address is the question "Do we want to remain in the garbage collection business and continue running a landfill?"

"How will we manage disposing of our residents and businesses solid waste if we decide to end our landfill operations?" should be the next question they need to answer.

For the past fourteen years SCRAP has been trying to educate those sitting on the Common Council in better ways to manage their municipal solid waste.

We long ago advised them to embrace and adopt the philosophy of Zero Waste. We were laughed at. Impossible, we were told.

I have personally provided Mike O'Brien and other council members with ample information on all current solid waste technologies, even on those I disagree with, like Waste Incineration and Waste Gassification; more than enough resources have been provided to the Council for them or any mature adult to come to rational decisions on formulating a modern and comprehensive Municipal Solid Waste Plan.

So maybe if you had read some of the source materials I provided you with, memyslfni, you would not have asked this question yourself. You should know that we've been long trying to encourage the city onto a path towards Zero Waste.

Resources:

Dr. Peter Montague's Environmental Research Foundation and its publication, Rachel's Democracy and Health News, are great resources.
http://www.rachel.org/

Back issues of Rachel's can be found here:
http://www.rachel.org/en/newsletters/archive/rachels_news

You can perform a search of Rachel's back issues for previous articles on 'Recycling' & 'Landfills'.

Grass Roots Recycling Network (GRRN)
http://www.grrn.org/

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
http://www.no-burn.org/

Stop Trashing the Climate
http://www.stoptrashingtheclimate.org/

Please read the Executive Summary and the report's Key Findings.

The Stop Trashing the Climate report's key findings and Execitive Summary was provided to the DGS Committee members by Citizens's Environmental Coalition's Executive Director Barbara Warren, who offered the city the assistance of her organization to help the city develop a more modern strategy in dealing with its Municipal Solid Waste.

Here is a simple two page list of suggestions that the City should consider implementing.

There are many out there with the knowledge the city needs, so why, year after year do they refuse our offers of free help and continue to pay millions to their consultants? Especially when the consultants work has been continuously so "Deficient"?

There are so many resources available on the web today that it's inexcusable the city now finds itself up to its neck in garbage, mired down in its own self-created dilemma.




Posted by: Ken von Geldern
Posted on: 06/16/2008
Comments
:
Before we talk about more recycling programs as the answer, we need to talk about some Re-Use programs. Recycling is great, but it has some shortcomings. Reuse has some benefits that are better than recycling in some ways.

First, what I'm talking about: reuse is creating a new use for an object in its current form. Recycling is breaking an item down into its basic materials, and making some other item out of it.

Some of the weaknesses of recycling are: it consumes energy; it often creates toxic byproducts; it cost money; it relies on lots of shipping, which uss fuel; it weakens the physical structure of the material, so that succeeding generations of the material get progressively poorer in quality.

Reuse avoids or lessens many of those elements.

There have always been many ways societies have programs for reuse. In fact, it was pretty much the norm, until our advanced capitalist consumption-oriented economy created the throw-away culture. "Hand-me-down" clothes was common when I grew up. We hardly ever got new clothes. When we did, they were expected to last for decades. When they got so worn out they weren't wearable, they were cut up for rags or patches to fix other clothes.

At the present time, our economic system allows for some minimal reuse programs. The Salvation Army and other thrift stores is a good example. Rummage Sales (and their many alternate-location-named offsprings) are a very decentralized way people can make some money and pass their unwanted stuff on to somebody else.

With the growth of the internet there are now web sites where people give things away, and virtual communities grow up around that practice. Even "The City of Albany" has its own contribution to the reuse effort. (although I would guess that "The City" would do something to eliminate it if they could) That is, people put their unwanted stuff out by the street, and people who want it can come along and pick it up. "The City" even has one day a year where people can put out huge piles of unwanted stuff, and a whole group of private scavengers can be seen combing the streets, looking for "goodies".

The truth is, the great majority of reusable stuff we get rid of is thrown away, and ends up in the "skyfill" Dan is talking about. A large part of the reason for that is the stigma that has been placed on using something somebody else has used. But another, just as important, reason, is that it just is not easy to get things from people who no longer want them to people who do. We don't have much of an economic infrastructure to do that on a large scale.

There are communities where some thought and planning have gone into facilitating the reuse process. Our neighboring county of Rensselaer is a good example. In the far reaches of that county, in the village of Hoosick Falls, is a county run program called The Eastern Rensselaer County Community Warehouse". This is a publicly owned and operated place where people can donate their unwanted goods, and it is put out for sale. Sort of like a huge Salvation Army store.

One very important factor in why we continue to throw away so much valuable stuff is the philosophical mindset which has been hammered into us by the advertising and marketing arms of the advanced-Capitalist system. When something is no longer wanted by it's current owner, we think of it as "trash".

The fact is, a lot of the stuff we put into our waste stream is not trash, it's a resource. That is, it's not something we need to get rid of, out-of-sight, out-of-mind, because it has no value and is something awful. It is actually something that has value. If we put some labor to it, we can produce something with more value that's useful. So we need to change the way we think about the stuff that we now waste.

We could actually create jobs, cut down on the amount of stuff we throw into the landfill, get usable things to people who need it for less money, cut down on the amount of fuel we use for shipping, and do it in a way that actually makes money, by thinking about unwanted things as a resource instead of as trash.

Of course, we would need our community leaders to implement policies that would facilitate that, instead of policies that make our financial situation dependent on our actually wasting tons and tons of good, usable resources. And in order to implement policies like that, we would need to have leaders who care about the quality of life of our people, instead of blaming our people for all of our problems.

We have a long way to go.


Posted by: Jim Travers
Posted on: 06/23/2008
Comments
:
Ken, this article from the Boston issue of the Business Journal addresses an aspect of Reuse and terms it "Upcycling".

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/06/23/story8.html?b=1214193600^1653282&ana=e_abd


Posted by: Kobenhavn V
Posted on: 12/25/2023
Comments
:
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Thanks for your time!


Posted by: Santi Lorenzo E Flaviano
Posted on: 02/28/2024
Comments
:
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Posted by: Newark
Posted on: 03/14/2024
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