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T H E W E E K LY S U N • M AY 16 - 22, 2018
NEWS ENVIRONMENT
PAPER RECYCLING IS SHUNTED WHILE SOLUTIONS ARE SOUGHT
A
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Shrimp Vegetable Tempura / 2 Shrimp, Mixed Vegetables
Lunch Bento Boxes $12.95
Served with Salad, California roll, and Garlic Rice Lunch: 11am-3pm Monday-Friday Dinner: 3-10pm 7 Days a Week NOW OPEN AT 310 MAIN STREET IN HAILEY Hailey: (208) 928-7111
NEWS IN BRIEF
School Calendar Changes By One Day
Blaine County School District will start for the 2018-2019 school year Tuesday, Aug. 28. Teachers in the district will return one week earlier on Tuesday, Aug. 21. This is a slight adjustment. In order to keep the teacher work days at 185, BCSD adjusted the school calendar. The Board of Trustees approved this change at the regular May 8, 2018, meeting. Para mantener los días laborales de los maestros en 185, necesitábamos ajustar el calendario escolar. La Junta Directiva aprobó dicho ajuste en la reunión ordinaria del 8 de mayo. Manténganse al tanto ya que el comité del calendario trabaja en los calendarios propuestos para los próximos tres años.
Botanical Garden Announces Date For Gala
Sawtooth Botanical Garden will host its gala benefit, “All That Jazz” from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, at the garden south of Ketchum at 11 Gimlet Road and Highway 75. There will be silent and live auctions, live jazz by the Sally Tibbs and Kevin Kirk Jazz Ensemble, dinner, drinks and dancing. For questions, reservations, or to offer a corporate sponsorship, contact Jen Smith, executive director jen@sbgarden.org, or call (208) 726-9358.
BY DANA DUGAN
ttempting to keep landfills from overflowing and trash barges from wandering the seas while paying attention to the health of the planet, residents of towns all over the country dutifully recycle their paper goods, cardboard, cans and plastics. And every day, until 2017, nearly 4,000 shipping containers full of recyclables have left U.S. ports for China, where recycled paper pulp would be turned into new paper goods. But China is enforcing a new “National Sword” policy, which bans 24 types of solid waste, including various plastics and unsorted mixed papers, and sets a much tougher standard for contamination levels. China notified the World Trade Organization about the ban in July 2017, essentially saying it would no longer act as the world’s trash dump. Currently, China consumes 55 percent of the world’s scrap paper and is a major destination for other recyclables. The National Sword policy follows China’s “Green Fence,” which set initial standards for lower contamination levels for recycling. This new policy has finally caught up with the Blaine County Recycling Center, at the Ohio Gulch Transfer Station, where all recycling is collected, organized, bound and sold. By early spring, the Recycling Center reached storage capacity for bound paper recycling. Clear Creek Disposal will continue to collect paper goods curbside, temporarily, but it will no longer be recycled for the time being. “We’ve been recycling paper products for 25 years,” said Lamar Waters, supervisor for the Recycling Center. But, due to the new China policy, “the market has just halted, as it has in 95 percent of the country.” Waters, while frustrated, is trying to find the silver lining in this distressing news. He says paper is good for landfills, but that we need to “reduce paper consumption across the board. Reduce and reuse. The whole world has to start thinking of this, not just Blaine County. Most places started not taking paper in January. I was able to sell the paper until last week; it’s been piling up. There’s no market for mixed paper.” Recycling happens in steps. Paper is taken to a recycling center where contaminants such as plastic, glass or trash are removed. Then the paper is sorted into different grades, after which it will be stored in bales until a mill needs it, and then it will be transferred to the mill for processing. At the mill, paper is then mixed with water and chemicals to break it down and bleach it of inks. It is then chopped up and heated, which breaks it down further into strands of cellulose, a type of organic plant material. This mixture is called pulp, or slurry. “A paper mill is smelly and disgusting—10 times worse than a dairy,” Waters said. “It uses a lot of water and chemicals. We don’t want that dumped in the Snake River.” “The commissioners here want to make it digestible,” Waters said. “They agreed to take paper through curbside but it will not be recycled.” Blaine County Commissioner Larry Schoen is a member of the Southern Idaho Solid Waste District, a regional waste district, and also the Blaine County Commissioners’ liaison to the Blaine County recycling program. “The county feels that the situation is fluid at the moment and subject to change,” Schoen said. “We’re working with one vendor to better understand how we can create a marketable product as
A large expanse of paper recycling sits, inert, at the Blaine County Recycling Center at Ohio Gulch. Courtesy photo by Lamar Waters
quickly as possible. There’s no guarantee to the extent that paper recycling may end permanently.” In Blaine County, where the Recycling Center has just three staff members sorting contaminated recycled paper, it is difficult to manage with that much product. Some 60 tons of paper is “recycled” each month at the Recycling Center. “There’s different approaches to sorting,” Schoen said. “You have to have staff and space, which would take a substantial investment over the long term.” The Environmental Resource Center, which started the county’s recycling program in the 1990s, expressed concern about the situation. “Like many people in our community, we were very disappointed to hear this news,” said Hadley DeBree, the ERC’s executive director. “It is not unsurprising, however, given this is a challenge that many national and international communities are currently facing in the wake of China’s recent import ban. “At the ERC, we see this as an opportunity for everyone to step back, take a look at and reflect on what they buy, what they recycle, what they throw out, and look at where they can make improvements in reducing and reusing. Recycling is truly the last step someone should be taking before throwing something out.” “In the U.S., through capitalism, you have the power to vote with your dollar," DeBree continued. “Therefore, demand change and show that you value recycling through choosing recycled items and reusable containers when possible and supporting companies that are utilizing less packaging, recycled materials, and investing in innovative technologies.” Waters offers another perspective about the possibilities. “The way I see it, Idaho has some of the best landfills in the world,” he said. “Landfills, if they have different elements in them, are like a huge compost pile. To make good dirt, you need all these things. We have to totally shift perspective, and feed the landfills for a while. There’s still a market for cardboard, tin and aluminum. We are still able to that, and still able to move plastics.” There will be a general reeducation of recycling in the county over the next three months. “We made a commitment; we want our recycling program to be net positive for the energy budget and environmental impact,” Schoen said. “There’s no point in running a recycling program that consumes more than it saves. We need to reevaluate by weighing all the elements. We’re not there yet. We’re trying to salvage the mixed-paper recycling program, while being transparent and honest with people, and come up with a good solution.” tws
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CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2018!!
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