Essential is defined to be absolutely necessary; extremely important. Who decides what is “essential”? I know I personally have felt that my idea of “essential” and what the leaders define as “essential” are completely different.
Have you ever thought about the things we just do not think about? You set your trash out, on a specific day and it just disappears. Who provides this service? Where does it go? Flip a switch, the lights turn on. Need an ingredient for dinner, or running low on household goods, just run to the store? We often do many of these things without thinking.
In times of crisis, it becomes evident quickly what is important and what you define as important.
Logan County currently diverts 87% of all trash from the landfills. On this COVID-19 Earth Day, we wonder, how important is this?
50 years ago, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson came up with the idea for a national day to focus on the environment after witnessing the effects of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Over the decades, the movement has grown, is being observed in several countries and it is directing its message into serious issues like better use of resources (recycling), the Canopy Project and climate action.
Earth Day is now widely recognized as the largest lay observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and influence policy.
Currently, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the global support for climate action grows. As the awareness of our changing climate grows, so does social mobility, which is reaching a fever pitch across the globe today.
Until now. Today, the challenges are much closer than the eventual fate of civilization.
Safe distancing. Economies paused. People are distracted from abstract issues. We are stressed about immediate consequences, like rent, food, childcare, and the mountains of “what ifs”.
Why is recycling essential? Why not just landfill everything when surfaces are less safe and budgets are strained? Do we have the option to ponder the fate of the planet? Does this really feel important at this time? Is it choice when life-and-death matters come up?
Full transparency, the District is a planning organization who didn’t see this coming, but who did? We did not have a plan of what we would do in response to a pandemic in our community. We started in February and ultimately decided the parts of our program that we consider essential. The Governor later agreed, naming recycling as an essential service.
Some other communities, outside Logan County and Ohio decided it was not, and told their residents to throw it all away. If everyone threw it all away, the landfill located here in Logan County, would run out of space in about two years. It takes about a decade to prepare a new one.
On the other side of the resource cycle, businesses and industries depend on our “commodities”, as feedstock to make recycled products. Know those little cardboard tubes in the center of your toilet paper and paper towels? These factories are trying to speed up production but are having a hard time finding enough cardboard. Is the answer to that to simply cut down more trees?
Rest assured, this has not been easy. The District has made many changes to the way our work is done to keep our staff safe and to ensure that we continue running for you. We have ways to isolate materials until they can be safely touched. There are quarantine plans to isolate staff who have been in likely contact with the virus. Other programs have simply been paused.
The worst part is the vast contamination. Folks, your projects-while-idle have made our lives challenging and unsafe. Toilets, shower-doors, shelving units and aquariums are NOT recyclable! Our employees, who are community members, have to risk their lives to climb into the pile to remove them. Household containers less than 5-gallon size, and paper and cardboard. Simple. If it does not meet those criteria, simply place that item in the trash. If you have a question, please call our office. Our administration staff is still working daily.
With the full cooperation from the Logan County Commissioners, we have worked for more than 30-years to reach these levels of landfill diversion. Stopping now would have years of consequences. We would be shifting the responsibility to our children and our children’s children. The time is always right to do the right thing. We can affect our world and we can start right here in Logan County. Happy Earth Day!
ANGEL PAYNE
Logan County Solid Waste District Coordinator