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What
I Learned in the Zero Waste Fellowship,
June 26 - July
13, 2001, Berkeley, Ca.
by Shibu K. Nair, Zero Waste Kovalam, Kerala, India |
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The 3 weeks long fellowship on zero waste was an unforgettable
experience for me. The programme was filled with joy of learning.
The programme was of sharing of practical experiences rather
than conventional class room learning. People from different
parts of the world, different walks of the life and their
words and deeds were actual textbooks for the fellowship.
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Learning from each other and finding solutions from sharing
of experiences and building relationships were the charm of
the programme. Essentially Zerowaste means building of relationships
across the world and across the time to share the resources
of the world and to preserve them for the generations to come.
The ambience of the city of
Berkeley and its people proved that the Berkeley, California
is the right choice for the fellowship. This part of the world
is always busy with community oriented progressive movements.
The number and diversity of the groups working in the field
of environment and human rights and the receptive community
of the city was something inspiring.
Our work on Zerowaste Kovalam,
a very first initiative of this kind in India, is compelling
us to learn more and more through challenging questions it
raises day by day. We are growing with the project, with the
local community trying to find solutions and answers to these
challenging questions. We were exploring each and every possible
source to get our questions solved.
Fortunately the first Zero Waste Fellowship in the world
and the invitation to join the fellows was a boon to us. We
know that the lifestyle and culture of Berkeley is totally
different from our part of the world on which we are working.
But at this verge of globalization, lifestyles are changing
rapidly world wide to accept the new ' concepts of development'
and its debris. The changing scenarios in the field of waste
management in developed countries are raising threats to the
third world countries with incineration technologies and waste
exports.
At this point we believe that
it is very important to have global network and initiatives
to preserve and manage our resources very efficiently. We
have to work together to prevent the toxic technologies which
will poison our future; which will turn our only home earth
into a graveyard. The ideals, philosophies and principles
forwarded by Zero Waste and the initiatives happening around
the world to work for a toxic free future is a ray of hope
for the human beings. The network of Global Alliance for Incineration
Alternatives is playing its role to reach this all over the
world.
Let me make it clear that
the majority of the discard management facilities and infrastructure
which I found in Berkeley was irrelevant to the conditions
in Kerala. But the spirit, ideology, efforts and energy behind
each and every facility is admirable and they have to be translated
into our realities. Let me go through the major components
of this fellowship which
influenced me.
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Berkeley Ecology Center and the Berkeley Facilities |
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This
non profit organization which was working in the field of environmental
education and awareness for the last 3 decades was one of the
organizers of this fellowship. This nonprofit organization was
doing curbside recycling for the City of Berkeley all these
years. It helps the city of Berkeley to divert the amount of
discards going to its limited landfill and regaining resource
back to the economy through recycling. The partner in this venture
is Community Conservation Center another non profit organization
which is specialized in segregation of discards and adding value
to them by sorting and baling. The discard collection trucks
are run on bio-diesel minimizing vehicular pollution in the
process of curbside collection. The specially designed bins,
trucks, sorting lines, and all other equipment makes the process
of curbside collection and recycling efficient. The most important
factor is the 'Team Work' and the relationship with residents.
From the director to the curbside discard collector / sorter
joins together to form a miraculous team which produces synergy
to this venture. And this is the beauty, which attracted me
most. The relationship with the team to the residents of the
City is also beautiful. The way the residents segregate their
discards and placing them in bins on the days of collection
is admirable. The 'courtesy notes' placed in the bins to remind
the resident when they make mistake in this process shows the
beauty of this relationship. There is no superior subordinate
relationship.
The curbside recycling contract
with the city of Berkeley is a model for any progressive government.
The contract provides for the conservation and recovering
of resources. The policies and incentives forwarded by the
contract is creating employment opportunities and generates
income in the society. The manual, which describes about the
worker safety and code of conduct, is also a model document.
The priority given for the health and
safety of workers and the terms and conditions for the remuneration
and incentives go hand in hand with the zero waste ideas.
Ecology Center also runs farmers
market in which farmers sell their organic products.
Recycling of used engine oils
and concept of bio diesel are the two new things, which I
learned from Ecology Center. Mr. Dave Williamson (operations
manager, Ecology Center) who is a mine of practical knowledge
in the field of recycling, community organising, campaigning
is also one of the pioneers in US in the field of Zerowaste
and anti incinerator campaigns. Being with him throughout
the fellowship was something inspiring.
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| Community
Conservation Center. |
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We had an exciting
hands-on experience on sorting of plastic containers, glass
bottles and paper. The facility is community based and it was
an inspiring sight to see people bring their discards to the
buy-back center. Buy-back centers located within a certain radius
of the different sections of the city encourage the citizens
to recycle and this is the situation in the city of Berkeley.
However, in the Philippines, this would not be an ideal situation
because not everybody has a car to transport the heavy stuff.
Manual collection of the recyclable using push carts for small
to medium barangays and small trucks for medium to big barangays
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| Urban
Ore |
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The idea of grouping discards
according to its nature and use coined by Dan Knapp is wonderful.
He grouped discards into 12 categories and those categories
have been accepted worldwide. The peculiarity of this classification
is that when you segregate the discards as per this classification
you can see them turning into valuable resources.
Building Resources is another
organization similar to Urban Ore. Andy who is heading this
organization is providing a facility where people can buy
all building materials at cheaper prices. He adds value to
all these used materials by meticulous segregation of materials.
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University
of California
San Francisco |
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The Three people
army (Mr. Oliver Werner, Ms. Kathryn Hyde and Ms. Susan A. Bluestone)
who is working hard to recover the discards which is otherwise
going waste in the University Campus. (It is very easy for a
person to go
and collect the discards and recycle them, but to make people
to do this and
make the event a participatory one to convey the message of
conservation is
of course toughest job) The scope of starting recycling in a
University
campus is very wide. It says: each and every person of a society
have
his/her own responsibility/role to play in conserving resources;
Educational
institutions which are building the future society have responsibility
to
teach students the way of life a model citizen should lead;
It also
recognize the dignity of labor. I would say it is important
to every
student to join recycling process, which is beneficial to the
community
rather than joining the army.
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| Composting. |
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Vermi
composting is a way to convert the biodegradable discards into
valuable organic nutritious manure. There are a lot of experiments
going on around the world to make this process more efficient
and local specific.
But Berkeley Worms differs from all these activities in one
aspect. It is totally student initiated and operated to do composting
of the discards generated in a University Campus! The Berkeley
campus of University of California holds a population of 25000
people! Mr. Jon Bauer who was the pioneer in the movement when
he was a student of the University and the boys and girls who
are taking the leadership now influenced me with their spirit
and energy. What I liked most is their commitment to the idea,
happiness in doing this and team spirit more than their wonderfully
designed worm boxes, bins, collection truck! These young people
are a model for any other university or educational institution,
which want to grow in a progressive way!
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| Medical
Waste. |
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Davis Baltz (Programme Officer,
Common Weal, Health Care Without Harm)took us to the disturbing
world of Medical Health Care industry and the dangers behind
its 'modern' way of operations. He narrated how institutions
which are supposed to maintain the health of the Society or
support life to exist now turning against life on earth. Concerns
on plastics and Mercury used in this industry have been discussed.
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| A
Day with an Architect |
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Mark Gorell a friend and co-traveller
of Urban Ore, is an architect by profession. He is specialized
in designing Resource Recovery Parks which are considered
to be the trade centers in a zero waste society. He shared
his experience on designing various resource recovery parks
upon which he worked. He took the pain to sit with us a whole
day to design a Resource Recovery Park which is suitable for
our own projects. It was simply marvellous and what we were
waiting for.
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| Days
with Rich Antony and Prof. Neil Seldman |
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It was inspiring and thrilling
to me to sit in the classes led by Rich and Prof. Seldman
who were the pioneers in U.S to promote recycling and campaigns
against toxic technologies.
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Rich
unfolds the history of discard and its management and the perspectives
of the then administrators. He led the classes to draw a picture
to see how things should happen in a Zerowaste community. For
this he took examples from his own experiments and experiences,
Rules and Regulations in US with regard to discard management
and peoples response to it. He described each and every aspects
of a system which is meant for discard handling to achieve zerowaste.
Prof. Neil Seldman joined Rich to elaborate the methods to plan
and develop a system which can recover discards generated in
a community.
He also emphasized on the need for the public education and
keeping it continuous. |
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| Globalization
of Garbage |
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Thanks to GAIA and Ecology
Center for such a wonderful opportunity to talk to the community
of Berkeley. We three fellows presented our experiences with
zero waste efforts. The people were interested in the experiments
we are doing in our own community and appreciated the efforts.
They kept on asking questions. It showed their receptiveness
to new ideas. Some of the questions also helped me to get
a reflection of myself too.
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| K.P.F.A.
Peoples Radio |
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K.P.F.A. the local radio station
who gives special attention to the
environmental issues both local and global. They showed special
interest in zero waste fellowship and broadcasted the interviews
with the zero waste fellows and organizers several times.
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| Participation
in California Resource Recovery Association Annual Conference. |
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It
was a golden opportunity to meet people who are working in the
industry of recycling, their products and ideas. It also helped
us to hear academicians, researchers, Government officials and
Industry people's perspective on handling discards. The exhibition
was a mine for me to collect interesting literature on recycling,
composting, waste management planning etc. Literatures from
EPA, UNEP, GRRN, BAN, Almeda county etc were useful.
This fellowship also gave
a chance to understand US's issues related to discards. The
consumerism of US community is something scaring. Do we have
that much resource on earth to consume like this? It was a
warning for people like us who are coming from third world
countries. Because this part of the world are modeling Europe
or US for economic development. The policies framed by our
Government also inviting the same danger that US now faces.
This fellowship also affirmed the need for material substitution
and community building for sustainable development. I could
see the result of 'throw away culture', which is being marketed
by multinational companies in third world countries in the
landfill site and curbside bins. The energy intensive glass
recycling followed in US is disturbing. The unbroken bottles,
which can be used again and again after washing, is being
crushed for recycling. It costs a lot and wastes energy. Use
of paper is another
major thing. Plastic recycling is depended on the Government
support and markets in China and Mexico. And we know that
these recycling industries are not safe. They are polluting
environment and exploiting people.
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Centralised
compost is not a solution for thickly populated places like
Kerala. But I was interested in my fellow's - Sonia Mendoza
from Philipines- idea of curbside composting using drums. The
term 'Ecological Waste Management' coined by her for forming
Philipines Solid waste management rule and concept of 'Eco -
Aid' instead of waste collector or sweeper were something fascinating.
Zini Mukhine who came from
South Africa shared the experience of educating the public
through street plays and songs.
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I was so influenced by the
people who are fighting for the cause and who
spent a lot of energy for this fellowship programme.
Ms.Ann Leonard, Ms.Monica
Wilson, Ms.Firuzeah, , Mr.Andre at the house of GAIA; Mr.
Martin Bourque, Mr. Dave Williamson, Ms. Carry Tieken, Mr.
Tim Krupner and the employees at the house of Ecology Center;
Mrs and Mr. Dan Knapp, Mr. Mark Gorell and employees at Urban
Ore; Mr.Andy Pugini at San Francisco community Recyclers;
Mr. Michael Green at Center for Environmental Health, Mr.
Jon Bauer of Berkeley Worms, Mr. Oliver, Ms. Susan, Ms.Kathryn
of UCSF; Mr. Denny Larson of Global Community Monitor; Mr.
Davis A. Baltz of Common Weal; Mr. Bill Sheehan of GRRN; Mr.
Richard Antony; Mr. Gary Liss; Prof. Neil Seldman of ILSR;
Mr.Jeff Conant and Ms.Elaine Knobbs and other friends at Hesperian
Foundation; Mr. Gabe Petlin and Ms. Banfsheh from San Francisco;
Ms. Gila Neta of IRN; Ms. Annie McPheter; Ms. Leona; Ms. Oola;
Mr. Faik Umen and Mrs. Maureen Graney.. And residents of Berkeley.
Mr. Zini Mokhine of ILIMA, South Africa, Ms. Sonia Mendoza
of Mother Earth Unlimited, Philippines, Ms. Gigie Cruz, GAIA,
Philippines.
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