The Big Picture: Beyond Trash and Recycling, Towards Zero Waste

This may sound strange, but I have many childhood memories about waste. I remember picking up trash at campsites and on walks along the beach; my dad methodically separating recyclables in the bins under the kitchen sink; my grandma rinsing out plastic ziplock bags to be reused until they fell apart; my mom bringing her reusable grocery bags to the store before it was cool. We didn’t have a lot of money, so things were used and reused. Leftovers were a hot commodity. The underlying message was: nothing goes to waste. When I moved to Montana a few years ago, it was the first place I’d ever lived where there my recycling wasn’t automatically picked up along with my trash each week. Paying extra for recycling?! That seemed crazy – no wonder it wasn’t common.

It’s true, we’ve got our work cut out for us here. Montanans make more waste than the national average, at 7 lbs per person, per day, compared with 4.3 lbs. Another dubious distinction: Missoula’s recycling rate of 22% is well below the national average of 35%. I often talk to people who share my frustration about the lack of recycling options here in Missoula. But I’ve also come to learn that the problems with waste are much bigger than what happens to stuff when we dispose of it, either in the landfill or the recycling bin.  ​

This big picture of waste was the topic of our February meetup last week: all about how our community can move towards Zero Waste. What exactly does Zero Waste mean, you say? The Zero Waste International Alliance has a full definition – but in a nutshell, it’s a goal that emphasizes reduction and reuse of materials, and turning discarded materials into new resources. In other words – Zero Waste goes beyond recycling! Here are just a few facts that we learned from our partners at Home Resource and the City of Missoula:

Monthly Meetups are always a good time.

The Missoula Landfill.

Every pound of waste we recycle or throw away represents a shocking 71 pounds of waste that was created upstream (through raw materials extraction, manufacturing, transportation, and everything that happens before stuff gets to us)​

• Every year, Missoulians throw away recyclables valued at $5 Million!
• Construction and demolition materials and wasted food make up more than half of what ends up in the landfill
• Aluminum cans can be infinitely recycled and can achieve up to 95 percent energy savings compared to the energy used to create the material in the first place; in contrast, glass only saves between 10-20%.   
• The Missoula landfill only has 15 years left of capacity at the current rate of disposal
• Diverting 75% of our city’s waste could create 800 jobs (Home Resource is proof – last year, they employed 30 people who diverted 700 tons of construction/demolition waste. Think of the possibilities of scaling up!)
• The climate connection is real: reaching 90% waste reduction = taking 100,000 cars off the road annually! (This doesn’t even include the reduced emissions resulting from all the avoided upstream waste!)  

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Ultimately, we can’t recycle our way to Zero Waste – there’s a reason Reduce and Reuse are the first two Rs! Zero Waste is a lofty aim, but Missoula is making progress. In fact, one big goal within Climate Smart Missoula’s Zero Waste Bucket has already been checked off the list: in February 2016, our city council passed a Zero Waste Resolution, which committed our community to creating a Zero Waste Plan, a blueprint for reaching the ultimate goal of a 90% reduction in waste by 2050.

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Courtesy Oregon DEQ Materials Management: http://www.oregon.gov/deq/mm/Pages/default.aspx

Get Involved!
The process of creating that plan is now underway, and to make it a real, practical guide and not just shelf art, we need your input and ideas! Do you think there should be an incentive for developers to hire a deconstruction crew instead of demolition? Would you like to see a municipal composting program for food scraps? Tell us! Here’s how to get involved:

• Come to one of 3 upcoming public meetings: Thursday, March 2nd, 6pm at Missoula Federal Credit Union on Brooks St.; Tuesday March 7th at Burns St. Center; and Wednesday March 8th at Missoula Public Library. Details here.
• Take the online Zero By Fifty survey.
• Keep on the lookout for updates to the new Zero Waste website: www.zerobyfiftymissoula.com
• Make Zero Waste happen now – volunteer with recycling efforts at the upcoming Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, February 17-26, and get film passes for free. Contact Rachel for more info ([email protected]). (And the International Wildlife Film Festival is coming up in April, too!)

Moving toward zero waste is about recognizing the impact our stuff has across its life cycle – where it comes from, how we use it, and what happens to it when we're done using it. When we Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, we come closer to living within the natural limits of our planet, creating a healthier, wealthier, and more responsible community for generations to come.  -Abby

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