http://comments.startribune.com/comments.php?d=content_comments&asset_id=267254321&section=/opinion/commentaries&comments=true
About the only interesting point I got out of this is that "zero waste"
doesn't mean zero waste. Who'd have thought? A good reason to drop
this motto is that it is false advertising.
But an even better reason is that it is a politically correct phrase
that yields little benefit, when there are much more effective actions
we could take that do benefit the environment. This waste goes to the
burner, which provides energy. For 90% of the waste, this is no
different from how we get most of our energy from Xcel, except that
burning this waste also gets rid of the bulk of the garbage that needs
to be disposed. Sometimes I think throwing our newspapers in the
garbage would be more beneficial to the city than putting in recycling.
At least in the garbage we'd get some energy back. My understanding is
that there is little demand for old newsprint, so who knows how it is used.
I have heard on this List that a small part of the waste contains toxins
that is poisoning our air, and so this is on what the city should be
focused. The goal of the city should be trying to remove these toxic
waste products from the waste cycle, instead of pretending to residents
that we will be eliminating all waste. If Minneapolis spent the "zero
waste" time and money educating consumers about toxic waste, and making
it easier to recycle these products, we'd be far ahead.
An even better solution would be to upgrade the burner to a much higher
temperature so that the toxins would be incinerated, which is how I
understand it is often done in Europe. Then the toxins in our waste
wouldn't matter. But I don't know how expensive that would be, so that
may not be the ideal solution.
The point of the zero waste campaign seems to be to compete to be more
politically correct than some West Coast cities, because some activists
are embarrassed that these other cities currently recycle more than us.
We should do what is best for the city, not do what beefs up our image.