Sustainability in Eugene
Siena Palmacci
Reporting 361
News Feature Piece
Final Draft
Sustainability
Sustainability has always been a matter of importance in Eugene , and there are various groups and actions taking place locally to help ensure the matter. Sustainability is how biological systems stay diverse and productive over time (Wikipedia). In order for this system to be successful, it requires the reconciliation of environmental, social equity and economic demands. Eugene is home to organizations like the Sustainable Cities Organization (SCI) that help to promote further education and outreach about developing sustainable cities. Graduate teaching fellow Carol Stafford shows how the Sustainable City Year program links University of Oregon students to Oregon city governments as interns for an entire year, in order for the city to receive help with their goals. Typically more than 400 students work on these partner-directed projects, and devote thousands and thousands of hours of work in attempt to help create a more sustainable future. SCI offers training programs that prepare students for workshops having to do with building various forms of housing and livability sites. These are affordable types of housing that have supportive community features to help facilitate independence and participation in civic and social life from those living there.
As far as the University of Oregon campus goes, many clubs are reaching out locally to ensure that students reduce trash, re-use products and recyclable materials and refill water bottles instead of continuing to purchase plastic ones. One of these programs is the Zero Waste Operation. Jim Fleck, the Zero Waste Operation coordinator, is in charge of various responsibilities such as hiring and training a student crew of over fifty people, supervising a staff of four employees , scheduling workers, training all drivers, and working to ensure that adequate recycling infrastructures are included in all construction and remodeling projects. Fleck states that their program “issues reusable water bottles to employees and are also working to have water fountains installed throughout campus which include a spout for refilling water bottles.”
Another way that the city of Eugene has taken a huge step toward sustainability, is with the banning of plastic bags in most markets and other stores. Lane County waste reduction specialist Sarah Grimm explains that by managing recycling contracts that are available to the community, agreements such as plastic bag reduction for many local companies is making sustainability an even more visible issue.
With all three of these programs, the Eugene community is making a clear effort to better our world and keep our Earth more sustainable. They are each reaching out to the society, providing an opportunity for everyone to contribute to sustainability and to work to keep Earth clean and thriving.
Mini Profile: Sarah Grimm
Grimm was first prompted to take interest in recycling when she became the owner of a house and needed to save money. It is then that she remembered how her own parents had composted food waste and turned it into fertilizer in order to grow new and better food from it.
“This sheer reasonableness and rightness of recycling, those kind of natural resources is what did it for me,” she said.
Sarah Grimm is the Waste Reduction Specialist for Lane County and her primary job duties are to manage around 13 contracts that achieve the recycling opportunities that are available to the community through their 16 transfer stations. In addition to this she maintains her agencies compliance with state laws related to recycling and educates the community about the matter. She sees a large amount of advertising and educational outreach within her line of work and the center also provides a great outreach program called the Masters Outreach Program. This program educates citizens to do a lot of peer-to-peer outreach programming and to ultimately inform everybody about recycling.
Grimm took the second ever masters recycling resource program up in the Portland area and from this experience she was sold on the idea of promoting recycling. She became aware of the success it produced in some communities and she liked how the programs connected people to practical solutions. Regardless of the success within her program, Sarah still fears for the future and explains that despite all of our efforts, resource use really hasn’t gone down.
“Up until the recent recession, Americans were still in dire straits and need to continue to work even harder to rein that in,” she said.
A typical day on the job for Grimm starts by meeting with some of her crew. These are the folks that actually staff the Waste Collection Center, (located at the Glenwood Central Receiving Station property). She meets with them before they go out in the morning and often at the end of the day after having to explain to costumers on the telephone and when they come to drop off their waste, why exactly they have to recycle and why it is important to do so.
Grimm encourages the entire community to visit the Lane County Waste Management Division between 8am and 5pm Monday – Friday to drop off all hazardous waste. The centers collections are scheduled on Thursday mornings and two Saturdays a month.
“The less waste in our landfills, the better,” she said.
Q &A with Zero waste operations coordinator Jim Fleck
The Zero waste program is a student founded and still currently a student run recycling/composting program that has been available for 22 years now on the University of Oregon’s campus. The purpose of the program is to help encourage sustainability, recycling and waste reduction. The program has continued to grow and employ large numbers of students, while influencing the practices of 1000’s of people. Students now even have the ability to receive academic credit for volunteering with Zero waste. Jim Fleck is one of the six full time staff members and coordinators who strives to create a better future for recycling and to make a difference through his sustainability contributions in hopes for a better world.
Q. When and how did you get involved (a little background information)
A. I had worked for Campus Operations for some years as a student, temporary worker, and full-time worker. When I finished my first stint in graduate school, there was an opening in the Zero Waste Program. I knew the manager and she encouraged me to apply for it. That’s how I came to work here. My involvement in sustainability began when I started working here.
Q. What does sustainability mean to you?
A. I will borrow here from the Brundtland Report because I think it encapsulates the notion of sustainability very well. Sustainability refers to the notion of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Q. What do you do in your personal life to help be sustainable?
A. I recycle, use reusable goods and work to reduce my consumption.
Q. What are your thoughts on the removal of plastic bags in most Eugene
markets and stores?
A. I am completely supportive of this and participate in it. I would like to see this replicated state-wide.
Q. What are your thoughts on the Reduce, Re-use, Refill program?
A. Very supportive. Our Program issues reusable water bottles to our employees. We are also working to have water fountains installed throughout campus which include a spout for refilling water bottles.
Q. To your knowledge, how does our campus compare to other schools as far as sustainability goes?
A. We are and have always been leaders in this area.
Q. Explain a little about the Universities Recycling process here on
campus.
A. I would refer you to our website (http://zerowaste.uoregon.edu/). I will, however, note that we are heavily involved in providing the infrastructure to keep paper, glass/metal/plastics,food waste, compost, Styrofoam, e-media, and other materials out of the landfill.
Q. How can we improve our local sustainability in order to maintain a
“Zero Waste Campus”?
A. Reduce consumption, reuse more, recycle more, compost more, keep contaminants out of the recycling and composting streams and drive less.
Q. What projects is the sustainability coalition working on for this
year to raise awareness about the zero waste program?
A. I am not directly involved in efforts to raise awareness. However, I do know that we participate in RecycleMania (A 10-week competition for U.S. college and university recycling programs to see who can recycle the most). We do a lot of tabling in the EMU, and we are actively involved in various educational and promotional efforts.
Explanation of content: The content in the following photos are from the Lane County Waste Reduction Center. They are displaying what is being done with the recyclable items once they hit the landfills or recycling centers. Many of them are being sorted by large trucks and machinery and then dumped into crates or dumpsters with similarly marked items. The photo of the sign provides directions for the recyclers in regards to what is an acceptable plastic item to bring to the center.
