This is the portion of the evening where I get to give a speech. For those of
you that don’t want to listen, feel free to look at your blackberries and Iphones or just keep eating while chewing loudly. I want to talk about all of
the things that have happened in recycling in the last year, focusing on
some local, some state and some national issues and successes. All in all,
it's been one of the most active years in recycling, but also one of the most
challenging.
It starts at the top with the financial troubles of the National Recycling
Coalition. Most of you in the audience don't know what the NRC stood for,
or its work. But for the hard core policy wonks on recycling, including a
few of us in the room who were members, we know that having an
organization on Capitol Hill to promote and discuss recycling on a large
scale with our federal officials was extremely valuable.
Unfortunately, such an organization was financially dependent upon
corporate sponsorship, mostly from recycling companies, and not enough
on traditional grants and membership dues. Corporate recycling lost many
of its profits in 2008-2009, and these companies found it increasingly
difficult to continue to give money away to the national recycling efforts.
As a result, the NRC in September voted to go into bankruptcy. After 30plus years of being the advocate, and the voice of recycling for the country,
the NRC closed its doors last month. It asked the membership to consider
merging with another national non-profit, Keep America Beautiful. While a
slim majority of NRC members agreed with the strategy, it fell short of the
60 percent necessary to approve such a bylaws change.
I watched this unfold virtually helpless from Oklahoma. I had completed
two full terms on the board of directors a few years ago and knew that
these financial problems were getting worse. I hoped for an angel to step
forward. But so far, it has not and bankruptcy court seems the only option.
Already two new things have happened that give me hope on a national
level. First, Resource Recycling magazine, seen as many to be the most
legitimate publishing voice in the industry, have announced plans for a
2010 annual conference, hoping to replace some of the need for education
sessions, peer review and just old-fashioned networking opportunities that
the NRC provided all those years.
A second group, the Recycling Organization of North America, has been
incorporated and has a team of national leaders working on a set of bylaws
that they hope to have ready just after the first of the year.
The tough news continued here in Oklahoma. Orchard Paper in Pryor
closed their doors, eliminating one of the buyers of old newspaper that was
used as backing for sheetrock. The demand for sheetrock has gone down
as housing starts across America have declined. New construction of
commercial building also affected the steel market, causing long-time
employer Sheffield Steel, now known as Gerdau-America Steel, to mothball
their plant in Sand Springs. This led to a loss of almost 400 jobs in the
recycling manufacturing sector in Oklahoma.
Third, communities struggled to try to find ways to finance citizen interest
in recycling. In Tulsa, a pilot program offering weekly curbside service to
select neighborhoods was suspended after a small handful of residents
demanded twice-a-week trash pickup rather than once-a-week trash and
once-a-week recycling pickup.
Even here at the M.E.T., 2008-2009 proved difficult. We truly almost went
out of business in June because the price of recyclables went from a
historic high to virtually zero in 8 months' time. A cash-infusion from the
City of Tulsa had some help from corporate donations kept us afloat and
now the prices have begun to rebound. We had to make many cuts,
including letting go of employees, cutting back on benefits, even reducing
the hours of operation at recycling centers.
If I stopped right here, you would think that recycling was failing, and that
the past 12 months was the beginning of the end of something we all care
about deeply. But you have to hear about the positive things that happened
in recycling. There is truly a green wave sweeping the country and citizens
who didn't see it as a priority before see environmental behavior as one of
the most essential roles that they play in their communities.
Recycling participation was one of the gateways and early indicators of
this new environmentalism found across our country. It shows in our
collections of recyclables. While the price for these materials was down
dramatically, the amount of recyclables collected was correspondingly up
during the same time period. We saw the largest amount of recyclables
collected in many categories, but in particular plastic bottles, paper and
odd items like motor oil and batteries.
The City of Tulsa had almost 2,000 new sign-ups for curbside recycling, a
15 percent increase in the last 12 months alone. New recycling bins
appeared at schools throughout Central Oklahoma, collecting paper. And
towns like Coweta opened up a full-service center for the first time. A new
plastic recycling company is set to open in Watts, Oklahoma just after the
first of the year, which should replace the jobs lost in the closing of the two
other plants.
And significantly, entrepreneurial-minded Oklahomans started new
businesses to collect market and process recyclables. We basked in the
glow of the Recycling Revolution, a small company founded by two
women, began to collect beer and wine bottles from a dozen downtown
restaurants, and now are collecting from the local casinos. We cheered as
schools across the state incorporated recycling into the children’s lives
and lessons. Schools like Keystone Adventure School and Farm will assure
our future leaders in recycling.
This last 12 months was a bittersweet time. The jobs lost, the reduced
income, will take time to rebound. But the new thousands of people who
care enough to start recycling will mean that the rebound should be bigger
and soon, we will set new records for both collected materials and public
participation in recycling programs across Oklahoma.
What can we look forward to in 2010?
I am hopeful for a full hearing on a bottle bill before our state Legislature.
The Oklahoma Recycling Association is putting in a seminar in early
December where the author of the bill, Repr. Ryan Kiesel, will discuss its
impact on recycling, retail groceries and the beverage industry.
If you had asked me about this a year ago or any other time in the past 15
years for that matter, I probably would have been pessimistic about the
Oklahoma Legislature and recycling. I know that the beverage industry and
retail grocers have more clout than all the tree-huggers combined in our
state. But a couple of things have changed that helped make me almost
giddy with anticipation to testify before the House and Senate in Oklahoma
City.
First, there is the support coming from the glass industry, where Jim
Bologna from Saint Cobain has been very clear in saying that if we can't
get more glass bottles collected by Oklahomans than those plants in
Henryetta and Sapulpa will be in danger of closing. Recycling will save
those jobs.
Secondly, the bottle bill, if done right, offers a chance for grocers in
struggling neighborhoods to succeed. Lower-income grocers are more
likely to have customers who want to redeem their water bottles, their pop
bottles, and their wine and beer containers, and it will offers the store to
both reach out to their customers and have a secondary source of income.
The last factor which makes me optimistic about a bottle bill possible
passing in Oklahoma is the chance to raise money and be green at the
same time. I look forward to the day when bottles and cans are seen by
most Oklahomans as cash, not trash.
While I predict thousands of Oklahomans who never recycled before will
start saving their bottles and cans to redeem their 5 cent deposits, there
still will be on average at least a third of the containers not redeemed.
Some states are as high as 65 percent are unredeemed by their citizens.
What that would mean for Oklahoma is that we would go for less than 5
percent recycling rate for plastic bottles of 30 to 35 percent. Even more
important, the unredeemed deposits would add up to millions of dollars.
One report shows that is could be as much as $49 million in the first year
for state coffers.
This revenue could be divided, helping to pay retailers for investments in
recycling, could help pay for communities to add more items to existing
programs, and there would still be plenty left over to go into the general
Fund, to go toward whatever the Legislature deems, from schools to
prisons to highways.
Finally, one of the things that I will remember when I look back on this year
is the amount of special - event recycling that took place across the state.
From E-waste collections at the state capitol, to water bottles at the Paseo
Arts Festival, it seemed like all kinds of Oklahomans stepped up their
efforts in the past 12 months.
Here in Tulsa, almost 50 festivals, weekend runs and community
gatherings had recycling bins as part of their operational plan. It was
unprecedented, and more cans and bottles were collected at this year's DFest than at any other event in the history of our state. I want to take time
out to thank one person from my staff, Shelly Umazawa, for making event
recycling a reality in 2009. The work she performed was made more
successful because of the many volunteers in this room who sorted
through trash cans and recycling bins both almost every weekend of the
year. These Tulsa Master Recyclers are all heroes every day of the year and
were led by our biggest honoree of the night, Laureen Gibson Gilroy.
Yes, the last 12 months, since many of us last met at the 2008 America
Recycles Day Banquet, we have had many trials and successes. I am sure
the next 12 months will be equally as challenging, and rewarding. I do know
this about our future: I know that even more Oklahomans will begin to
recycle, the incentives to do so will increase, and most importantly, many
things that were thrown away will be seen as more valuable than trash in
our future. This will be a combined effort involving education, volunteer
time to collect recyclables, and new business ventures that see this
collected material not as trash, but as raw materials for future items
manufactured for our use.
I also know this: I know that the people in this room are going to guarantee
that recycling is always part of our lives, in our homes, in our businesses,
in our schools, and in our country.
Happy America Recycles Day.