It’s safe to say that “sustainability” has become one of the hot buzzwords of politics and business in the past few years. It is pretty universally accepted that “sustainability” is a really good thing. What’s less clear is exactly what “sustainability” means.
Most efforts toward sustainability largely focus on reducing the output of wastes. While these efforts are no doubt laudable, there remains a huge problem with this model of sustainability: even if we manage to reduce our rate of pollution as much as possible, we still may run out of resources and pollution sinks.
So what other option is there? Do we go back to the caveman days? Many people see this as the eventual answer, and still it might very well be. Industrialization as we know it must cease to exist. Our economy is generally a “cradle-to-grave” process where resources are created through the genius of nature; we extract them, process them, and eventually produce waste that we ask nature to somehow turn back into resources we can use. And as our wastes get increasingly abundant and more toxic, this gets increasingly difficult.
To resolve this problem, some environmentalist thinkers look to nature. “Well, consider the cherry tree,” writes Bill McDonough, environmentalist and author of the book “Cradle to Cradle.” “It produces thousands of blossoms, only a few of which germinate. … But after falling to the ground, the blossoms return to the soil and become nutrients for the surrounding environment.” This example from nature runs in direct contrast to the way we think about pollution. The problem, ultimately, is not that we create pollution in abundance; the problem is that our pollution is of such a nature that it cannot be fed into either natural or human processes again with much success. “[In nature], waste that stays waste does not exist. … Instead, waste nourishes; waste equals food.” This suggests a route besides doomsday. Ultimately, this is the path we must take, either on our terms or by force: we’ll simply run out of other options through ever-growing depletion and pollution, whether we like it or not.
It recalls the old adage, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Applying McDonough’s logic, we might adapt this adage to the 21st century, “Every man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
Is it possible? It’s difficult to say for sure. Some businesses, though, are working to turn wastes back into productive use, instead of pollution. Their successes prove that it might be eventually possible to conceive an economy that behaves less like a machine and more like an organism.
The most obvious way that businesses might intervene in the otherwise “cradle-to-grave” waste stream is recycling and reuse. In Eugene, a number of companies work in this area.
Profiling these businesses and organizations – Bring Recycling, SeQuential Biofuels, NextStep Recycling, Dalton Carpet and Rexius – is not intended simply to talk about how great a job they’re doing. Any business can always do more to reduce its impact on the ecosystem. But it does lend some hope that we can eventually realize an economy that operates less like a straight line and more like a closed loop.
Ultimately, in order to bring our economy back into harmony with nature, we must transform our “cradle-to-grave” system into one that is “cradle-to-cradle.” While this mission certainly has a long way to go, valuable opportunities are being explored right here in Eugene to close the gap between waste and resources through innovation, rediscovery and a commitment to a better future. This is something every student, as we enter the “real world,” should begin to consider: what exactly do we want our “real world” to look like?
Rexius
1250 Bailey Hill Rd.
It’s important to look beyond the impact of what we’re putting down beneath our feet indoors, and to look outdoors as well. Rexius, a yard waste recycling company, diverts waste from landfills through composting. They turn yard and forestry waste into “soil amendments,” or products for landscaping and agriculture topsoil. Jack Hoeck, Rexius’ vice president for environmental services, pointed out that this process benefits more than their customers. By reducing landfill input, they reduce the discharge of greenhouse gas methane. Landfill discharge is a major human cause of methane. But the process of composting itself has benefits beyond that, even.
“If you aerobically compost, you’re sequestering CO2,” explained Hoeck. CO2 sequestration is a major sink of carbon, and by locking carbon into the soil through composting, which is eventually used by plants for nutrients, this process effectively helps reduce the abundance of this greenhouse gas.
Nonetheless, Rexius has not yet achieved perfect sustainability. The company uses trucks to deliver its goods and services, and therefore burns fossil fuels. But the company is aware of this, and is working to introduce more sustainable fuels to its vehicle fleet. “We do use biodiesel, but it costs us significantly more. It can be hard to remain competitive in terms of costs when everyone else might not choose to follow the same commitments to sustainability,” Hoeck said. And as economic pressures increase with the recession, it tends to be hard for both producers and consumers to afford higher environmental standards.
NextStep Recycling
2101 W. 10th Ave.
“In everything we do, we think it’s critical to look through the lens of sustainability. We try to apply the triple-bottom line: social equity, environmental health and economic prosperity,” said Lorraine Kerwood, founder and executive director of NextStep Recycling. NextStep isn’t just about putting waste materials back into productive use. The organization also provides job training to its employees and works passionately to expand access to technology for marginalized youth and adults. “In Oregon’s schools, there is one computer for every ten students,” Kerwood pointed out. “We’re working to break the education divide between those who have access and those who don’t.” Kerwood hopes that by providing computer access to those without it through thoughtful reuse of disposed materials, NextStep can simultaneously strike a blow to improve equitable opportunities and keep harmful waste out of landfills.
SeQuential Biofuels
86714 McVay Hwy.
There are yet more ways “waste” can find new life. For SeQuential Biofuels, used cooking oil serves as a source for transportation energy. Using this waste from Oregon restaurants, SeQuential can produce relatively carbon-neutral biodiesel for powering cars. They are also working to better educate consumers about sustainable options. “Ethanol’s received a lot of bad press in the last few years, and it’s just important to remember what it’s made from, and how it’s made,” said Alan Twigg, station manager for SeQuential Biofuels. “In 2006, we began producing ethanol in Oregon with Midwestern corn. But now we’re working to provide ethanol from blueberry processing waste generated by a company in Portland. This could reduce a lot of ethanol’s inefficiencies,” Twigg explained.
SeQuential looks at a lot of problems this way, making short-term actions that lay the foundation for future sustainability. “When we began providing biodiesel, there was no market for it in Oregon,” Twigg said. “By importing soy biodiesel from the Midwest, we developed the market necessary to support a locally sourced, more sustainable processing facility in Salem.” This kind of “sequential” logic is really important to the emerging biofuel company. By working with the “big picture,” they seek to be a part of the effort to reduce pollution and fossil fuel consumption, and hopefully bring it to zero. Efficiency must remain a part of the solution, but so must renewability.
Dalton Carpet
3815 W. 11th Ave.
Walking into Dalton Carpet’s showroom on West 11th Avenue, you might not think there’s muc
h special about their carpet retailing operation because they sell carpet and floor surfaces like most carpet dealers. But imagine you’re not just seeing the products on the shelves, but everything they were and everything they will be. Using this “product life cycle lens,” most carpet showrooms would be full of virgin oil plastics evolving to the landfills where they’ll end up. But if you took your lens into Dalton Carpet, you’d often see something different.
Instead of virgin oil for plastic, there would be old pop bottles, which have been a major source of the material in carpets sold by Dalton since 1995. They feature carpets made from corn, recycled padding and vinyls that can be recycled many times, rather than simply “downcycled” into asphalt or other low-quality materials.
As oil prices rise, the interest of installers in recycled materials only tends to increase. Rocky Stevens of Dalton Carpet believes this commitment to sustainability is hardly a fringe practice anymore. “I’m no treehugger,” said Stevens, “but I just feel like Mother Earth’s going to get real tired of us, here, if we don’t start changing some of the things we do.”
Further, Stevens believes the innovations will keep coming, if given a chance. “They make padding from soybeans now, and improvements in chemistry could reduce the amount of water used in the carpet industry.” Carpet processing is one of the most water-intensive industrial operations, he says, “but this is an up-and-coming industry, it must have a chance to crawl before it’s expected to walk or certainly run.”