Solid Waste Flow Control Should Flow On Time

First of all, read the Cindy Ramirez story in today's El Paso Times: El Paso City Council to mull solid waste flow control, landfill issues. As someone who favors more recycling and less waste, moving to the use of our own landfills just makes sense. Putting it simplistically, if I'm burying my garbage in someone else's backyard, I don't care how much I throw away or what I throw away. If I have to use my own backyard, then I start caring. Moreover, I prefer local contractors who care about our home over a huge mega-corporation such as Waste Connections. Actually I do care about what and how much gets dumped no matter whose backyard we use. It's our earth and fellow humans not to mention the health of the water we all use, the critters and the rest of the environment involved. There may be major problems with the Sunland Park landfill and we should care.

There are two main challenges that we face when it comes to dumping less, recycling more and using our own landfills to incentivize these goals. There is that $18.5 Million to re-open the McCombs landfill, of course, but that is not insurmountable. A preliminary decision by the TCEQ to expand the McCombs landfill was issued just one month ago. All that is now required is a public hearing. What the City applied for was to increase the vertical of landfill from 4,125 to 4,305 feet above sea level over a boundary of 19.4 acres. That's 180 feet. Imagine an 18 story building sitting on 19.4 acres. There's your $18.5 Million. However, El Paso creates about a million tons of garbage (commercial and residential) per year. The cost to dispose of one ton is $26. Even if the City collects half or a bit more of the garbage, the cost of the landfill expansion is easily recouped in just over a year. What this means is that there is no reason why El Paso shouldn't stick to the current September 2014 date for flow control.

So why the push back? First we are dealing with a huge corporation which makes huge profits. Whatever the politics at play, the City Manager must have been swayed to stick with the Big Boys over the local contractors - a huge economic error for so many reasons that I can't get into them right now except to say that it hurts the tax base and puts the burden on property owners as have all the colonial exploits in this City. (Want to know why your home and/or small business is overtaxed? Look at the salary and wage base versus the profit margin of the few and elite Big Boys.) There is also, of course, the fact that Waste Connections has given huge amounts as reported by the Times to our friend, Dr. No. I have also heard that Rep. Robinson does not want a dump in his part of the City in spite of the fact that the McCombs Landfill is on the border with New Mexico and near an expanding Jobe Quarry. It's industrial land no matter how you look at it or want it or whatever. See the map.

The final challenge to waste and recycling is the remoteness of El Paso. An engineer with extensive knowledge of solid waste work told me that, since we are so far from the centers of demand for recyclables, the transportation costs put us out of the market. Furthermore, we don't produce enough combustible waste to make waste to energy plants economical. (Perhaps it could be if Ft. Bliss were to join us; but then we still may be market-hungry.) 

The solution? According to the engineer: "The real key in our area is to reduce waste at the source.  Compost at home; don’t buy stuff with a lot of packaging; don’t use plastic grocery bags; reduce overall consumption of the items that create the most bulk waste." Flow control is a great incentive for us to do just that - waste less, compost more, reduce unnecessary packaging including the ubiquitous El Paso City flag - the plastic grocery bag. We've got to act not just talk. I still shake my head with disgust when I think of our City's Sustainability Manager's half-hearted presentation to a City Council Legislative Review Committee two or so years ago on banning plastic bags. We need some real will power not just nice looking plans and cutely stated goals.

Let's hope that the Davids win tomorrow and the Goliath, Waste Connections, goes down and the Philistines on the Council are fewer than the Israelites.