Pubdate: Thu, 30 Jul 2015
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Column: The Week in Weed
Copyright: 2015 North Coast Journal
Contact:  http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Linda Stansberry

GROWING A GREENER BUD

Holly Carter doesn't have a good estimate on how many plastic soil 
bags wind up in landfills, but judging from the "hundreds of 
thousands" she sees enter the Garberville-Redway area on flatbed 
trucks every grow season, it's many. In addition to the high carbon 
footprint associated with trucking dirt into our rural and rugged 
region, out-of-town soil takes another unexpected environmental toll. 
While the bags, most of which are made with low-density polyethylene 
plastic (#4 LDPE), do bear a recycling symbol, the chances of them 
actually being reincarnated are slim.

Part of that is due to the high-volume, low-weight nature of 
plastics. Jill Duffy, executive director of Humboldt Waste Management 
Authority, says transporting bags to recycling brokers in the Bay 
Area yields a poor return on investment.

"It's just not the same economy of scale as aluminum or paper," says 
Duffy. "The commodity value is low. It costs us more to transport 
than it's worth."

Should a bag make it to a broker, it often faces a long international 
journey with the possibility of being turned away at the border. Most 
plastics are recycled in China, but so many boatloads of bottles and 
bags were arriving dirty and unfit for processing that that country's 
own landfills began to groan with American waste. In 2013, China 
enacted the "Green Fence" policy, turning away ships carrying 
contaminated goods at the port. Plastic soil bags, which are used to 
contain dirt are often, well ... dirty. Neither consumers nor 
recycling authorities had come up with an effective way to clean 
them, according to Carter, who says she has picked up "thousands" as 
part of her work with Hum Love, a Southern Humboldt-based community 
clean-up project.

"We saw a lot when we were cleaning in Alderpoint," she says, "It was 
mindblowing ... you could take them to town and throw them away, but 
instead they were hucked over a hill."

Carter began calling local recycling plants. None are currently 
sending the bags on to be recycled.

"A recycling symbol says the technology exists, not that it's done," 
says Carter. She decided to get proactive. She put the word out to 
her friends in the industry to bring her their empty soil bags. Then 
she and a few friends brainstormed the best way to clean them. A 
leaf-blower attached to a pole proved to be a quick and effective 
fix. Carter has registered online as a bag drop off point, and says 
that once she has a pallet of clean bags she'll begin searching for a buyer.

She cautions that the project is still in its "research and 
development" phase. Right now she is looking for another site to 
process the bags, and communicating with the waste management 
companies about a pilot program. She says education about true 
sustainability is key.

"If the plastic bags from your grow are ending up in landfills, your 
grow is not sustainable," she says.
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