Posted: Wednesday, October 1, 2008 12:00 am
It was just a coincidence, we suppose, that the state Department of Environmental Quality's annual report on recycling rates came out the week before the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition holds the third of its Town Hall meetings.
Nevertheless, it's a good coincidence: The state recycling report raises some interesting questions - and you can bet that the volunteers of the coalition are about to lift up some interesting potential answers next week.
The recycling report, issued Monday, found Oregon's recycling rates dipping for the second straight year. The statewide rate for 2007 was 46.7 percent, down from the 47.3 percent mark of 2006 and the 49.2 percent mark set in 2005. The statewide goal is 50 percent by 2009, and it would appear that we're moving backward.
The report cautions, however, against immediately jumping to that conclusion: For example, much of the decrease in 2007 was in yard debris and wood waste. The report notes that yard-debris generation depends on the weather. Wood waste, of course, hinges on construction activity, and these aren't good times for the construction industry.
Overall, however, there's a sense in the report that recycling in Oregon has hit a plateau of sorts. (The story is the same for Benton County, where the recycling rate has retreated slightly from the high mark set in 2004.)
That sets the stage for the Sustainability Coalition, whose 12 work groups - including one on waste - have been working over the summer to polish the recommendations they'll present Tuesday night at the Town Hall meeting. (The other work groups are covering community inclusion, economic vitality, education, energy, food, health and human services, housing and homelessness, land use, wildlife and natural areas, transportation and water.)
Coalition organizers told us this week that many of the goals to be aired at the meeting are ambitious and long-ranging - some of them stretch out to 2050. A "keypad-voting" process at the meeting will be used to gather opinions about which of the goals should be pursued first. That input and feedback from other sources will help shape a community sustainability action plan, scheduled to be unveiled in December.
Some ambitious and long-ranging ideas might be just the thing to shake up our thinking at a time when it seems we've solved the easy problems and might be a little intimidated by the tough ones that remain.
So go to the Town Hall. Join the conversation. Think a little bit differently. Share your ideas. Who knows? Two generations from now, maybe it will be one small idea - maybe it will be your idea - that triggers a world of change.
Check out this link for the full 2007 Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Report: http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/pubs/
docs/sw/2007MRWGRatesReport.pdf
For more information about the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition's Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, see www.sustainablecorvallis.
org.
Organizers ask that participants register by Oct. 1 (today) for the meeting; you can register at the site.
The Town Hall meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center, 725 S.W. 26th St., on the Oregon State campus. A sustainability fair will be held at the same location from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday.