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Zero Waste – Conversation Lesson

Joe: Hey, I just got an email from Green America and there was a link to a really good article on their website. The article was about recycling and compost and the attempts to try to get to zero waste.

Kristin: Oh, that’s great. Y’know, that’s one thing that I’ve always really liked about San Francisco is how cutting edge they are with the recycling here, as well as composting. I’d never even experienced being able to compost in a city before.

Joe: Yeah, curbside recycling is something that, not only in a city, I’ve never seen it anywhere. I had never seen it anywhere, I should say, at the time that San Francisco got it. And they actually mention San Francisco a lot in this article. But they also talked about this town called Kamikatsu. Kamikatsu, I guess maybe is what it is in Japan, which is a town on Shikoku Island. Do you remember that place where AJ did the walk? Shikoku Island?

Kristin: Yeah.

Joe: So it’s a small town and they’re actually, they actually have implemented a program with the goal of having zero waste by 2020, meaning no incineration.

Kristin: Wow, that’s awesome. Yeah, y’know, I’m not surprised that this town you’re mentioning in Japan is so progressive because I remember when I was living in Hiroshima, we had to recycle. I didn’t quite know how because it was really complex and I didn’t speak Japanese but I believe if residents did not recycle, they could actually be fined.

Joe: Hm, yeah, I don’t know what all of Japan is like, or even Hiroshima for that matter, but in this one town the reason that they implemented this new plan was because they were incinerating all of their trash and there was a lot of air pollution from it.

Kristin: Yeah, I can imagine.

Joe: And so people were getting sick actually. So, y’know, that was one of the goals and it’s actually something that’s happened. They’ve had a lot cleaner air and it’s actually produced more jobs because there are jobs related to recycling and compost now in the town.

Kristin: Y’know, that just made me think of when I was living in Seoul, Korea, they would burn…like I would be walking down the street and people would be burning plastic. And I’m assuming, y’know, they were burning it, that was their way of getting rid of it. They would just be burning it everywhere and it was so toxic.

Joe: Yeah, same in Katmandu. I remember when I was in Nepal back, I guess it was like 2004 or 2005, I actually was wearing like a mask over my mouth because they were burning trash and plastic like in the street when they had trash. And it was making me sick.

Kristin: Yeah.

Joe: But, y’know, Korea has changed a lot now, which is probably hard for you to believe, but they mentioned Korea, South Korea, in the article.

Kristin: Oh really?

Joe: Yeah, they actually said that residents of South Korea now have to pay for trash disposal by weight so it encourages people to actually have less trash and it’s mandatory to compost now.

Kristin: Wow!

Joe: So as a result they actually divert more than 83% of their trash. I know it’s probably impossible for you to imagine.

Kristin: Well, I mean that was 20 years ago when I was there so it’s great to see that progress has been made, for sure.

Joe: Yeah, but could you have ever imagined it would have been there?

Kristin: No.

Joe: Like, maybe other places.

Kristin: Yeah.

Joe: Like San Francisco, right? I mean, y’know, you were just saying…

Kristin: Yes, but you know, look at small towns here in the United States that are still really far behind with recycling, like where my parents live. And they don’t even recycle glass.

Joe: Right.

Kristin: It’s only plastic and aluminum, they don’t even recycle paper like we do here. My parents have to burn paper and cardboard.

Joe: Yeah, now I remember that your parents were even throwing away aluminum cans and plastic many, not even many years ago but years ago when I first started visiting them with you, I don’t remember them recycling anything.

Kristin: I don’t remember that but maybe, y’know, maybe that’s true. So I guess there’s been some progress made if that’s true because they’re recycling aluminum at least and plastic. But even with the plastic, it’s not all plastic. Like here, y’know, any number you can recycle, any number of plastic. There it’s only 1 and 2.

Joe: Yeah. Y’know, in this article they were saying that 75% of the trash in this country could be recycled or composted yet we only recycle or compost about 34% on average…

Kristin: Oh, that’s so low.

Joe: …across the country.

Kristin: Yeah, that’s so low, but hopefully, y’know, San Francisco is such a pioneer as far as recycling. This town in Japan also is. Y’know, it’s great to have places that are cutting edge…

Joe: Setting examples.

Kristin: …they can influence other towns, cities, anywhere in the world.

Joe: Well, yeah, and I think that’s what we have to hope for, right? Y’know, San Francisco is the…is the place in the United States that diverts the highest percentage of its trash to recycling or compost, it’s 80%. And for a city, that’s pretty remarkable.

Kristin: Yeah, that is.

Joe: And San Francisco’s also trying to get to zero waste by actually the year 2020 as well, just like that place in Japan.

Kristin: Oh, that’s interesting that they have the same target…

Joe: Yeah.

Kristin: …target year.

Joe: Yeah, I mean, y’know, I had never seen a place where they had curbside composting…

Kristin: No.

Joe: …and I guess that was maybe, I don’t know, 12 years ago or so.

Kristin: Yeah, I said that, too. I’d never experienced that.

Joe: But apparently like in schools they’re, they have a bunch of like education programs aimed at, y’know, kids in school because, y’know, they’re going to be the future. They’re going to be making the decisions here so maybe if they can get on board and see how important it is and the benefits, then, y’know, maybe change will happen even more so here in San Francisco. Or if, y’know, these kids go and live somewhere else, y’know?

Kristin: Mm-hm. Y’know, it’s really interesting too, to me, the way San Francisco recycles. All of the recycling, paper, plastic, aluminum, glass, all goes together.

Joe: Yeah.

Kristin: Because so many other places actually separate it out. So when I first moved here, I was like, hm, is this stuff really being recycled? What’s going on? But I don’t know how they do it but I do know that, I do believe that these items are being recycled.

Joe: Yeah, especially after reading about San Francisco in that article.

Kristin: Yeah.

Joe: Apparently, it’s happening but it is kind of weird, I agree. But just think, I mean how much things have changed from when we were kids. I mean, when I was really young, there was no concept of recycling, y’know?

Kristin: No.

Joe: But when I was about 14 or 15 years old, I remember my family was living in Pennsylvania and the government of Pennsylvania said that…I think it was the government of Pennsylvania but maybe it was a local government, but whatever, they stated…the government stated that composting was, or sorry, not composting, recycling, was mandatory. So it seemed real foreign to us, right? We had always just thrown bottles and cans into the trash. Now suddenly we had to separate them and put them out to the street for the trash person to pick up in separate containers. And that was really weird back in the, y’know, back when I was what, a young teenager.

Kristin: Yeah, I don’t even remember. I think I first started recycling when I was in college.

Joe: Yeah, well, and you probably…was it in the town? Did they have recycling like picked up?

Kristin: Yes. Yeah.

Joe: Oh that’s good.

Kristin: It was…it was curbside like, like we have here but it was different. The bins were much smaller. We had to carry them out. Whereas these are nice big bins with wheels on them, we just wheel them out.

Joe: Yeah.

Kristin: And they’ve got lids on them. Y’know, these were just open, open bins. There was a blue bin for like plastic and glass, I think, and then a green bin for paper, cardboard, maybe…I think aluminum went in with plastic and glass. But yeah, you separated it out and it’s just interesting to think back to that. I wonder, actually, that particular place was Athens. I wonder what their recycling is like now.

Joe: Well, it’ll be interesting to see what happens 10, 20 years in the future. Hopefully, we will be looking back at this time and thinking that we were behind the times at this point in history.