Friday, July 23rd- Compost Gone Wild

There are four ways to reduce your trash:     

1. Reduce your consumption
2. Recycle
3. Reuse or repurpose
4. Compost

Okay, so composting is a way to repurpose but, I think people forget about composting as a way to repurpose and reduce trash.  Even Quinn thinks that it is an ancient technique used only by people long ago and us- the Arnetts.  So to get a better perspective on this ancient art Quinn and I take on composting with guest star, Quinn’s 4-year-old brother, Drake.  Composting simply put is nothing more than plant material that has decomposed naturally.   Everyday billions of people send organic plant material to landfills via their trash cans.  This is really unnecessary and shameful in my opinion and I bet you will feel the same way once you realize how easy it is to compost.     

Quinn, Drake and I set out for our compost adventure bright and early to get a step ahead of the heat.  Our journey begins at the Compost Outpost an outside learning area at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.  On-line this self guided tour looks informative and interactive.  We arrive and park and the air is still comfortable and we look across the street to see the entrance sign.     

Quinn and Guest Star, Drake

►

     

Quinn immediately says”There is no way I am going in there!” so his brother echoes “Me either!” So there I stand with two boys and an over grown dark composting adventure almost debunked.  I respond “Oh, come on brave guys there is a path right there we can do this.” I escort them to the path to find that this Compost Outpost has seen better days.   There are a dozen different composting methods on display which are very well labeled but are infested with spider webs.      

Into the Wild World of Compost

►

     

Composting started out with farmers and every day folk taking kitchen leftovers, yard waste and brush and throwing it into a huge pile on the back forty.  If you did not grow up in the south the back forty means the forty acres in the back that the family was currently farming or in the 1980′s when I moved to Texas it meant the back acre that dad did not feel like mowing.  This pile of organic material naturally started to decompose with sun and rain.  After several months the inside of this pile turned dark brown and was then put around the vegetable gardens or flower beds as natural fertilizer and the process continued.   

Open Pile- the original

 

 Today composting is exactly the same but most of us do not have the “back forty” so clever entrepreneurs have invented compact and cooler looking composting gadgets.For $129.99 to $399 you too can have one of these trendy composters.      

Bio Orb Garden Gourmet

 

Garden Gourmet

 

Twin Dual Tumbler

 What these tidy composters do for people of the modern age is keep the vegetable scraps, yard clippings, coffee grounds, egg shells and dead cut flowers neatly contained while they decompose.  These contraptions also help keep out the critters.  At our house we use something very close to the open pile method. It is the two open pile method surrounded by left over brick from our house construction.  This allows us to rotate the compost from one side to the other helping the material get air and water more evenly.  Quinn refers to our compost method as the way we feed our wild pets.  Quinn and I envision it going something like this:      

• Drake takes out the compost right after dinner.
• The wild animals: raccoons, squirrels, foxes, skunks and opossums line up on the other side of the fence until the sun goes down.
• One keeps a look-out to make sure the lights have gone out in the kitchen.
• The skunk gives the thumbs up and the raccoon brings up the rear in the night vision goggles.
• The party goes on for hours and they polish off an entire watermelon, seriously, right down to rind.

This makes Quinn and I very happy knowing that we are helping our suburban wildlife on their quest for gourmet eats.  However, if you have ever seen the movie Over the Hedge you know someone or may even be one of the many that fear wild animals scouting your yard for any reason including dinner so these high functioning and affordable gadgets maybe for you.     Can this really be all there is to composting?  Has our family been doing it right for years?  We must be missing something.  Next we ask the professional and the seasoned master composters for tricks of the composting trade.  Join us for Composting goes professional or at least more professional next week. 

July 16th- Arlington Recycling Plant- Where Recyling Is Not Very Pretty

Arriving at the Arlington MRF

  

July 16th- Quinn and I gear up for our second recycling plant tour and Quinn is not very excited at all!  This is the first time his enthusiasm has waned.  His lack of pep is due to the fact that he is leaving his good friend ,Logan, at our house. I really can not blame him as Logan is hanging out in our pool and has to leave in a few short hours to return to Austin, Texas.  As we pull out of the driveway I give it to Quinn straight ” We have an appointment and no matter how hard it is the Arnetts always follow through with our promises and commitments.”  Quinn sulks and looks at the floor of the car.  I take the time and his undivided attention to elaborate on how this event will translate into the rest of his life.  “Quinn, I am sorry you are mad at me but, there are going to be a lot of times in your life that you are going to have to make hard choices and follow through with commitments but, you will be able to be proud of yourself once the task is completed”. I glance in my rear view mirror and Quinn replies in a beat down voice “Mom, I’m not mad at you” and puts the headphones on to watch the movie Bolt.  I smile and turn up the radio and think man, I could be floating in the pool too!  

We arrive at the Arlington M.R.F. (Materials Recovery Facility) in no time at all.  We pull up to a very large building that is worn and dirty. The parking lot is very busy with large trucks coming and going and we make our way to the scale house, as we have in our past efforts, to find we are to get back in the car and go to the other end of the building.  Not a big deal, we are still on-time for our 10am appointment with the new Operations Manager, Brian.  Brian meets us at the door of a very 1970′s ish office.  I say 1970′s because all I see is a hue of orange.  There are cubicles off to the left side and bathrooms off to the right.  I guess I take such great notice of the decor because it is so different from all of our other adventures.  Trash and recycling had appeared to be so happy before. Recycling was now becoming dingy and dismal. Brian informs us that the “other” group had not arrived yet and we were to take a seat and wait for them.  The “other” group we come to find out is a group of pre-engineering students from Arlington.  I take out my Flip camera to get a shot of Quinn and Brian informs me that WM, the owner of this plant, has a “no camera policy” inside the actually plant.  I’m not surprised and he offers to take our picture before we start the “Secret Tour”.   

Quinn & Mom at Arlington MRF

  

I ask “How often do things get updated around  here?” Brian shares that they have just recently spent 6 million dollars for new recycling equipment”.  Goodness, recycling is not a cheap business to get into. The “other” group arrives and they seem to be very nice 16 & 17-year-old students.  We are divided into 2 groups and Brian takes our group of 6.   

Before we enter the plant we all costume ourselves in safety glasses, hard hats and very fashion forward reflective vests.  Brian starts the tour by giving us the safety lecture. “You are all to stay with me. This plant is very dangerous and there will be no horsing around or the tour will end for everyone, got it?” Now Brian is probably 5′ 10″ ish and a little stocky but not intimidating at all until he said “got it“. I assure you, we all got it.  Now remember, Quinn is 8 years old and has been to several sites like this already so I figure this will be a piece of cake.  We follow Brian onto the floor and pass large bails of aluminum and plastic that are at the end of their stay here at the plant and are ready to be shipped out.  Then we see the huge pile of recycling that is being shoveled onto a big conveyor belt much like the one in McKinney but, bigger,  Actually this facility dwarfs McKinney’s facility.  This place is easily the size of a football field and noisy.  The large recycling machines are working hard.  Brian takes us up the stairs to where the process begins.  There are about 6 guys and gals with big gloves on going through the material that is to be recycled.   Brian explains that the sole purpose of this facility is to sort the material that comes in the doors and as long as there is someone to buy the stuff they sort they will be in business.  Brian continues “If we do not make money we are not in business -bottom line” Ok, well, no saving the planet here!  We continue past several other high-tech sorting machines that all of a sudden come to a halt.  The line is down and Brian is not happy about this at all but, maintains his composure for his tour group.  After we pass a group of workers sorting out the recycles Brian makes a point to stop and tell us “While these people are very important to the success of this business and they work very hard everyday; they are also a perfect reason to go to college, so you do not have to do their job.”. Hmmm, note to self, if Quinn starts to slack bring him back here for a wake up call.  Geeze, I should be ashamed of myself or should I?  

I wish I could have gotten some pictures of the equipment.  We are standing about 20 feet up on elevated walkways, much like an elevated train in Chicago, and the walkways are about 2 and a half feet wide.  When the machines are going there are particles of, who knows what, flying through the air and Quinn and I are happy to have on our safety goggles.  Quinn grabs my hand which is odd, holding my hand became uncool in kindergarten.  We continue holding hands for the rest of the tour which was about 20 minutes.  Brian finds out that the line is down due to a long piece of wire being stuck in a vibrating machine. The line continues to be down for the rest of the tour and Brian tells us we missed seeing the coolest machine: A huge magnet that sorts metal.  Brian finishes our tour by thanking us for being respectful and well-behaved and then throwing in a story that there once was a man who fell in the bailing machine and his organs squished out through a hole in his chest while he was bailed! Yes, I was just as caught off guard as you.  Quinn and I looked at each other, took off our gear,  said thank you and were out the door. Goodness gracious,that was an experience. Quinn and I debrief in the car on the way home.  Quinn was not impressed.  He did not like the noise, the dirt, the height of the equipment and is already making plans to design safer, more efficient equipment immediately.  

As I reflect on our experience, I wonder how one recycling plant can be so different from another, then I realize I own a salon & spa and pride myself in thinking that ours is different from the rest.  Why wouldn’t recycling plants be just as different?  I truly believe that recycling will help save our planet and if it takes large corporations running them solely for profit to accomplish that, I guess I can handle it.   That does not change the fact that I am sad that I have to leave my naive, pretty picture of companies recycling for our planet’s sake behind. Til next Friday, composting gone wild!  

Friday, July 2, 2010- Do Those Plastic Bottles Get Recycled? Recycling Plant, McKinney

 

Our trip to the McKinney M.R.F. (Materials Recovery Facility) was long.  As Quinn and I drove from Colleyville to McKinney, Texas all I could think about was that this is the same trip our recyclables have to make every day or so.  Is this helping to reduce our carbon foot print?  I guess we will find out. Quinn and I pull up to another unassuming building and go inside to meet with Henry Leu.  Henry is the Operations Manager for the IESI McKinney MRF.  We are greeted by a wonderful lady at the front desk and she fills us in on what we are about to see.   The MRF is actually in a building in the back of the property that was completed about one year ago.  She shares that it was the first LEEDS Certified recycling center in the United States.  LEEDS Certification was developed by the US Green Building Council in 2000, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. You can learn more about LEED Certification at  www.usgbc.org/LEED/ .    Henry arrives and we follow him to the new MRF building.  The new building is visually impressive compared to all of the other facilities we have visited.  It is modern, clean, hip and trendy while still looking like a functional warehouse.  The inside has the same feel.  The carpeting is made out of recycled plastic bottles and the walls are made from recycled cardboard.  Overall the building is made from 35% recycled material.  Now that is a way to walk the talk.     

Mc Kinney LEEDS Certified MRF

We are led to the community room on the second floor where all the tours begin.  We are treated to a very informative video about the MRF building and the work that goes on inside.  Quinn really liked the observation deck where you can  get a great view of what goes on. The McKinney MRF services McKinney, Melissa, Frisco, Prosper, Rowlette and Colleyville.      

The Recycling Journey

►

   The McKinney MRF has the ability to recycle: 

•  6,495 tons of materials a month
• 77,940 tons a year

  

These materials include plastic, paper, aluminum, tin, steel and cardboard.   Once our recycling makes it to the floor of the MRF it is pushed onto a conveyor belt to be sorted. Once on the belt it goes to a platform where employees hand sift out any items that are not recyclable.  Then it continues and large cardboard is sent out to its own pile. Then the materials are diverted to a vibrating conveyor belt that sorts out paper.  The journey continues with plastic being separated and at the end a large magnet helps sort the tin, aluminum and metal.  It is hard to believe that only a year ago this whole process was done by hand. I love modern technology. The one unfortunate fact we realized during our visit was that all glass is not so fortunate.  Henry currently does not have the ability to recycle all glass.  What? I was amazed.  I thought glass was the easiest substance to recycle, not true.  The McKinney MRF is currently only able to recycle large pieces of glass.    

Large Glass is Happy Glass

  

Small pieces of glass are hazardous to the MRF employees and  currently can not be cleaned economically. The good news is that a new $100,000.00 machine is being purchased and will clean broken glass using vibration and high pressured air.  This high-tech machine should arrive in about 6 months.  This brought up a very good question.  How much material arrives at the recycling facility that can not be recycled?  One percent is sent to the Melissa landfill because it has no end use and is truly trash.  That is a lower number then I expected.  There are several materials that frequently make it the center that are not recyclable:    

• Grocery Bags
• Dirty aluminum Foil
• Greasy Cardboard Pizza Boxes
• Coolers
• Inflatable Toys and Pools 

  

Pile of not-so recyclable items.

So what happens to all of these sorted materials?  We continue our tour  outside.  Quinn is amazed by the mounds of material that has been dumped on the MRF floor.  The mound is huge and Quinn gets good footage: 

Mound of Recycles

►

  

We walk around to the back of the building where they store all of the bails of bundled material.  The McKinney MRF can recycle:

More than 1,060,000 pounds of aluminum annually that:

• equals enough energy to run a television nonstop for 154  years
• saves more than 42,000 gallons of gasoline

More than 62,290,000 pounds of paper that saves:

• 300,00 trees
• 6,400,000 gallons of oil
• 52,000 kilowatts of energy
• 122,000,000 gallons of water

  

More than 6,718,000 pounds of plastic that:

• saves 3,400,000 gallons of oil
• is equivalent to 6,718 people’s energy for one year

  

More than 31,784,000 pounds of cardboard that saves:

• 85,000 cubic yards of landfill space
• 436,000 gallons of oil 

  

This material is sold via broker for market value.  The numbers are quite impressive but, a little hard to imagine.  So when we turn the corner and see the bails of paper we are really shocked.   

A Couple of Days of Paper

►

  

 Quinn asks” How long did it take for you to take in this much paper?” and Henry replies” A couple of days”  That really puts it right into perspective for Quinn and I.   The bails of plastic are next, followed by aluminum.  So we have the answer to todays question: Does the plastic bottle we put in or recycling bin really get recycled? Answer: Absolutely! We thank Henry for a great tour.  He tells Quinn he can keep the hard hat!  Quinn is pleased.  We get into the car to start our journey home. As we discuss our afternoon Quinn is energetic about the possibilities of recycling.  I ask him if the long trip was worth it?  His reply? “Totally, but how long til we get home?”  I giggle and come to the realization that the trip was definitely worth it for us and especially for our recycling.  Follow us next week as we revisit Quinn’s favorite landfill – The Denton Landfill with Txa 21 and CBS11 in tow as they interview him about his adventure. 

   

    

    

This material is sold at market value via a broker   

     

   

Friday, June 25th- Arlington Landfill- Trash, Close to Home

 I have been driving down highway 157 for most of my life and on a hot, windy, summer day you can smell stench of trash, yes, trash.  The thing I find most interesting is that while I have driven past the Arlington landfill for 30 years, not once have I turned onto Mosier Valley to see what really is causing that caustic aroma. I knew it was a landfill but, had no reason to care how, or where they were disposing of my trash.  It really is amazing that everyday we create trash and never have to see it or deal with it. We put our trash on the curb and pretty much do not even give it a second thought.  Wow, we are spoiled, out of sight out of mind, sad really.  So, today is the day, no more ignorance is bliss.  Quinn and I are going forth to gain knowledge that may change our thinking forever.  We are going to turn onto Mosier Valley and see where our trash finds its resting place for eternity, the Arlington Landfill.     

We arrive at the landfill at 3:30 and are greeted by a big sign:     

Rules for all things trash!

 We proceed to the scale house. The scale house is where all and, I mean all trash that is put to rest is weighed and accounted for before it is allowed to enter.     

Arlington Scale House

We arrive at the scale house and are greeted by Gary, head of operations for the Arlington Landfill.  Gary is tall and a bit more corporate casual then Bill from the Denton Landfill.  He invites Quinn into the front seat of his white Suburban. I jump into the back seat.   Gary starts right in on the facts.  The Arlington Landfill is 790 acres and receives 3,500 tons of trash a day, that is 850 truck loads.  Quinn is still interested in only one thing, “can I go through your trash?” Quinn gets the same answer “No, that would be scavenging which is illegal” again he is disappointed but, moves on.  The Arlington Landfill only allows commercial vehicles to go to the actual landfill to drop off their trash.  So we climb a pretty big hill to get a look at the landfill.     

Arlington Landfill 101

►

     

The Arlington Landfill has been taking trash since the 1950′s but it originated as a quarry.  They currently have about 250 acres of buried trash on the site and have about 50 acres left that are slated for trash.  After they fill up the 300 acres with trash they have to go to the state and get permission to use more of the 790 acres as landfill.  The differences between the Denton Landfill and the Arlington Landfill are many.  The Denton landfill goes 45 feet deep and the Arlington Landfill is 250 feet deep.  That is a bunch of trash.  The Arlington Landfill is a traditional landfill that has no intentions of reusing the old landfills.  Their goal is to mummify the trash so it does not get into our water table.  The Denton Landfill is trying out the bioreactor side of things that will allow them to keep reusing the same sites by composting the trash at quick rate . The Arlington Landfill has 790 acres.  They could keep taking trash for sometime.  While the Denton Landfill only has 152 acres.   I applaud Denton for the steps they are taking in reusing their land even if it is out of necessity. I guess “Necessity is the mother of invention” even when it comes to trash.       

Gary is very proud of his landfill as well.  We ask him how and why he got into trash.  He has a degree in Environmental Engineering and Business to start and got interested in waste management when he worked at a chicken hatchery.  Chicken hatcheries have a waste issue as well and Gary help them start a compost business to deal with the waste.  He began working with Municipalities during this time.  He realized he could make a difference working in waste management and thus his career began.  He has been at the Arlington Landfill for 5 years.     

Gary is most proud of his relationship with Living Earth.  Living Earth has a pretty big chunk of land leased from the Arlington Landfill. Gary showed us the numerous piles that contain everything from pecan hulls, corn husk hulls, and yard waste:     

Piles of Earth by Quinn

►

     

Living Earth has been returning tree limbs, brush, leaves and grass clippings to beneficial reuse for over 20 years, Living Earth is the largest recycler of green material in Texas. Living Earth’s web-site states “As consumers and municipalities are becoming increasingly aware, recycling green material reduces landfill use, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, promotes water conservation and returns organic material back into the environment.”  If you are in need of soil, compost or mulch I ure you to support Living Earth they seem to be doing a great job and have 7 different locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.   Residents of the City of Arlington may bring any of the following items to the landfill for recycling:    

 

•  Computers* and Televisions*

• Tires (limit of four)
• Concrete*
• Asphalt
• Brush
• Fence Panels
• Scrap Metal*

These services are available for a charge. Please call 817-354-2300 for rates and information.

*No charge.

 

We asked Gary if he saw any ”Green” changes for the Arlington Landfill in the near future and he said “We are following all of the federal and state guidelines and said change is slow when it comes to federal regulations. ” As a mom of 2 beautiful children it saddens me t think that we will just keep filling up our planet with trash and expecting our future leaders to deal with our mess.  There has to be a way to make change happen at a quicker pace.  We have the knowledge, we must use it.    

Our next adventure will be to visit our first recycling plant in Mc Kinney, Texas.  Join us, as we find out if that plastic water bottle we toss in the recycle bin really gets recycled!      

 

      

 

 

     

     

 

   

 

       

 

Friday, June 18th- City of Denton Solid Waste- “landfill”

Ok, so there was a change of plans.  The lady ,who did not give me her name, at the Arlington Landfill says Gary the leader of all things trash is on vacation and will not return until Monday so, plan B.  Chris from the Haltom City Trash Transfer Station said that Denton has it going on when it comes to trash and that they are the “greenest trash facility around”.   So after talking with my partner in trash, Quinn, we decide why not go see trash done green first!

We arrive at  Denton Solid Waste at 1pm and boy is it hot outside, 97 degrees, and not a tree in sight.  We slather on the sunscreen and start out on our first landfill expedition.  Quinn is a little nervous as this would be his first time asking questions on camera.  We mosey into the landfill operations building and are greeted by a jolly chap that sends for our guide, Bill.  Bill arrives all smiles.  Man, trash really can be happy.  Bill is head of operations and informs us he has been working at the landfill for 20 years.  Bill started on the back of a trash truck at the age of 19 and worked his way up to head honcho.

We follow Bill to his white pick up truck that is pretty basic but surprisingly clean. We all hop in the front seat.  Bill is ready to give us the full tour.  His landfill is 152 acres and services 100,000 Denton residents.  Quinn and I look over to the right and see a big hill we look to the left and see a bunch of piles to the right.

As we head over to the big piles I start my amateur videography. Let me tell you, I could use some classes! Quinn begins to ask questions, which are quite intelligent and Bill answers without hesitation.  Quinn wants to know “Are you allowed to take stuff home that you find in the trash?”  Bill replies” no sir, that would be scavenging and that is forbidden by law. Once something is put into the trash it must stay in the trash even if it of use to you or someone else”.  Quinn is really disappointed and believes this should be changed immediately.  Bill says that there are some loops holes to this and explains that salvaging is legal but, expensive.   The landfill had a pilot program that ended recently where there was a team of workers that would salvage through the garbage and pull out items of value such as old garden hoses, furniture, metal work to name a few.  They would then turn around and sell them for profit. The challenge with such a program is the labor expense.  Quinn volunteered to dig through the trash to help them restart the program!  Bill said he would love to have him when he turned 18.  As we passed by the large mounds Bill shared that there was a pile of garden and yard waste which they mulch.  The next piles are more like large rows of really brown dirt.  The brown dirt is compost. The compost is a combined effort between the Denton Solid Waste landfill and the Denton Water Utilities Department.  The Water Utilities Department ”donates” biosolids the sludge from the water treatment plant and combines it with the yard waste from the Solid Waste department and after months they have a beautiful dark brown compost free of bacteria.  This combined effort is called Dyno Dirt.  Dyno Dirt is run by the city and sells its compost, soil and mulch to anyone for 25 to 30 dollars per cubic yard.

Dyno Dirt products are available on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. From March 1 to Nov. 1, we offer extended hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 7 to 11 a.m. First come, first served, they can and do run out!

From Dyno Dirt we move on to the landfill the star attraction for Quinn and I as neither of us have ever been on a real landfill.   We pass several more towering mounds of stuff, which they have amassed for years and tire mulch which came from a tire plant that was closed down in Ft. Worth.  We pass the already completed landfill which was started in 1985 and completed in 1997.  It looks like a hill with black hoses coming out of it.  The black hoses are methane wells.  Methane is the gas that is created when our trash decomposes.  This gas used to go into our atmosphere and create those nasty greenhouse gases that we all read about.  Then the federal government said the landfills had to burn these gases. Solving one problem and creating an even bigger one from the pollution created when the gases were burned.  That is where these gas wells come into play.  Denton now harvests these gases and sells them to the gas company.  The amount of methane gas they harvest can power 1,600 homes.  Now that is cool.  Do all landfills do this?  Hmm, I wonder.

Then there it is the landfill!  The landfill looked more like a gully or a dry riverbed.  Lots of well, dirt and not very deep.  

1st view of the Denton Landfill

►

The Denton landfill is only 45 feet deep.  Bill says that has to do with their water table.  We see a bulldozer across the gully and ask if we can go closer.  Bill obliges us and explains why his landfill is different from the rest.  This Denton landfill is one of the first Bioreactor Type landfills.  (The reason he says Bioreator Type” is because under Texas state guidlines they are not allowed to add as much liquid back into the landfill that would make it a true Bioreactor but they are doing the best they can within the state guidlines.) The landfill we are looking at will be completed in 10 to 15 years.  Completed means it will be full of trash.  Now regularly they would have to move on and make another 45 foot deep hole and compact it full of more trash. Now the problem with this is at some point say 25 years the city of Denton’s 152 acres would be full of trash and they would have to buy more property and start this process over.  This is where the bioreactor landfill could save the day, year or even the Earth!  This bioreactor landfill conserves all the run-off water and pumps it back into the landfill. This causes the trash to decompose at twice the normal rate.  A regular landfill may take 30 years to decompose while a bioreactor only takes 15 years.  That means that this new landfill will only produce methane gas for 15 years.  After this 15 years it will be safe to dig another 45 foot hole exactly where the old one was, take out the recyclables and start filling it back up.  Now that sounds like a plan to me, in essence they are composting our garbage.

The icing on this trash filled day was when Quinn got up close and personal with the Denton city residents trash.  Bill drove us over to see the trash and how it is compacted into the Earth.  A large bulldozer with spikey wheels rolls over the garbage until a video monitor reads green.  We pull up to this very large wheeled bulldozer and Bill asks Quinn if he would like to drive it? Quinn’s face lit up like a kid in a candy store “Mom, can I ? I reply “Absolutely”.

Quinn- up close and personal with the Denton Bulldozer

►

I want to thank Bill so much for our tour of the Denton Landfill.  Join us for our next adventure, The Arlington landfill!

Friday, June 11, 2010- Haltom City Transfer Station

Mission: Save the planet, one trash can at a time.

Who: Mom & Quinn

Time Frame: Summer 2010

“Be the change you want to see.” Mahatma Gandhi

Quinn ,my eldest son, and I have given ourselves 11 Fridays (all Fridays this summer) to find out where our trash goes, recycling and all.  Why would we take those ever so precious summer days to smell the dreaded stench of landfills? Because we can and we want to know the impact we have on our planet. 

1. Can we really make a difference by putting that bottle in the recycle bin. 

2. Does that bottle really get recycled? 

Our adventure started today! We dropped Drake, my youngest son ,off at spanish camp and cruised over to IESI’s transfer station in Haltom City to check out our trashes’ first destination.  As we pulled up to an unassuming building Quinn read the rules posted on a very large weathered sign.  ”No electronics? Mom, that’s weird, ok, I guess I’ll turn my DS off”  As I glanced at the sign I knew they meant you could not dispose of them at this transfer station but, I was happy he turned it off.

We were greeted by the smiling face of Chris.  I had spoken with Chris on the phone earlier to get permission to visit the transfer station.  Chris was eager to invite us around the corner to show us a 20 by 40 foot open warehouse, a bit like a small airplane hangar that was partially full of yard brush, a garden hose, several black trash bags, and two bulldozers.  Chris explained that they had just finished a big load and would be expecting their next delivery around 11am.  At first glance Quinn and I were not very impressed.  Then Ron, the transfer station manager made his entrance. 

Ron is 3o something, brunette, scruffy, glasses and all-knowing when it comes to trash.  Within minutes we are knee-deep in trash talk, literally!   Ron tells us he had arrived to work at 3am.  Crazy, if you ask me as I am happiest when opening my eyes at 7am.  They process all of Colleyville’s trash here as well many other surrounding cities. I ask how many employees they have to sort all that garbage and they have only Chris, Ron and a female part timer.  Goodness that is a lot of trash for three people.  Quinn notices that there is broken glass all over the cement floor and says that must be dangerous to walk on.  Both men look down at their steel toed boots.  Chris explains the required attire, work boots, jeans and a company issued neon yellow t-shirt with reflective tape in the shape of an “H” on the front. He assures us the shirt helps him not get squished between trash, trucks and bulldozers.  Quinn is happy with Chris’s explanation as he likes to live within the rules.

Ron picks up the conversation and lets us know what it takes to move up the ranks in waste management.  To land Ron’s job you must have a 2 year college degree and be certified through the state.  He adds that there is big money in trash.  A landfill manager has to have at least a four-year degree in engineering and can make $200,00.00.  Quinn is impressed. 

Ron’s dad is in waste removal as well.  Ron shares with us that his dad’s advice was that “no matter the economy there will always be a need for waste management.”  Quinn and I catch each other’s eyes and give each other the yeah, he’s right glance!

We make our way into the hangar to a pretty big bundle of cardboard.  Quinn notices that there is a CD on the floor and asks if they had ever found anything of value in the trash? Of course! Would you have guessed they once found a brand new 50 inch screen TV?  Well, there is big money in recycling one rectangular bundle of cardboard goes for $200.oo and the Haltom City Transfer Station processes 130 cardboard bundles. That is $312,000 a year just in cardboard.  I think I would be putting out huge marketing signs around town to increase that business.  Shoot, maybe I need to start a new business, Cardboard Is Us!  If it were just that easy.

Ron, Quinn & Chris in front of the trash hangar.

After a half hour of trash talk Ron gives us the low down on where the trash goes from here.  It has 2 paths. The first is the recycling plant which is located in Mc Kinney, Texas.  Really?  Do they really need to truck all of our recycling 54 miles?  Does that reduce our carbon footprint? I am very suspicious.  I think the almighty dollar may have put a kink in this path.  The 2nd path is much closer, the Arlington Sanitary Landfill.  I have driven past this smelly place for at least 24 years always wondering what goes on around that bend.  Come next Friday I will have the answer.  What does one wear to visit a landfill? Hmm, I’m up for suggestions.