There was a lot of enthusiasm several years ago about a music video produced by the Young Professionals Organization of Greater Peoria that tried to secure Peoria’s bid for 2013 All American City by organizing hundreds of 20- and 30-year olds dancing down a street lip-synching to the Rod Stewart song “Forever Young.”
It didn’t work. When real live young professionals come to Peoria to interview for jobs, they see a community that does not have weekly curbside recycling, does not provide refunds for glass bottle recycling, does not ban plastic shopping bags, has no community-wide composting sites, does not collect restaurant food waste, has no construction or demolition waste recycling program and doesn’t have a deadline for banning expanded polystyrene used in ubiquitous fast food carryout foam containers.
Many of these real, live young professionals here to interview for jobs come from areas of the country that have had comprehensive recycling measures in place for decades. Some municipalities turn their garbage into economic development, generating money and jobs. When we have none of these measures, we look like something out of the 1970s rust belt.
We have an opportunity to change our reflection and our practices thanks to the Peoria County solid waste disposal plan. Three recent public hearings to discuss the plan were organized to elicit public input.
“This is probably a 20-year plan, but it will make us a healthier and more knowledgeable community,” said Peoria County Board Member Lynn Scott Pearson, member of the committee formulating the plan. “This will also save us money. Our landfill will probably last twice as long.”
Thinking about garbage is expansive and it broadens our understanding, Pearson said. When school children learn about recycling paper, they start thinking about conserving water. When they learn about composting food waste, they start thinking about soil as a living organism. When they learn about pollution from coal-fired electric generation, they get excited about LEDs and solar power.
Even if you’re not young, thinking about garbage is expansive . . . such as thinking about who pays for your garbage. The answer is not you. No matter how much you pay in property taxes, income taxes and fees, you are not paying the tab coming due for your garbage. The tab goes to your children, grandchildren and impoverished people around the world. Some members of Congress love to protest “we can’t saddle our children and our grandchildren with federal debt,” but far worse is burdening them with the environmental degradation due to our profligate consumption of resources and unthinking disposal of trash. Maybe the greatest burden we could pass on to our children is our own myopic vision and lack of understanding about the real impact of our garbage and the image it reflects on us as a community. Clare Howard