Having worked in solid waste in Phippsburg and being a part of the regional waste committee for Bath and Brunswick in the 1990s, I saw overflowing landfills and four operating regional waste incinerators. Let’s admit it. Even thrifty Mainers who are used to making do with what we can produce ourselves, borrowing from neighbors or doing without buy a lot of products. Many of those we don’t really need or provide us only temporary pleasure, then get discarded.
Now the community value seems primarily to sell for the lowest price to beat the competition. I was depressed to open a children’s toy catalog recently to see only toys made of plastic.
In my childhood, mechanical devices and toys were made to last. I still have a hand and an electric eggbeater that work fine after 45 years. So do several of the home-sewn blouses and wool pants my talented mother sewed for me 50 years ago. Who needs the current fashion if you invest in quality, classic clothing? Quality wooden trucks and dolls that have been loved last for generations and continue to be fun for kids to use. When you bought a lawnmower, or radio you expected it to last. Finding a repair person today for your microwave that might just need a new element is not easy, so cheap broken products get dumped in overflowing landfills.
The lifecycle costs of these purchases that include building and maintaining more landfills or incinerators and the often-associated watershed or air pollution is not calculated into the original price. Humans have expected the good Earth to absorb the waste, heat and pollution of an ever-growing population. This may have worked when there were 3 billion people in the world. We have clearly overstressed the capacity of our living environment to absorb the energy and material wastes of 8 billion people, causing the deaths of millions of insects, birds that feed on insects, endangered plants and animals. Europe, the U.S. and China as high-consuming places have the greatest responsibility to repair some of the damage we have made on Earth’s interconnected web by minimizing our energy and material uses.
Maine has recently passed a law to shift responsibility for disposing of packaging from towns to producers of products. Starting in 2006, manufacturers must contribute to a stewardship fund based on their products’ volume shipped into Maine, their toxicity and ability to be recycled. Producers will pay a fee to the state stewardship fund based on their packaging choices, giving producers incentives to reduce packaging and use recyclable materials. In 2023 and 2024, producers, towns and the public can participate in rulemaking to design the process, which will go into effect in 2026. Towns will receive waste-disposal payments based on their average cost of managing packaging materials. Towns can reduce their disposal costs by removing usable consumer products and organic materials from the waste stream for public reuse and by increasing the efficiency of their recycling operations.
Solid waste disposal is a significant part of every town’s budget. If we make much less of it, we can keep our taxes lower. Recycling has become an accepted part of behavior since I started a recycling program in Phippsburg in 1989. It’s essential that citizens rinse their cans and bottles and include only categories of plastic or metal that their town accepts. I notice at the Topsham Recycling Center how thoroughly the staff removes inappropriate items that would risk a load of recycling to be rejected from the company we pay to accept recyclables.
There are two facilities in West Bath and in Portland that accept towns mixed recyclables and sort them on-site. This is a labor-intensive process, so towns occasionally must pay as much for recyclables processing as for solid waste disposal. Cardboard and paper are the only recycled products that continue to earn money for town solid waste programs. Again, if we more consciously reduce our use of purchasing and packaging products, we can reduce both our towns’ solid waste costs and our impact on the clean air, water and soil we need to continue our civilization.
Other agricultural and historic cultures didn’t have an abundance of disposable containers to hold water or food. Glazed pottery was necessary to hold water, honey or other liquids, although woven baskets sealed with pitch could hold water with a hot rock inserted to heat or cook the contents. Each of those functional containers was made with clay, grasses or reeds using skills taught for generations. So, bowls and baskets were highly valued and treated carefully to last.
Here are several ideas you can consider to reduce your use of materials. My husband bought several half-gallon sturdy plastic bags to take to the store to collect fruits and vegetables. He has reused these same four bags for two years effectively, and they will probably last many more years. Fortunately, large plastic or cloth grocery bags have become popular in recent years, and you can take them to any store or farmers’ market. Hannaford even encourages customers to bring their own by charging 5 cents per bag. Cloth lunch bags and paper or plastic containers can be used for sandwiches for those who take their own food to school or work.
Wash and save food takeout containers to store leftovers or give away baked treats to friends and neighbors. Buy produce and food items that have the least amount of packaging. Use bulk food bins when available instead of food in plastic packaging. Plastic is made from oil which has peaked in its extraction rate, is a limited resource that we need to save for the essential needs of future generations and is a major pollutant in our depleted oceans.
Reusing clothes, toys, furniture or unneeded tools is a great way to save other folks money and reduce material purchases. Maine is famous for its seasonal yard sales and flea markets, such as the ones on Route 186 in Lisbon and on Route 1 in Wiscasset. Across from the Topsham Recycling Center is a container for lightly used or outgrown clothes. The Clothing Bank on Tenney Way behind Hannaford in Brunswick has adult and children’s clothing for a $1 donation total. Volunteer Seventh-day Adventists open this service Wednesdays from 9:30-11:45 a.m. and 1-2:45 p.m., and Mondays from 4-5:45 p.m. Salvation Army on Congress Street in Bath near Route 1 accepts clean, used clothing. The Salvation Army collects clean, lightly used clothes at the Harpswell Transfer Station or Wiscasset Transfer Station. We are fortunate to have two large Goodwill stores at Cook’s Corner in Brunswick and on Topsham Fair Mall Road in Topsham that have a large variety of clothes books, toys, shoes and even furniture.
Consignment shops are good places to take your quality clothing you no longer use and receive some money in exchange. Rental shops to rent tuxedos, prom dresses or wedding clothes for one-time use will save you money and give more variety to your wardrobe.
The RESTORE on 126 Main St. in Topsham, run by Habitat for Humanity 7 Rivers, is a great place to purchase lightly used furniture. A young friend outfitting her first apartment purchased both a desk and a set of dresser drawers for under $150. They have quality chairs, sofas, coffee tables and items for home construction.
Nancy Chandler studied Animal Behavior and Anthropology at Stanford University, then received her master’s in biology education in her home state of North Carolina at U.N.C. Chapel Hill. She is passionate about teaching energy conservation and hopes to get you thinking about how to use energy use efficiently to save both money and reduce greenhouse warming gases.
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