THE G.E.R.M. OF AN IDEA: HOW TO DO A RECYCLING CENTER
by MARJ COVERLEY
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If you're already living on the land, you may well lie
awake quiet nights dreading the day when either people from
the cities or refuse from those steadily expanding Big
Towns will flow, relentless as swift lava, over your
paradise . . . and if you're still trying to tough it out
in a metropolitan area you're surely haunted—at least
occasionally—by the vision of no pure land left to
visit "out there" at all.
Clearly, something must be done. Population growth must be
curbed and our rip-it-up-stamp-it-out-throw-it-away way of
doing business replaced by something better.
But how does a mouse lean on an elephant? How do little
individuals begin turning the monster around . . . even the
tiniest bit? Well, a number of folks across the land have
made their start by collecting and returning for
remanufacture some of the incredible amount of waste the
nation generates daily.
Sure, sure . . . we all know that such action is a stopgap
and largely symbolic gesture. But it is a start, and a few
groups—like G.E.R.M., in California—are even
making it pay off.
The Green Earth Recycling Movement was established in June
of 1970 and just 12 months later—in June of
'71—we opened a permanent recycling center
to serve Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach
in Los Angeles' South Bay. The new facility (donated by the
Redondo Beach City Council) covers an acre and is fenced,
graded and landscaped. It was designed to accept six
transfer bodies at once and sturdy elevated platforms at
each station make loading the containers a breeze.
It took only a scant year of dedication, then, to establish
a smoothly running, almost self-service center that turns a
tidy profit. Yes, it was hard work . . . but we did it. So
can you.
Initially, unless you're very fortunate, you'll probably
have to start—as we did—with a "conditional"
center and contract for collection trucks and bins as you
need them. We persuaded Lucky Stores, Inc. to let us use a
portion of their parking lot two weekends a month. In
exchange, we pointed out that people stopping to recycle
trash would likely shop at the market . . . and we promised
to keep the collection area clean and presentable. We had
trouble with the "clean and presentable" part of our
agreement right from the start, however, and continually
faced the possibility that the market would evict us.
By December, 1970—when Lucky's interest in recycling
had noticeably paled—we set out to find a permanent
location for our growing business. No luck . . . but we did
persuade Culver Savings and Loan (across the street from
the Lucky store) to House us for a few (it turned out to be
six) more months.
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