THE G.E.R.M. OF AN IDEA: HOW TO DO A RECYCLING CENTER

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by MARJ COVERLEY

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.