Eric Lombardi
Photo by Kai Hagen

"The Zero Waste Community Tour that Caroline organized was an amazingly effective and educational experience for the group that came to Boulder. I wish all elected officials could get such hands-on experience with the world of waste - it's fun and important to future generations."

- Eric Lombardi, Executive Director of Eco-cycle, Inc., Boulder, Colorado www.ecocycle.org

Karin Tome
Photo by Kai Hagen

The Hope of Boulder - After spending four days in Boulder, Colorado on the Zero Waste Field Trip, I'm glad to say that I have hope for Frederick County, in terms of cutting down on the amount of "trash" we produce so that we DO NOT feel the need to build a waste-to-energy plant (incinerator.) Boulder showed us that moving toward Zero Waste is a community solution and must be met with cooperative partnerships between government, business (especially the haulers) and citizens. They showed us that if we're willing to invest in the primary set-up of the systems, our citizens will be more likely to participate in "doing the right thing." Something as simple as placing 3 containers (co-mingled cans/bottles, paper, trash) where people normally see just 1 (trash,) will help us to increase our diversion rate dramatically. Other types of incentives that are employed there include single-stream recycling, variable rate programs (Pay-as-you-throw; you gain control of your trash bill because you only pay for the amount of trash you discard,) convenient drop-off locations for hard-to-recycle-materials, and governmental ordinances such as requiring builders to recycle or reuse 50% of their materials instead of landfilling them.

Boulder City and Boulder County officials have invested strongly in the principles of Zero-Waste: a true increase in the diversion of resources from their waste stream, including composting, encouraging manufacturer-responsibility, reuse, AND aggressive and focused recycling.

As with any type of solid waste solution, it will require a financial commitment on our part and the political will of our officials. We need our leaders (State, County, and Municipal) as well as our solid waste haulers and citizens to work together to come up with a better plan. I'll continue to expect our leaders to keep an open-mind and look clearly at the alternatives.

One thought that was fixed in our minds throughout this field trip was this: Zero-Waste is a journey, not a destination. Boulder has shown us that there's hope for Frederick County to solve our solid waste problems as a community working together.

- Karin Tome is a private resident who attended the Zero Waste Trip, and is now a Brunswick, Maryland Council Member.

Commissioners Gray and Hagen
at Boulder County's
Recycling Center
Photo by: Karin Tome

"Commissioner David Gray liked what he saw, from a platinum-standard Leadership in Environmental Energy and Design, or LEED, building, to a one-man recycling operation in the town of Nederland, in the mountains above Boulder. 'I've seen some great ideas,' he said. 'Zero waste is a pathway, not a destination.'"

- Frederick Newspost June 15, 2008

"Wish everyone with an interest in the issue could have the experience we had today...or even just this morning (with Eric Lombardi and Eco-Cycle)."

- Kai Hagen, Frederick, Maryland County Commissioner

Old Chicago Zero Waste Restaurant

One thing that has been striking to me is how little impact there is on what we might call "our daily lives". The changes made to increase recycling and composting are subtle. The restaurant manager we spoke with said it had very little impact at all, if any, on his operations. There are some subtle differences at the hotel (like two different waste containers under the sink instead of one) but otherwise I'd swear I was staying at any hotel anywhere in the U.S. Recycling opportunities are side-by-side with waste and composting, making it easy to participate without additional effort.

- Jim Racheff