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If you are like me, you are probably finding your news feed is focused on what is happening with the protests and riots and the possible defunding of police departments. And although I’d prefer to just address the normal subjects concerning recycling, I would also like to talk a little about current events. And I hope you don’t mind.
In a recent Resource Recycling newsletter article, one of its editors wrote his opinion regarding current race relations in America. While it is the policy of the Resource Recycling company to not endorse opinion pieces, I think you will find truth and relevance in everything this editor wrote.
Its author, Dan Leif, is a white middle-class male, who was brought up in a white middle-class suburb in New England. He believed he was educated early on about the importance of the civil rights movement and was moved by the powerful words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Even with this being the case, he felt his job had required more important things than just seeing all people were to be treated equally.
“I also have the convenient option of putting discrimination against black people — both the shocking and subtle manifestations — into an ever-widening folder in a file cabinet in the back of my mind," Leif said. "These are important things that I know cannot simply be disregarded. But, ultimately, I have always been able to close the file cabinet door, leaving the actual reckoning for a later time.
"Amid the current circumstances of social unrest in our country around the killing of George Floyd, I still have that option," Leif continued. "I can learn the details, attend an event or two, make a donation, and then go back to my day-today world of relative safety and comfort.”
He feels many leaders, in both the recycling field and other areas, feel the same way and wonders if anything they do or say to try to help solve the current problems might just be the wrong thing and would only make matters worse.
"But the issue seems so large, so complex and so fraught with emotion that the natural course of action is to pay respect and then slowly step away — usually in silence, for we never want to say the wrong thing," Leif said.
But the author knows things have to change. He said, “Over the last two weeks, the black cries against injustice have been joined by voices from the rest of society in a way not seen in decades.”
He knows education of the matter is important even in recycling.
“Community staffs work hard to educate residents of local recycling program realities so that those individuals will 'do the right thing.' The same holds true for racial justice.”
As part of this education process, he points out, “The Equity Office for the city of Austin, Texas, for instance, recently reported that city departments were struggling to collect race and ethnicity data related to who was being selected for city contracts and who was receiving outreach and engagement within the community.”
Even the placement of recycling and hazardous waste facilities comes into play. For example, a 2007 study by a church group found people of color make up the majority of residents living within 1.8 miles of America’s hazardous waste facilities.”
In another study, research from the University of Minnesota and the National Science Foundation has found people of color in the U.S. are on average exposed to 38% more nitrogen dioxide than whites — nitrogen dioxide is a widespread air pollutant formed when fossil fuels are burned.
At the memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis last week, the eulogy given by Rev. Al Sharpton stated in part, “racial justice is more than just transforming one police department or passing bills. It’s a movement that involves every segment of society.”
In ending his opinion article on needed improvements, Leif stated “This needs to happen today, tomorrow, and again and again.”
And with that I will close for this week.
Ollie is a local citizen concerned with the environment and helping others. A retired Air Force fighter and instructor pilot, he is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and received his degrees at Texas State University where he worked on staff before totally retiring. For questions or comments, he invites you to call him at 512-353-7432.
