Seminar teaches how to reduce, reuse and recycle

During the last half of the 20th century, the United States was a throw-away society with disposable dishes, utensils and containers.

Now, those items have piled up in landfills — most of them made of plastic.

In the past few decades, people have become more environmentally conscious and look for solutions to the mountains of garbage. Recycling was one solution. It has grown into a large program in many communities, including greater Sedona.

In November 2008, the Sedona City Council approved a Zero Waste Resolution, making it one of the first cities to so.

The city of Sedona in conjunction with Yavapai College is presenting a three-session Zero Waste seminar at the Sedona Center for Arts and Technology beginning Saturday, March 27. The program will be presented by Richard Anthony, of Richard Anthony Associates Consulting. Anthony is an experienced leader and consultant on zero waste and has more than 40 years experience working with dozens of governments and private businesses and industries.

After the seminar, attendees will receive a certificate for having attended nine hours of instruction through An Introduction to Zero Waste, Waste Assessment and Implementing Zero Waste at Your Business. To register go to www.yc.edu and click on Lifelong Learners.

Zero waste encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused, creating commodities out of traditional waste products. A key component is recycling.

Canyon Automotive owner Denny Mandeville transfers used oil drained from a truck during an oil change into a larger container that will be picked up and taken to Phoenix to be reused in the making of asphalt. The closed recycling system prevents any used oil from spilling.

“When you look at this world up to 1945 we recycled. Even during World War II they had a mandatory recycling program. Afterward, we moved away from that, especially with the dawn of plastic,” Anthony said.

Anthony said the last sink for all of the items thrown away is the ocean because even the landfills leach.

“You’ll find plastic residue in the sand or in the fish,” Anthony said. “People didn’t know 30 years ago.”

There is little that cannot be reused or recycled. Anthony thinks he could sell about 83 percent of recycled items.

“About six percent of what’s left is diapers. Another six percent is painted wood and the rest is composite materials,” Anthony said, who is one of the founders of the Recycling Coalition.

“We need to change the wasting paradigm. We need to get our heads together on sustainability.”

The concept, and the responsibility, goes upstream as well as downstream.

“Basically we’re trying to give people information about waste management by encouraging reducing, reusing and recycling as well as [trying to] encourage manufacturers to make recyclable products and use recycled products,” Anthony said.

Zero waste guides people to change their lifestyle and practices to emulate natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources. The end result is elimination of discharges to land, water or air. Zero waste is one of the fastest, cheapest and most effective strategies for combating climate change, Anthony said.

Another benefit of zero waste is jobs, Anthony said.

“We’re really paying for not having these jobs through disposal processing and manufacturing. It’s one source we’ve left on the table,” Anthony said.