By MARK DEVOLDER Los Alamos
This letter addresses the issue of “mixed” waste items which find their way to the Los Alamos Ecostation as a result of daily waste disposal by Los Alamos County residents and commercial businesses, Community Development-approved demolition / building construction activities, and Community Development-initiated Nuisance Code-related waste disposal.
A fundamental problem with handling waste items is that people in Los Alamos County do not understand what comprises many commercial products. America has lost a great deal of manufacturing capability and American blue-collar workers no longer know how to make anything. The jobs of many American workers (including scientists, engineers, and researchers) have been out-sourced too. Workers learned a great deal by working in industry, and they took that information home with them. They built houses, repaired vehicles, and worked on a variety of projects. Now that kind of expertise is resident in China and Europe, and one of these days we are going to get our clocks cleaned.
I read George Chandler’s letter about “low-income” housing in the Los Alamos Daily Post. I have also read about the construction of “low-income apartments” in Los Alamos County. It begs the question, “Do people in low-income housing and apartments know how to dispose of potentially hazardous waste?”
Not so long ago, I visited the pallet pile at the Ecostation. What I found concerned me. The pallet pile contained electrical wiring, metal conduit, metal fire protection flanges, a metal eyewash base, a metal valve, cardboard part boxes, and sanitary waste items (that is, food-related items such as soda pop cans and Styrofoam food containers). It is highly probable that these materials came from LANL.
When LANL upgraded the Otowi Building and other buildings, all kinds of strange things showed up in the Ecostation pallet pile: particle board doors with hinges and lock hardware, composite computer flooring (containing carpeting/steel/wood), maple laboratory countertops, chemical-resistant laboratory countertops (composed of epoxy and fiberglass), maple bench seating, walnut panel trim from mailboxes, whiteboards (composed of wood and aluminum trim), and Contract Associates furniture (composed of cloth, wood, and aluminum). LANL has also disposed of U-Line crates (composted of steel and wood), and wire spools (wood reels held together by steel rods) in the pallet pile. This is from a place with an Environmental Management Program.
Fortunately, LANL is doing a better job of disposing of items these days. I have always respected the fact that LANL keeps trying to do the right thing. The pallet pile currently contains mostly empty crates and pallets. Some of the crates contain metal hardware and polyethylene foam. Some of the pallets and crates are composed softwoods (including ponderosa pine, yellow pine, and sugar pine). Some pallets are composed of red oak, white oak, maple, and other hardwoods.
In the 1970’s, things were different at LASL (now LANL) – a time when science was more important than politics. The LASL Visitors Museum (located on LASL property) had an exhibit to help educate the public about elements in the periodic table. There was a display containing cubes of metal with attached T-handles on them. Visitors could lift the blocks and feel the difference in weight between various blocks (for example, an aluminum block versus a copper block). The 1970’s was also a time when the Atomic Energy Commission published the “Understanding the Atom” series of booklets to help educate the public.
I have a friend who lives in the Jemez Mountains and helps the community by stacking discarded cardboard and sorting out discarded metal items. People in the Jemez don’t know the difference between aluminum and steel cans.
Items in Los Alamos County which present disposal problems include commercial items which are assemblies containing a variety of materials. For example, discarded toys may contain plastic, metal, and electronics/microprocessors (composed printed circuit boards, electronic components, lead solder, copper wire, and perhaps Nickel/Cadmium or Ni-Cd batteries). Many other items contain ni-cd batteries. It is hard to say what kind of commercial items go into residential and commercial trash containers. If Nuisance Code Enforcement personnel require a residential or commercial business clean-up, then hazardous materials may start showing up at the Ecostation.
Not so long ago, I watched a couple of husky young men throwing a couple of metal clothesline T-Posts into an Acme Metal scrap bin at the Ecostation. There was a problem. The clothesline had cylindrical concrete foundation blocks on the bottom. What is Acme Metals supposed to do with that assembly/subassembly? The clothesline post are one of many commercial items, machines, and electronic items which show up at the Ecostation.
I would like to know if Nuisance Code Enforcement personnel have any hazmat training or have any concern about what Los Alamos County residential and commercial property owners discard at the Ecostation.
At the Ecostation scales, there is a sign which addresses items which the Ecostation will not accept. However, people who are ignorant about materials (including hazardous materials) probably don’t know the difference between a bar of soap and a sheet of asbestos.
Thursday, I provided a letter about Community Development getting involved with Environmental Services and Environmental Sustainability efforts to prevent unsorted demolition waste, building waste, and Nuisance Code-related waste from going to the Ecostation. I think that the Los Alamos Public School System needs a wake call on this issue too and they need to be included in waste disposal education effort.
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