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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 1990)
Page 2 THE CLACKAMAS PRINT OPINION October 31,199 Recyling measure won't make state any greener Oregon is the most beautiful, unspoiled land that I have ever experienced. It is evident that environmental issues are at the core of our concerns. We pass laws and amendments that reflect a deep apprecia tion for the welfare of our natural resources. Sometimes, however, the desire to do “the right thing” is orchestrated in such a way as to accomplish the exact opposite. Measure 6 is clearly an example of such an instance. • OSPIRG, the Oregon Public Interest Research Group, has sponsored a measure that is being touted as the best solution to our difficulties with non-recyclable wastes. It is a regulatory measure. It is also a puni tive and unjustifiably expensive measure. As part of their promotional propa ganda, OSPIRG is reminding us all of their success with the “Bottle Bill.” What they are purposefully omitting is the fact that the “Bottle Bill,” a regulatory measure, also included substantial monetary incen tives. When you hear someone extol the virtues of Measure 6 and proclaim that “Regulation Works!,” ask him who is pay ing for it. Bill Hanneman, author of Oregon’s “Bottle Bill,” has sent out letters to his voters asking them to defeat this bill. In his letter he explains that “The bureaucracy required to enforce Measure 6 will be sub stantial. Yet Measure 6‘provides not one dime to pay for [itself]... and administer hearings and appeals on exemptions for. thousands of products annually.” The DEQ has estimated that 1 million dollars is needed to establish and enforce the bill — including the first year’s salaries for seven staff members needed to perform bill. On the surface the meaning reads that regulatory functions. OSPIRG estimates packaging manufacturers are not to com 1/2 million dollars would be required and plicate the process of resource recovery, however, the actual net result may be the -only 2-3 staff members. Regardless of the cost, if we vote this death of recycling as an industry! Recycling and resource recovery are measure into law our legislative assembly currently not economical will be constrained to find a in either their administra way to fund it -- although it Environmentalist's tion or their mechanics. » is you and I that will actu Grimoire The marketplace has be ally pay for it Before we by come flooded with mate bity it let’s take a closer look Rändel Hodgins rials that the industry has at the merchandise.. no capacity to turn into Measure 6 lacks any usable, saleable commodities that can turn form of positive reinforcement. What it a reasonable profit. lacks in incentives it makes up for in We need to develop new technologies penalties of up to $10,000 per day for like those that introduced plastic lumber. violations. In order to escape the puni The reverberations from that one innova tive actions built into Measure 6, a pack age manufactured or distributed and then tion atone may soon help breathe life into Oregon’s distressed lumber industry. Where sold in Oregon must fit into one of the is the incentive for (or even the smallest following categories: consideration of) advancement in the IN (1) It must be usable a minimum of DUSTRYof resource recovery in Measure 5 times. This doesn’t sound too bad but 6? Nowhere. consider the most likely material to con (3) Ifconditionsland2cannotbemet, form with this requirement: glass. The the packaging must be constructed of 50% costs of transport, toss due -to breakage, recycled materials. A trip to your local industrial, re-fit, sterilization, and civil grocery will reveal that a large percentage liabilities in dollars and energy make this of packaging is already made from recov condition ridiculously impractical. ered materials - “If ife GREY its OKAY!.” Currently glass and other materials Admittedly there is much room for are broken down and reformed at a con improvement — and there are packagers siderable savings in energy atone. Reus that are purposefully sly in the way their ing products like lumber and appliances “recyclable” claim is made.- Paper packag makes a tot of sense, but Measure 6 has ing, from an industry viewpoint, is the lowest targeted (wrongly) packaging atone. grade of recovered material; for the most (2) The product must be recyclable part it already contains recycled fibers and within existing systems. This is the most technically cannot be recovered due to the insidiously deceptive requirement in the shortness of their fiber length. There are two likely consequences to this criterion; products will be over-pack aged to compensate for a lack of structural tions, lounge space for staff, faculty and integrity (who pays for that?), or the fibers students. These are long time needs which will end up in pulp mill sludge ponds and may be rectified with new building comple tion. However, no contest should exist between a Game Room and instructional programs. I won’t enter! Elimination Game Room solution Dear Editor: I would like to take a stand on the Game Room relocation proposal. On page 5, of The Clackamas Print. Oct 17,1990, where several faculty/staff contacted for response, “were undecided or would not respond to the question” a blank spot was printed. I found the blank spot symboli Judith Peabody cally revealing. Indeed, the faculty are a Tutorial Coordinator “blank spot,” for we have not been heavily involved in the latest round of rapidly, shift ing scenarios of where to place the Game Room, yet this allows the institution to offer students vital academic services at a time when campus space is a scarce com modity. I tested my “blankspot” assumption at Editor-In-Chief: Angela Wilson the Oct. 25 Faculty Senate Meeting where FeatureEditor: Jennifer Soper I found more kindred spirits. My proposal Sports Editor: Aaron Brown is simple-that we add to the list of Game Photo Editor: Lane Scheideman Room solutions the. elimination of the Rhaposdy Editor: Ron Jagodnik, Jr. Business Manager: Gregg Mayes Game Room. I submit the following ra Staff Writers: Carle Gradener tional: 1 Access to game room activities abound along Mcloughlin Blvd., Molalla Ave., and Beaver Creek Rd. for like minded students. 2. This is a commuter, not a residential college. 3. The “business of instruction is in struction” and there appears to be no in trinsic instructional value in the Game Room (See also, “The Music Man” for reference). 4. The Student Government Budget is primarily funded by mandatory student fees paid through tuition and other revenue sources, not the Game Room revenues. 5. If Randall 101 were a reasonable so lution, this concept might have been im plemented years ago (“Read my lips-no simple solutions”) . In conclusion, I urge you to choose a value system which gives priority to in structional programs over pool tables (See again the “Music Man” or “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for any thing.”) I am for student space, more study zones and study carrels, more tutorial sta-i Heatherie Himes Brenda Hoden Heidie Hoffman Frank Jordan Noian Kidwell Jennifer Lessard Richard Marx Jane Wilcox Photographers: Kyle Moe Darby Pereira David VanKeiren Eva Worley Production StaffrAnthony Porter Jillian Porter Tricia Schneider Computer Tech: Scott Johnson Ad Salesman: Dan Chample Darkroom Tech: Debbie Felix Advisor: Linda Vogt The Clackamas Print aims to be a fair and impartial newspaper covering the college com munity. Opinions expressed in The Clackamas Print do net necessarily reflect those of the college administration, faculty of Advertisers. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publication distrbuted every Wednesday except for finals week. The open advertising rate is $3.75 per column inch. Clackamas Community College, 19600S. Molalla Avenue, Oregon Chy, Oregon 97045. Trailer B. Telephone: 657-6956, ext. 309 (office), ext.578 (production) and ext 577 (ad vertising). accumulate. Does it really make sense i divert this tow grade material into a mark that is already glutted on recoverable ai useful paper products? The ideology behind this measure simple; Regulation works ~ stricter sta dards will initialize recycling. Well there a certain logic to this idea... the same kii of logic that led Joeseph McCarthy to pe secure and terrorize a nation that unwj tingly gave him not only the permissio but the power to do it! McCarthy believi that persecuting popular public figures communists would reveal them as comm nists. . A seemingly strange analogy until y< read Measure 6 and discover that any ci zen can file suit (at theexpense of theSta whether they prevail or not) against a company for selling/distributing/manufa turing a package that doesn’t conform the above criteria as tong as the suit “advancing the cause” of the bill. The on group that is likely to profit from this kii of legislation is the legal community. This nation has a tong history of i warding the extraction of virgin materia for production. It is now time that we < reorient ourselves and become resour recovery minded. I believe in recycling ai I believe in God; but neither one should I force fed through legislation. Measure was perhaps a good idea, it just needs spend a little more time on the blackboar We must continue to recover and recyc our resources; however, a poorly define punitive piece of legislation that offers i incentives, no advancement, and no su port is not going to help. On Nov. 5, sei Measure 6 back to be recycled; Vote f and Kill the Bill! NEXT: THE EXISTING ANSWER The views expressed in The Clackamas Print are those of The Clackamas Prim staff, and do not necessarily reflect those of Clackamas Community College. The Clackamas Print welcomes letters to the Editor. Such letters must be signed and have a telephone number or they will not be printed. The author’s name will not be printed if requested, but the orginal letter must be signed. Letters must not exceed 300words and shouldbe typewritten or neatly printed. Letterscan be turned into The Clackamas Print offices in Trailer B. The Clackamas Print reserves the right to edit Letters to the Editor for grammar, obscenities and libelous materials. Letters to the Editor must be recieved by Monday before publication to be printed in Wednesday’s edition.
