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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 2019)
NEWS Wednesday, november 20, 2019 HermIsTonHeraLd.Com • A7 Hermiston employer recognized by Department of Defense By JADE MCDOWELL neWs edITor In the year since Sidney Nevil started working for Vern’s Food Service Dis- tribution in Hermiston, he has frequently needed time off of work to attend to his duties in the National Guard. His boss, Fred Ledezma, has always been understanding. “Sometimes it’s been last minute, and without ques- tion, he says, ‘I’ll see you when you get back,’” Nevil said. It’s something Nevil has been grateful for. Flexi- ble and supportive employ- ers like Ledezma, he said, greatly relieve stress for Guard members as they try to juggle their employ- ment and their duty to their country. On Wednesday, Ledezma was recognized with the Seven Seals award from Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Jerry Carlson, left, Fred Ledezma, and Sidney Nevil pose for a picture outside of Vern’s Food Service Distribution in Hermiston on Wednesday afternoon. Ledezma was recognized with an award from the Department of Defense for his support of employees in the National Guard following a nomination for the award by Nevil. the Department of Defense, after Nevil nominated him for consideration. The award is charac- terized as the “broadest and most inclusive award” given by the department’s Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve pro- gram. The ESGR was estab- lished in 1972 to foster more support of reserves by their civilian employers, and to help service members and their employers navigate difficulties caused by their military commitments. Jerry Carlson, an ESGR military outreach coordi- nator in Hermiston, said National Guard members have more trainings, deploy- ments and other demands on their time than they used to — making it more important than ever that employers be willing to hire and support soldiers. “Some employers are not very supportive,” he said during an informal presen- tation ceremony Wednesday afternoon. He said that Vern’s Food Service Distribution and Ledezma would be held up as a “prime example” of support. Ledezma has worked for the company for 27 years, and serves as its warehouse manager and driver man- ager. The company dis- tributes wholesale food, beverages and supplies throughout Oregon and Washington, according to its website. Ledezma said he believes it is important to hire peo- ple currently serving in the National Guard and veter- ans, to gain from their expe- rience and give them new skills and experience in return. It’s something he has tried to do throughout his career there. “I believe they have a lot to contribute,” he said. He said he was honored to receive the award rec- ognizing his support of the ESGR’s mission. “When they were explaining to me, I thought it was beautiful,” he said. “It’s nice to be recognized in the community.” Drop in market means recyclables land in landfill By JADE MCDOWELL neWs edITor Your most recently dis- carded shampoo bottle may technically be able to be recycled, but it’s not going to be. Pop bottles and other drink containers you can redeem for a 10-cent deposit in Oregon are still being recycled by the Ore- gon Beverage Recycling Cooperative at a facility in St. Helens that handles high-quality #1 plastics. And some transfer stations, such as Sanitary Disposal in Hermiston, are currently taking milk jugs. “All other plastics are just landfilled,” Sanitary Disposal president Mike Jewett said. “DEQ said get rid of them.” It wasn’t always this way. For decades, Amer- icans tossed everything from laundry detergent bot- tles to butter tubs into curb- side bins, assuring them- selves that the items would be reshaped into a new con- tainer and land back on the shelves at Walmart shortly. Those low-quality plas- tics are expensive and dif- ficult to recycle, however, and break down over mul- tiple rounds of recycling. Companies in the United States couldn’t make recy- cling such products pencil out financially, and so they shipped most of that plastic to China. That’s not all they were shipping to China. Careless Americans were increas- ingly throwing jars half-full of peanut butter, syringes and Styrofoam contain- ers into the mix, increas- ing labor costs and decreas- ing profits as workers had to separate out the waste that made up as much as 20% of the load the company had paid for. And so, in July 2017, China announced it would no longer be allowing imports of most plastic waste, and transfer stations suddenly found themselves with nowhere to sell their plastic for recycling. Some, like Milton-Free- water’s recycling contrac- tor Horizon Project, quickly announced they would stop taking plastic. Others, like transfer stations in The Dalles and Hood River, kept collecting curbside recy- Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Milk jugs pile up in crates below a sign advising visitors to Sanitary Disposal in Hermiston on Friday afternoon that other forms of plastic are no longer accepted as recycling. Staff photo by Ben Lonergan A wall of stacked bales of cardboard support a pile of newsprint at Sanitary Disposal in Hermiston on Friday afternoon. The newsprint is left in a pile while the company works to mend their baler so that they can process and bale the paper to get sold for reclamation. cling to keep people in the habit but then took out the plastic and sent it to landfills or incinerators. At Sanitary Disposal, Jewett told the East Ore- gonian in November 2017 that they were still stockpil- ing plastic on site, hoping to ride out the sudden glut in the very small domestic market. Two years later, a new home for most of that plas- tic has never materialized, domestically or in other countries. Now, Jewett said, a sim- ilar problem is forming with cardboard. He said China was taking 20 mil- lion tons of cardboard a few years ago, then five million, and now two. The county expects to not accept any by 2021. “That market has really gone sour,” Jewett said. Sanitary Disposal is stockpiling cardboard like it once stockpiled plastic, hop- ing the market will rebound in the spring after going “as low as it’s ever been.” Jewett said the trans- fer station is still recy- cling other materials, such as wood, metals and glass. Right now it’s costing them more to ship the glass to Portland than they’re get- ting paid for it, he said, but “we don’t want to break any habits.” “Our recycling income is a lot lower than it has been in the past,” he said. A report on recycling released this week by the environmental advocacy organization Environment Oregon stated that Orego- nians are producing more waste than ever while recy- cling less of it. “The reality is plastics are so hard to recycle and so low value that we could only consistently afford to collect and recycle it when China was willing to buy it,” Celeste Meiffren-Swango, state director for Environ- ment Oregon Research & Policy Center, said in a statement. “Now we are left to deal with it ourselves, and plastic is choking our recy- cling system.” The report points out the problems that come with reduced recycling. Burn- ing more plastic in incin- erators damages air quality and presents health hazards. More plastic ends up in the ocean. Landfills can leak toxins into the soil or water supply, and generate green- house gases. And finally, when materials are dis- carded instead of recycled, it creates a need to obtain new “virgin” materials, accelerating our consump- tion of the Earth’s resources. In order to address the problem, Environment Oregon suggests a three- pronged approach: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Under reduce, they sup- port laws banning or reduc- ing single-use products, such as plastic bags, straws and styrofoam take-out con- tainers. They also support structuring garbage rates based on how much waste a person throws out, encour- aging conservation. Under reuse, they encourage consumers and businesses to trade sin- gle-use plastics for prod- ucts, such as fabric grocery bags or refillable water bot- tles. They also advocate for “right to repair” laws that allow people and inde- pendent shops to fix their own appliances and other products. Under recycle, they sug- gest an expansion of curb- side recycling and compost- ing programs, as well as laws requiring new products to contain a certain percent- age of recycled material. They want to legally hold manufacturers accountable for “the waste their product will become.” “It’s entirely within our power to fix the system, but what is missing is the nec- essary sense of urgency,” U.S. PIRG Education Fund Zero Waste Director Alex Truelove, who co-authored the report, said in a news release. “Recycling, com- posting and waste reduc- tion efforts will need to play an important role in the fight against microplas- tic pollution, climate change and other environmental challenges.” From a transfer station’s standpoint, Jewett said indi- vidual customers can do their part by being careful to follow rules posted at sites where they get rid of their recycling. The glass drop- offs are only for glass bot- tles and food containers, for example. If someone throws a window into the dump- ster and it breaks, they have now rendered the entire load of glass unfit for recycling, out of concerns about lead contamination. Contamination by care- less recyclers, of course, is what lead to China throwing the recycling market into chaos in the first place. “Remember: Contami- nation turns recycling into trash,” Jewett said. Introducing Kan Yang DO, Family Medicine Specializing in Mohs and Skin Cancer Surgery OPEN HOUSE Friday, Dec. 6th • 11am-1pm FREE SKIN CANCER SCREENING All attendees will be entered into a drawing to win a variety of skin care essentials! 1050 W. Elm Ave., Suite #220 • Hermiston, OR 541-289-4601 Kan Yang earned his degree of Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, DMC Campus, in Detroit, Michigan. He completed his residency with The Wright Center for GME, Family Medicine Regional Network, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In his spare time, Kan enjoys reading science fiction, spending time with family, jogging, and playing squash, basketball, ping pong, and tennis. Now accepting new patients. 589 Northwest 11th St. Hermiston, OR 97838 (541) 567-1717 yvfwc.com yvfwc.com
