Audio By Carbonatix
Many people were not happy when the city unveiled its long-term solid waste management plan. It’s goal of achieving zero waste by 2040 was admirable enough, but the plan pushed consideration of such measures as a plastic bag ban, mandatory recycling and increased composting efforts out a decade or more. Worrying, too, were references to the possibility of incinerating garbage. To top it off, several members of the advisory board that supposedly helped draft the plan, which will guide Dallas’ garbage policy for the next 50 years, said they had little or no input.
Councilwoman Linda Koop, who chairs the council’s transportation and environment committee and has apparently got an earful about the plan, offered a pair of amendments. First, she stripped the target dates for various initiatives proposals, so the city won’t have to wait until 2025 to put in place mandatory recycling. She also added a provision calling for the City Council to adopt specific solid waste proposals that will fill flesh out the vagaries of the long-term plan.
“What we are passing here today is a strategic plan,” Mayor Mike Rawlings offered. “it is not a tactical plan. Sometime in the press people use the word ‘plan’ and it has a lot of different implications.”
Robin Schneider, with the Texas Campaign for the Environment, said Koop’s amendments assuaged concerns that the solid waste plan would give the city carte blanche to indefinitely postpone recycling initiatives.
When news happens, Dallas Observer is there —
Your support strengthens our coverage.
We’re aiming to raise $30,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to you. If the Dallas Observer matters to you, please take action and contribute today, so when news happens, our reporters can be there.
“The other thing we have objection to is the repeated references to incineration,” she said. “You can only burn things once. It’s not renewable. It’s not green.”
Koop responded that the various methods of combustion included in the proposal are merely possibilities. Technology may open up other options, or the City Council may simply opt not to pursue the burning of trash in any form.
Councilwoman Sandy Greyson acknowledged that there should have been more public input, but that “we’ve learned our lesson.” Mayor Pro-Tem Tennell Atkins said it was good that the city was thinking so progressively: “We’re not in the Flintstones now, we’re in the Jetsons.”
And then there was Dwaine Caraway: “I was over in District 8 and was over by Mr. Atkins’ house, and he had a big can in his yard and was burning trash at his house.” He thanked Koop for making it so that his fellow councilman would no longer need a burn can.
