PORT ANGELES – Peninsula College environmental science student Shea McDonald is getting dirty to help keep the North Olympic Peninsula clean.
McDonald is a student intern for the pilot Port Angeles city waste audit program.
The program was created through a grant written by Helen Freilich, waste reduction specialist for Port Angeles city.
McDonald has dug through trash from Franklin Elementary School, Peninsula College, and several businesses, trying to determine what percentage of the waste could have been recycled instead of thrown away, and coming up with recommendations for reducing waste.
Those suggestions include buying materials that either have less packaging or have packaging that can be recycled.
“A good example is milk cartons,” McDonald said.
“There is no way to recycle milk cartons, so if they can go to a dispenser with glasses or go to plastic bottles that can be recycled, they could reduce the amount of waste that has to be shipped off.”
McDonald, who will put together a report, and Freilich would like to see more recycling.
“Ideally, everyone would be able to do on-site composting and recycle what they could, and there would be very little or no waste,” McDonald said.
McDonald got involved in the project as the chairman of the Citizen Waste Reduction Group, formed in 2006.
The group of volunteers work to reduce material in the waste stream through research, education, outreach and volunteering.
The group is a subcommittee of the Clallam County Solid Waste Advisory Committee, which develops programs and policies and make recommendations to the three county commissioners and the Port Angeles City council.
Once McDonald has dug through a business’ trash he evaluates not only how the environment would benefit from recycling some or all of the waste, but also how it could fiscally benefit the business.
“Usually it comes down to how much they can save,” he said.
“Because if it isn’t fiscally beneficial, a lot of people aren’t going to take the extra steps.”
Eventually McDonald believes that it will be fiscally beneficial for all businesses to do more recycling, reusing and reducing of waste as garbage hauling costs go up.
“I don’t see any end to the costs of the garbage going up,” he said.
Although the grant ends in December, McDonald said the Citizen Waste Reduction Group will try to continue to offer audits to area businesses who want one on a volunteer basis.
They will also be working to make more events on the North Olympic Peninsula zero waste events – in which everything is recycled or composted.
“There is no reason every event on the Peninsula shouldn’t be a zero waste event,” he said.
For more information, phone 360-417-4874.
