Recycling is more complicated that many people think, as we learned this week. Plus a Rotary adventure/service trip to Dominican Republic.
Notes from the January 11 meeting of
The Rotary Club of Clover Park
recorded by Tom McClellan
Skies are wet and gloomy, but inside Carr’s Restaurant the food is warm and so are the hearts of Rotarians, gathered once again in service and fellowship. President Becky Newton thanked David Cotant for serving as our meeting greeter, and Mike Killen for the meeting setup. Jeannie Hill joined us via Zoom with some inspirational thoughts to kick things off:
1. Twenty years from now you'll be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. - - - Mark Twain
2. I choose to be happy now. I don't need more stuff, better weather, a bigger budget, or a smaller body, or to be any different from who I already am. Now is a perfect time to be happy. - - - Gadija Khan
Guests at this meeting included two people from the Lakewood YMCA, Executive Director Toby Roberts, and Seniour Health and Well-Being Director Yvette Lyons, plus our guest speaker, Matt Costanti of Waste Connections.
Sunshine Report
Jeannie Hill spoke recently with Jay Moore. He will hopefully be back to joining us in person soon. And Sheri Hodson ran into Ed Trobaugh, who is looking good but who has trouble getting away from service as Pam’s caregiver.
Future Programs
Jan. 18 Desniege Haywood,Tacoma Rescue Mission
Jan. 25 Shawn Mattingly, What's New in Tax Laws
Feb. 1 Fellowship meeting, no speaker
Foundation Minute
Foundation Director Georgene Mellom shared with us a note from Ian Riseley, Rotary International’s Foundation Chairman. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has renewed its partnership with Rotary in our effort to eradicate polio. Rotarians have thus far contributed $450 million to this effort.
Membership Update
Gretchen Allen has one new potential member who is currently away on travel. She hopes to connect with him soon. The Social Committee led by Paige Hansen is planning several events for this year, and is looking for other committee members to help out. Coming up on Jan. 19, 6PM at Mary and Paul Webb’s house is a Fireside Chat, an opportunity for new members to meet with more experienced members in a social setting. Drinks, dinner, and dessert will be provided. RSVP to Paul at paulwebb38@msn.com.
International Project
Alan Billingsley gave a brief presentation on an upcoming international project and travel/service opportunity being planned for September. He already has interest from some Clover Park Rotary members, as well as some from Lakewood Rotary. We had a presentation back on Nov. 9 from Rob Hildreth, a Florida Rotarian who has been part of creating several Rotary service projects in the city of Puerto Plata, on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, and he has agreed to help us organize a trip there to see what some of our money has done, and to engage in actual service.
A group will be traveling to Puerto Plata, departing around Sep. 15-18, and returning around Sep. 24-26 (dates still to be firmed up). We will visit several sites to engage with youth being served by Rotary programs, including a reading program, a school for the deaf, English classes, a girls after-school program, plus perhaps more. There will also be some time for some tourist activities, including a famous national park, snorkeling on fantastic beaches, and more. If you might be interested, please contact Alan Billingsley or Tom McClellan to be a part of the planning.
Check Presentation
President Becky Newton presented a contribution from our club’s Funds Requests program in the Charities Account to representatives of the Lakewood YMCA.
Executive Director Toby Roberts noted that the Y’s mission is to “put Christian principles into programs”. No one is ever turned away from their programs due to an inability to pay. They offer youth swimming lessons, gymnastics, and youth development programs. Our gift will help the YMCA support those who are unable to pay.
And he invited us to participate in their upcoming fundraiser, a “Rally For The Y”, raising 10 cents per mile ridden on workout bikes. https://www.southsoundmag.com/travel-outdoor/nationwide-ymca-fundraising-event-beginning-this-week/article_b86738ae-82e7-11ec-9de6-2bf1692d1444.html
Fun And Fines
Sue Potter was our finemaster du jour this week, and she offered kudos to all who showed up for every meeting in December. Everyone who did not make all of those meetings got to contribute $1. Then it was on to Washington State trivia.
Sue Potter was our finemaster du jour this week, and she offered kudos to all who showed up for every meeting in December. Everyone who did not make all of those meetings got to contribute $1. Then it was on to Washington State trivia.
Mike Killen had to pay because he did not know that in the children’s show J.P. Patches (1958-81), the J.P. stands for Julius Pierpont. [ed. note: not to be confused with John Pierpont Morgan, who was J.P. Morgan of banking fame.
Becky Newton had to pay for not knowing that the Northgate Mall (born in 1950) was the first shopping center in the U.S. to be referred to as a “mall”.
Tom McClellan paid for guessing wrong on a True Or False question: The City of Vancouver, WA requires all motor vehicles to carry an anchor as an emergency braking device. Sue asserted that this is true, although your humble editor did a search on this after the meeting and found that the only sources mentioning this obscure law are two posts from relatively unknown people on Facebook. And a search of the Vancouver, WA municipal code at https://vancouver.municipal.codes/search?q=anchor&mode=broad&scope=all turned up no mention of this supposed “law”. So your scribe hereby challenges Sue Potter to supply evidence of the veracity of her claim about anchors being required in all motor vehicles in Vancouver, WA, or pay a suitable fine for what may be a horrific infraction in performance of finemaster duties.
Tho Kraus got to pay for not being able to name J’Nai Bridges as the Lakewood resident who is a 2-time Grammy Award winning opera singer.
Jeannie Hill did not have to pay, because she DID know that it is a crime in the State of Washington to walk around with a cold.
Ramona Hinton guessed correctly the answer Sue was looking for, that the first city in the USA to have police officers on bicycles was Seattle. The only problem with this is that according to the International Police Mountain Bike Association, the Newark, NJ Police Department established the first bicycle squad all the way back in 1888. Seattle’s bicycle patrol was not established until the spring of 1987, 99 years later. And this was after other cities like San Jose, CA (1979), Fort Lauderdale (1985), Los Angeles (1985), and Memphis (1986) had already been experimenting with bicycle patrols.
Paul Webb correctly guessed that Grammy Award-winning singer Michael Wansley, better known by his stage names “TeeWanz” and “Wanz”, graduated from Lakes High School.
Teresa Nye had to pay for not guessing what type of business establishment at the corner of Western and Colgate in Seattle was the world’s first ever, in 1907. The answer was a “gas station”, although the problem with that supposed answer is that this was not even the first gas station in the USA. According to “A Car Is Born – A Documentary About Carl and Bertha Benz”, the first filling station ever was the city pharmacy in Wiesloch, Germany in 1888. And the world’s first purpose-built gas station was constructed in St. Louis, MO, in 1905. The one in Seattle was the second one. If the prompt had correctly asked what type of establishment at that location in Seattle was the second one ever, your scribe has no doubt that Teresa would have answered correctly. So Teresa may also have a cause of action to take up.
Sheri Hodson had to pay because, as someone who did not grow up in Washington, she could not name any of the criteria to become a Patches Pal, which are:
Mind Mommy and Daddy
Wash hands, face, neck, and ears
Comb hair
Brush Teeth
Drink your milk
Eat all of your food
Say your prayers
Share your toys
Put toys away
Hang up clothes
Here's hoping that under Sue's term as president next year, she does not make us recite all of those items in lieu of the 4-Way Test.
This Week’s Program
Matt Costanti is a waste reduction and hauling representative for DM Recycling, which is a division of Waste Connections (which now also owns Lemay Enterprises).
He gave a brief overview of the product cycle of recycled goods, going from consumers to collectors, to sorters, to processors, to materials producers, to manufacturers, and back to consumers again. He shared a video of how a co-mingled recycling sorter machine works, using compressed air, eddy currents, magnets, and vision systems to pull out unmatching items.
Waste Connections buys up local trash companies, and tries to maintain the corporate culture within each of them, which sometimes creates conflicts among owned divisions.
In 2012, garbage collection was the third most dangerous profession. Improvements have helped drop that to #5.
Residential recycling is harder than commercial because of the co-mingling. This is especially true for plastics, which have 7 different numbered categories, not all of which have value. When you put stuff in your bin, make sure it is empty, clean, dry, and larger than a fist. Aluminum foil is not okay. Metal jar lids are okay, but bottle caps no.
Contaminants that people put into their bins include clamshells (from restaurant leftovers), Styrofoam, plastic utensils, rubber hoses, electrical cords, shredded paper, plastic bags, and pizza boxes.
China used to take a lot of USA-origin recyclables, now they don’t. Most paper gets recycled locally. It takes less energy to break down paper fibers than to break down wood chips for making new paper, so there is a functioning market for recyclable paper.
Bottle glass is recycled, turning into insulation, and other bottoms. Window glass is more difficult, but a local firm takes it and grinds it up to add to road paint as a reflectant. Recycling one ton of glass saves 42 Kw-Hours of electricity, and 5 gallons of oil.
Nearly 6000 tons of plastic per year are recycled in Pierce County. Cardboard amounts to 200 tons per month, and metal is another 200 tons per month.
Cheap energy for sorting, hauling, and processing is essential to recycling. If State efforts to tax carbon emissions are successfully implemented, that will raise fuel and electrical costs, and make recycling more difficult to perform.
“There are no solutions, there are only tradeoffs.” - - - Thomas Sowell.
Raffle: With $117 in the pot, and still 4 aces in the deck, Scott Adams had the winning ticket, but could not find any of those aces.
And Finally…
Many people disagree about the proper way to hang a roll of toilet paper, with the new sheet coming over or under the roll. Let the record reflect that the original patent application for a toilet paper roll holder shows the “over” configuration.
