Group recommends Santa Fe County ban some plastic bags and foam containers - Santa Fe New Mexican
Group recommends Santa Fe County ban some plastic bags and foam containers | Local News | santafenewmexican.com
Miguel Acevedo works near a baling machine Wednesday at the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station. Members of a working group told Santa Fe County commissioners Tuesday solving the plastics crisis requires generating less waste. “I’m the executive director of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition; I know that recycling works,” Sarah Pierpont said. “But recycling is not the solution. ... It’s simply not enough.”
Supporters of Santa Fe County banning some single-use plastics used an analogy to describe the world’s plastic crisis when presenting their report to commissioners Tuesday.
Imagine a bathtub is overflowing with water, spilling across the floor. Those are plastics. You have two options: Turn off the faucet or grab a mop.
“Right now, we’re talking about turning off the flow, turning off the faucet of single-use plastics and the prolific plastic that is in our world and our environment,” Sarah Pierpont told Santa Fe County commissioners Tuesday.
Manuel Griego looks over operations Wednesday at the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station. Only about 3% of plastics in New Mexico are recycled, one expert told Santa Fe County commissioners Tuesday.
Plastic bags get caught in the machinery at the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station on Wednesday.
Related Knowledge Center: Methane
As the production of natural gas from shale fields has expanded, so have methane emissions. U.S. methane emissions grew 27 percent from 1990 to 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration. Methane contributes about 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.