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Imagine a day in your lifetime in Northern New Mexico, where there are no more landfills; everything that we used to throw away is turned into products we buy from thriving, profitable small businesses owned by our neighbors.
And now imagine that the “stuff” we used to throw away into landfills is becoming so valuable that we are now mining our old landfills to get the materials out! Businesses are now paying for what’s coming out of the landfills – the raw materials for what they are selling! Some businesses are even separating out their trash and are able to sell “raw materials” to each other.
Imagine…it’s kind of like a modern alchemy where people are turning lead into gold. We’re not literally turning materials like lead into gold like the scientists of old were trying to do, but we are turning wastes into money…into profits. Not only are we a wealthier community; we have more creative, local businesses. We also have lower taxes because we don’t have to pay for landfills, and we are leaving our children and their children a cleaner environment.
And now imagine that today you have some influence or control to make that happen now, and that you could actually be one of those who make money while making a better future for us all.
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Think about how much we currently throw away in our communities; the aluminum soda cans, the newspapers, the mixed paper, the glass and other things we are encouraged to separate for recycling. Think of all the things we don’t recycle. Justin Stockdale, our former recycling coordinator, told a group of us while touring the landfill, that we could pay for the recycling center and the recycling program every year by just selling the recyclables that aren’t getting separated and sent to the landfill. Together, we are throwing away enough valuable materials right now, that we could reduce our taxes by millions of dollars. According to Stockdale, Santa Fe buried about $5 million of recyclables in 2003! New Mexico buried over $50 million worth that year!
Santa Fe has long been recognized worldwide as an especially creative community. When I think of creativity, I think of imagining something new, something “value-added.” In business terms, “value-added” is what businesses sell; what they make a profit on. So imagine that we can make profits on our creativity of turning wastes into a business.
Last fall, dreams began to come true for a group of Northern New Mexicans when they attended a workshop I organized, called “Mining for Golden Business Ideas.” Guided by Justin Stockdale, we toured both the Santa Fe landfill and the recycling center known as BURRT (Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station).
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