Other transcripts

Transcripts

November 12, 2003

Host: Michael Grant
Topics:
· Special legislative session;
· ASU Educational Conference on racial conflict and hate crimes;
· Phoenix recycling program
In-Studio Guests:
· Rory Gilbert, Executive Director, National Conference for Community and Justice;
· Terry Gellenbeck, City of Phoenix Solid Waste Management department;
· Russell Johnson, Scottsdale Solid Waste Management.

>> Michael Grant: Tonight on "Horizon," is Arizona becoming a breeding ground for white supremacy? Fighting hate crimes here in our state. Plus America recycles day is this weekend. Can you improve your recycling efforts? Good evening, I'm Michael Grant. First up, it is week four of a special legislative session. One issue lawmakers of course have been working on is reforming the state prison system and helping out the extensive overcrowding there. At a news conference today, lawmakers unveiled a plan that will increase the fine for DUI violations to provide an estimated $27 million to offset prison costs, and use 7.5 million from a state corrections fund to allow the state corrections department to utilize 1400 out of state private prison beds run by correctional service corporation.

>> Rep. Bill Konopnicki: The intent of the thousand dollars to be quite honest about sit to reduce the number of DUIs. We want to make it so expensive that people will think twice and three times before they do that. A nice offset is the fact we're going to generate some money and what we're going to do with that must not see try to use it to come back and solve some of the problems. These folks are being incarcerated. We needed to do something to help them. We want to use some of the money to be able to do that.

>>Rep. Russell Pearce: Private beds are going to have to be part of the mix and we're driving that issue forward. Again, we don't have money for capital. There's an issue of safings here, private beds do save money and so -- they're level 1s and level 2s. These are very low risk inmates we're going to be sending out there. It's a smart move. It's great move in terms of a good public-private partnership.

>> Rep. Ted Downing: We have five problems with this proposal. The first is kind of a slight of hand that picks the public pocket. That's the first one. Second, that it -- has a problem being accountable, accountability, who is responsible for the inmates, in this case you're turning over public safety to a contract. Third problem is that it's a high calorie proposal. This is a sweetheart deal for CSC. There is only one company and the way its set up, they're going to win the bid. Fourth, it shackles the department of corrections director's ability to find cost effective ways to increase public safety. Finally, it removes and swipes the stipend we're using for bringing people into bringing correction officers.

>> Michael Grant: Tomorrow on "Horizon" we'll have a full discussion on that issue with more on the bill. We'll also hear from law make oars both sides of the issue. A small group of white supremacists met in cave creek over the weekend. That rally passed without incident. In the meantime, an educational conference on racial conflict and hate crimes was held at ASU yesterday. The conference sought to increase understanding of intergroup prejudice and discrimination. Along racial, ethic and, religious, cultural and sexual orientation other and identity groups. Here is a lock at some of the highlights of that conference.

>> Reporter: Incidents like this vandalism and rally likes the one the Aryan nation held this past weekend underscore what seems to be a rise in hate groups and hate crimes in the Valley.

>>Charles Schoville: In numbers they're very strong but when you break their numbers down they're weaker.

>> Reporter: So much stronger ASU student Brian Kinney has been the victim of a hate crime on three separate occasions.

>> Brian Kinney: I was walking with someone I was seeing at the time and we were holding hands and we were in the parking lot, I think we were just going to target or something, you know, and basically what had happened was a white suburban carrying -- well, there was four Hispanic men in it, pretty big guys, and they slammed on their brakes and yelled "faggot" and jumped out of the truck and four guys came at me with my boyfriend and they were -- they were pretty much looking like they were going to come over and either like beat us or kill us or something. I was really concerned. I definitely feared for my life at this point. Luckily I, you know -- other means had happened at that point which stopped the situation. So once again it turned out to be a good situation, not a good situation, but turned out to be a situation where nothing had happened. My boyfriend and I did not get beaten up, we did not get killed, we did not become another hate crime statistics.

>> Reporter: But with stats on the rise, ASU is dealing with the situation by holding conferences to understand the situation better.

>> Abhik Roy: We will always have groups fighting each other, killing each other, and there will be violence, but there will also be dialogue and people striving for peace and harmony and you will see that going simultaneously so there will be violence and there will also be peace movements.

>>> Reporter: However, groups that have been labeled as hate groups say they're not looking for trouble. In a statement sent to KAET, the western states regional coordinator for the national alliance, Roger Williams, had this to say about his group. The national alliance is concerned with all things relevant to the welfare and progress of white people of European decent. We have a zero tolerance policy for illegal activity.

>> Rick Spring: No, we're not here looking for trouble. We're here to get our message out. If that's trouble for some people, they have to deal with that on their own.

>> Reporter: With the help of the community, ASU faculty and students are trying to deal with the issue.

>> Police Officer: They have a right to assemble. Okay? It's not against the law for them to think how they think. Okay? It's against the law for them to commit crimes based on that.

>> Reporter: Brian Kinney think the conference was a step in the right direction.

>> Brian Kinney: The biggest piece of information we should take from this conference would be to recognize that we can all go through training and diversity programs and these kinds of things, but they're just books and so until you get away from just having a training or cultural diversity or getting, you know -- having employees or students or any of these types of people go through training manual or training sessions, and until you start to get really to the opportunity to look and understand and learn about other people and other culture and other people's lives and how -- how they respond and react and live every day, then we don't really learn and educate each other about who we are. So I hope that's the one thing that people can take from today's conference.

>> Reporter: Organizers hope the message is spread outside the conference walls.

>> Nemi C. Jain: Yeah, I'm hoping that they will be more directly involved in activities and become more active and, of course, they will defuse the information but I expect them to take more responsibility by joining groups who are trying to appreciate, celebrate diversity and who are trying to do something about dealing with prejudice and hate crimes.

>> Michael Grant: Here to talk about the conference and eliminating hate crimes in Arizona, Rory Gilbert. She is the executive director of the national conference for community and justice. Rory, that's a logical place to start. What is the national conference for community and justice?

>> Rory Gilbert: The NCCJ is a 75-year-old human relations organization that started out as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and it's dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry and racism in all its forms by promoting respect and understanding through education, advocacy and conflict resolution. We've been here in Arizona for 50 years. One of the programs people know us most by is our anytown program which helps at working people break down the barriers that divide us.

>> Michael Grant: Okay. Is there really an increase in hate group activity in this area and how do we know that?

>> Rory: There seems to be. The people who do a lot of the monitoring, including the ADL, including county and state folks, are saying, yes, there does seem to be an increase. Certainly the media has picked up on it. There's been a lot more reporting about hate group activity. We've been hearing calls and reports about leafletting efforts and campaigns as well as some of these gatherings, such as the one last weekend in cave creek and upcoming event in January. So certainly there's been a much more public presence from hate groups in the area.

>> Michael Grant: With a about the point made by the representative from the Aryan nation that they have a zero tolerance for any sort of criminal activity, but that they do have a right to articulate their view?

>> Rory: Absolutely. I think that they have a right to articulate their view, and there will always be people who feel that way, who are more focused on just the benefit to their group tune look at groups all over and considering all of us as a pluralistic society. I think we have a responsibility who feel otherwise to also make our voices known. Otherwise we can become complicit and looking like we agree with their attitude.

>> Michael Grant: If I was having this conversation with you in Detroit, Michigan, or San Francisco, California, or Dallas, Texas, would we be having the same conversation? In other words, is this a nationwide phenomena or is there some reason to believe that it's -- there's some additional activity here in Phoenix?

>> Rory: I think that there's activity all over the country and, again, another group that really takes a look at that is the southern poverty law center that really targets where is that activity going on. We seem to have an increase here. Some people are suggesting that as Arizona has really become the flashpoint for a lot of immigration issues that has attracted more interest by hate groups and white supremacist groups to Arizona, thinking perhaps that they might find a more receptive audience because of dealing with immigration issues.

>> Michael Grant: What constitutes a hate crime?

>> Rory: Well, I think what we look at is, number one, that there's a crime that has been committed, but what makes it a hate crime really wind up looking to the motivation, and it's intimidation of a whole group rather than it being just something between you and me. It has more to do with who you represent, if I am doing something to you or to your house, your -- your office or something, and so it is an added factor in doing something that, number one, deprives us of our right to just proceed with our lives but, number two, adds a whole sense of intimidation to an entire group, and it adds that fear factor that I think is very, very significant.

>> Michael Grant: We obviously focused on the Aryan nation thing because of the gathering L.A. weekend. What about -- last weekend. With a about middle eastern groups post 9/11?

>> Rory: I think I've experienced quite a bit of hate activity. One of the things we know is that a lot of hate crimes and intimidation are just not reported and I think that has been very true in the middle eastern community. I know that particularly the middle eastern women, if they choose to dress accordingly, wear the veil, feel very, very intimidated and frightened to go out and we've heard repeated stories of people being yelled at, cussed at, spit on, and that's the minor stuff, you know. That's not the stuff that's going to make the police rosters. That's an intimidating way to have to live. And for people in our community who are neighbors, are friends, are co-workers, schoolmates, it's unacceptable.

>> Michael Grgant: Thank you very much for the information.

>> Rory: Thank you very much.

>> Michael Grant: In a lifetime an average American throws away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. Enough aluminum tossed out in America to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet every three months, but recycling can put a dent in those figures. Recycling just five two liter plastic soda bottles can make a square foot of carpet, filling for a ski jacket or an extra large T-shirt. Merry Lucero reports on why it's not just garbage in, garbage out.

>> Reporter: Meet MRF, materials recovery facility. This noisy, smelly, vibrating trash factory is where collected recyclables are separated by material type. About a fifth of household waste in Phoenix is being diverted away from the landfill to this facility. Recovering the used paper, plastic and glass and metal from the blue curbside barrels is going well, but could be a lot better. Solid waste analyst Terry Gellenbeck.

>> Terry Gellenbeck: We are right now about diverting 20% of residential waste from the -- from our customers by weight. We've done the studies to find out what's recyclable and it was up wards of 50% is recyclable, so we can do a lot better than what we're doing.

>> Reporter: We can also do better with putting the right stuff in the barrels. We watched some strange things roll by. Why would you put an old Teddy bear in the recycle bin?

>> Terry: Unfortunately about 20% by weight of what comes in to the facility through the blue barrels we have to take to the landfill anyway. Now, part of that, we've always planned for about 10%. Mistakes, inefficiencies as a system, things like that. So there's this piece, 10% we have to deal with that shouldn't be there in the first place. >> Reporter: We went over some dos and don'ts of recycling. First, what shouldn't go into the blue barrel?

>> Terry: Some of the big problems that we have are plastic bags. And I brought an ice bag, something you might have during the summer or something. This bag may have a number 2 on it, might not. Sometimes the plastic bags don't. That's one of the reasons why we don't take them. We don't know what kind of plastic it is.

>> Reporter: If you're not sure about a plastic, look for a number 1, 2 or 6 inside the recycling symbol. But no plastic bags. They catch in the machinery or can ruin other recyclables and while most cardboard and Chip board box are great for recycling, 12 back drink carriers and detergent boxes are not.

>> Terry: We don't want these. What they have is within the paper there's almost like a plastic barrier in it. These don't recycle well. With the rest of the paper. In fact, they're a contaminant. We would rather not have these, if you can remember those two categories.

>>>Reporter: Shredded paper and foam packing peanuts are also a problem and, of course, garbage.

>> Terry: Some of the really bad things that people put in, dirty diapers, medicines, food, yard waste. Those are all contaminants and really shouldn't be in there in the first place.

>> Reporter: So educating people about recycling is a key ingredient to the recipe and there is plenty of recycling education going on.

>> Hey, we're not supposed to be in here.

>> We should be in the recycling bin.

>> Reporter: The state department of environmental quality is kicking off a big public campaign. Tammy shreeve, recycling program manager. >> Tammy Shreeve: It's kind of a two-edged sword, you need to collect but in order to collect you need to educate your community on what opportunities you have. So we provide monies for different types of education. That could be for public service announcements. It could be to develop school curricula. Or we've developed a really neat CD-ROM to educate children called mission 3R.

>> Reporter: State grants can also fund new MRF projects, rural community drop-off bins or growing communities just establishing curbside recycling programs. Avondale recycling coordinator Jacinda Denison.

>> Jacinda Denison: It's kind of neat the way it got started here. We had a citizens recycling committee that was very interested who got together, did some research on their own about what other cities were doing, what kind of expenses the city was incurring, what kind of savings might be available, what kind of new expenses might be incurred, and put together a proposal and presented it to the city council. And after studying the proposal the city council actually voted to have the program implemented.

>> Reporter: Avondale plans to have curbside recycling pickup by the end of the year.

>> Jacinda: We are looking at a lot of education, but I don't know that we're going to have any difficulties really with motivation because, again, we're providing a service that's been requested.

>> Reporter: One motivation is seeing the full recycling loop, like newspaper becoming new newspaper, or home insulation, and rubber tires becoming playground mats.

>> Jacinda: I think we think, oh, we just need to put it in the barrel, but if they could see what happens to that material, I think it puts a whole another light onto it. The plastic milk jug can be made into plastic lumber. The soda bottle you just got done drinking can be made into carpet or into a shirt. A lot of people don't see that full loop. When you see the full loop, then it gets exciting.

>> Reporter: Also exciting, technology is making recycling easier and adding to the recyclables list. Phoenix is now accepting some new items in their Serb side blue bins like telephone books.

>> Terry: We also can do covered window envelope like these plastic windows. Those are fine now. We just ask you that you read what's inside because sometimes you get some items like this credit card or fake credit card. That need to be thrown out but the rest of everything that's in there is fine.

>> Tammy: There's no reason for it to go in the landfill where it's going to stay and do nothing. There's something that can be dub with that paper, something that can be done with a lot of the commodities.

>> Reporter: There could be a better market for recycled materials but for now the real cost savings come from diverting trash from the landfills.

>>Jerry: By recycling and diverting it to places closer into town you get a cost savings so you don't have to operate that truck so much.

>>Tammy: Recycling is economic based, it has good years and bad years, just like the stock market, I guess, and you got to look at the big picture. Maybe an individual program is not doing well, but is it helping jobs, yes. Sit a money make center sometimes yes, sometimes no. You have to look at your own individual community.

>> Reporter: While recycling is not mandated in Arizona, public participation is high because it is the right thing to do. Preserving natural resources, saving energy and creating jobs by reusing, reducing and recycling.

>> Michael Grant: Joining me now to talk about recycling, Terry Gellenbeck with the City of Phoenix solid waste management department and Russell Johnson with Scottsdale solid waste management. Gentlemen, good to see you. In general, Terry, and Russell, how good a job do we do getting the right stuff in the blue barrel and the green barrel?

>>Terry Gellenback: We get -- well, everybody does pretty well about getting it in the green barrel but in the blue barrel, we have about 90% of the people accept the blue barrel in the City of Phoenix, and we collect about two-thirds of them every week. So everybody's doing fairly well. Our processing system can recycle about 99% of the recyclables in the barrel but the problem is we're not getting all recyclables. There are some garbage that's coming through.

>> Michael Grant: Okay. How about Scottsdale, Russell?.

>Russell Johnson: Pretty much the same. We're a little higher on participation. I think we're about 95% on participation and I would say about the same amount of barrels, two-thirds of the barrels -- or two-thirds of them are out on a weekly basis.

>> Michael Grant: Let's approach this from both directions. First off, what do people recycle that they shouldn't?

>>Russell: They try to do their grass clippings. Some people think that's a compost. Plastic bags is the number one that we don't accept. They assume because it's a plastic, same plastic as the bottles, there's just no market for and it we're regulated by the material recovery facility we take our stuff to.

>> Michael Grant: See, that one surprised me. I just assumed that plastic bags would be okay. I guess I was thinking the same thing, plastic is plastic. You want plastic.

>> Terry: Well, the problem with it is it gets stuck inside the machinery and the conveyor belts you saw at the sorting facility and damage the machinery. People leave in receipts or other things that are inside of it, it contaminates it and not all plastic bags are the same plastic. They are different. The bag that you get at the grocery store is different than the one let's say your potato chips come in or something like that. It's -- we don't have the time or the facility to sort all those out to make them recyclable. You can take them back. You can reuse them, take them back to the grocery store and use them again or they have recycling bins in the grocery stores for plastic bags.

>> Michael Grant: When I say plastic, for example, at the check-out stand, I should not throw that puppy in the blue can?

>> Terry: No, you should not. If you get a paper one, yes, you can put that one, but the answer to that question is using a cloth bag because a cloth bag you can use over and over again.

>> Michael Grant: That's true. Scottsdale hates pizza boxes, do I understand?

>> Russell: Because of all the grease in the bottom of the box. Any time you get grease on a paper product like that, it's really hard to get it recycled.

>> Michael Grant: Now, you guys like pizza boxes.

>> Terry: If you take out the little corrugated on the bought and that plastic thing that keeps the lid from smooshing your pizza and if it's coated in cheese, no, we don't want it either, but if it's fairly clean, yeah, it's fine.

>> Michael Grant: What about, for example, if you have these take-away containers that you have at a restaurant, those good?

>> Terry: The foam ones are. In Phoenix we take number 6 plastic polystyrene or the foam. They have to be clean. We don't want -- you said Chinese, we don't want your rice or your chop sticks or anything like that. So it has to be relatively clean. Those other ones with the little handles, little metal handles, we wouldn't want those, mainly because their metal and paper together and it's pretty hard to sort it, and the piece mentioned about wet strength, which is the -- there's actually a plastic in the paper that repels water and those little boxes have that. So we don't really want those.

>> Michael Grant: Now, what sit that people could recycle that they routinely don't, that they'll go ahead and throw in the trash?

>> Russell: One of the new things is the phone books. Phone books are pretty new. Quest did their own books a while ago. Nowadays all the cities are taking phone books -- yeah, I think all the cities are taking phone books. Phone books, newspapers. We're finding a lot of newspapers in the trash. Maybe people don't know. And the junk mail, even though it has the plastic liner in the window, we still take those.

>> Terry: : When we did the -- first did the program in '88 we did a waste characterization study. We just finished doing another one and Russell is exactly right, what we're finding in the garbage, To many recyclables, specifically paper. We take just about any kind of paper, catalogs, junk mail, the cereal boxes.

>> Michael Grant: What happens if I rip up my junk mail because it's not a bad idea to rip it up, particularly if you've got things that could be used on identity theft and mailings to you, here's a free credit card.

>> Terry: If you rip it in half, maybe in quarters, that's okay. If you put it through a shredder, we don't want shredded paper because we don't know what's been shredded with it.

>> Michael Grant: Russell, household hazardous waste, how does Scottsdale handle that?

>> Russell: We do that three times a year. It's usually winter, fall and spring. We collect paints, pesticides, car batteries, but the majority is going to be the Latex paint is what we get and you can find that at any of our web sides the days we do that.

>> Terry: In Phoenix we do it 10 times a year, we hold three-day events. There are, BOPA, battery, oil, paint and antifreeze. Those are the main things we want. If you have other things, just give us a call before you come so we're prepared. Happens to be one this weekend at North Phoenix Baptist Church.

>> Michael Grant: It routinely is drop-off points?

>> Terry: That's right. We move them throughout the city so it's more convenient for people.

>> Michael Grant: America Recycles Day is Saturday.

>> Terry: That's right, November 15th, a national celebration recognizing recycling projects throughout the United States.

>> Michael Grant: What's going on? Terry: In Phoenix we are doing that event and we're also doing what it's called a drop it in event at Phoenix clean and beautiful which is for toner cartridges and little printer cartridges. We did a contest for recycling art with the senior centers, human services center and with the parks department, we did it with the after-school programs with the kids, a poster contest.

>> Michael Grant: Terry Gellenbeck, thanks for being here. Russell Johnson, thanks to you as well. Here's a look at what's coming up tomorrow on "Horizon."

>> Reporter: There's a new plan that's been introduced to deal with Arizona's prison overcrowding problem. Republicans have introduced a bill would that build private prisons for up to 1600 inmates. That's the opposite of what Governor Janet Napolitano is proposing. We'll hear both sides of the issue Thursday at 7:00 here on "Horizon."

>> Michael Grant: Also tomorrow at 7:30 join us for "Horizonte," a look at Arizona issues through a Hispanic lens and of course, on Friday please join us for the Journalists Roundtable edition of "Horizon." We'll recap the week's news events. Thanks you very much for being here this evening. I'm Michael Grant. Have a great one. Good night.

Back to the top