It's Hard Going Green

TAPE: I am walking up and down Main St. lot of cars out right now. Lot of people coming in and out of shops for lunch and I am talking to people about whether or not they recycle.

TAPE: excuse me, sir? Do you recycle? I recycle. Alright, thanks very much. That is the typical response you get in downtown Concord, at lunch time. At least when a reporter is walking around asking them whether they recycle.

Despite my experiences on Main Street- where 20 out of maybe 25 people said they recycle- many here don’t.

The capitol city itself has one of the worst residential recycling rates in the entire state.

It gets even worse when you factor in commercial waste.

Sfx: Barley House

My Concord tour next brings me to the Barley House, the restaurant/bar across the street from the statehouse.

The place does a brisk lunch time business with lawmakers, lobbyists and the like; good sized crowds tend to show up most nights and on weekends.

TAPE: how many beer bottles do you go through a week? You know I couldn’t even tell you. It’s a lot. It’s absolutely a lot.

Brian Shea, chef and owner, of the Barley House says he’d like to be more green, the problem is he doesn’t have enough green.

TAPE: what we really have to look at is the bottom line and does it make economic sense for us right now. And it has not so far.

Shea points out he’s really interested in anything that cut costs AND helps the environment.

I ask him what it would take for him to start getting serious about recycling.

He tells me he was one of the first businesses on board when the utility company Unitil covered half the cost of replacing his light bulbs with

TAPE: we participated right away as opposed to trash removal which is a lot tougher for us. So you can see right there for yourself what we are more inclined to do.

‘It’s too expensive’ or ‘I don’t want to be bothered’ are two of the most familiar answers when you ask why someone doesn’t do more to help the environment.

But individual residents and businesses aren’t the only ones responsible.

Governments and elected officials can certainly help set the tone.

Plymouth’s recycling rate is on par with San Francisco’s.

In Keene, after it adopted a Climate Change Action Plan in 2004, the city installed efficient traffic lights, built geo-thermal wells and challenged businesses to reduce energy consumption.

At the state level, however, the picture isn’t as rosy.

Certainly many on-going efforts exist to improve the environment in a multitude of ways.

But as recently as 2000, between two state departments and the Governor’s Office, ten people worked with municipalities and business to encourage recycling.

DES’s Don Maurer says not anymore.

TAPE: currently because of the budget reductions, and shift in priorities, we are down to a single person, myself.

Maurer, who oversees recycling for the state, says most everyone recycles something.

And there are quite a few folks- like Gale Taylor- who recycle a lot.

TAPE: for years I would go on vacation with my family, my extended family. We’d drink a lot of beer and soda, and I’d be the one going through the garbage pulling it out and they’d laugh at me.

Taylor is so serious about the environment that she and her husband had the builder carve out a little kitchen closet that would fit the size of their recycling bins.

Lately, the Taylor’s have been looking for more ways to live green.

They’ve put in a vegetable garden, they’ve got drying racks for their clothes, she pulled out the paper towel dispenser on the kitchen counter.

In other words, they hit most of the low hanging fruit.

Now they’re left with more expensive or complicated projects.

For example, Taylor would like to organize her sub-division and get everyone to agree on using the same trash hauler.

But maybe even tougher is dealing with her two 20-something sons who are fond long, hot showers.

TAPE: I go knocking on the door and say, hurry up, get out of there, and get out of there right now...and there still in the shower.

Getting people to change old habits is hard work.

Craig Trottier works for PSNH.

Part of his job is to help companies use less energy.

He says he’s got clients who just aren’t interested in up-grading their facilities.

The attitude is sort of, ‘I’ve been doing this for 3 or 4 decades, I like how it’s going leave me alone.’

Trottier says the ‘tough nuts’ that’s his term- will crack once they come to trust him.

But often, the project’s got to start small.

TAPE: it can be as simple as changing an exit signs from incandescent to LED where you go from a 25 watt exit sign to a 3 watt exit sign...and they go, ‘oh they are great. We never have to change the light bulb, they don’t use any power, and they are much brighter. Oh, ok, let’s go to the next thing.

Whether it’s a business set in its ways, a 21 year old who likes long showers, or a government that doesn’t prioritize the environment, Trottier says what will make people change is education.

TAPE: when I see a light bulb on, I see a lump of coal burning in a power plant somewhere, where other people just see a light bulb....so I think we need to think about what we are doing, because we can’t continue to burn coal, oil and natural gas to make most of our electricity, it’s either going to run out, or get really expensive.

For NHPR News, I’m DG.