Garbage can be sexy, weird, complex, intriguing A COUPLE of years ago | wrole a proposal fora tele- vision series about an in- vestigative reporter who takes on the garbage in- dustry. “Garbage?’’ laughed the pro- ducer I tried to peddle it to, ‘Not sexy enough.’’ This idea of garbage being an unsexy issue disturbs me, not just because my proposed series didn’t fly. Politicians also have a way of thinking that garbage is a dull subject, except, ‘of course, when pickup service breaks down or somebody tries to build a new garbage dump. The reality is that garbage disposal has always been a major issue, a reflection, in fact, ofa civilization’s calibre. I might try pitching my series about garbage one more time, having just read a book by a Vancouver-based writer named Harold Crooks. It is called Giants . of Garbage, published by James Lorimer & Co. and subtitled The Rise of the Global Waste Industry - and the Politics of Pollution ‘Control. The garbage issue gets sexier, ‘i.e. weirder, more complex, more “intriguing, all the time. I must “admit, when I wrote my proposal, ‘I didn’t realize just how fun- “,, damentally the whole industry has ‘- changed in recent years. . The author’s previous book, Dirty Business, became something "of a classic, being used as a '..ptimer by grass-roots activists, - fawyers, reporters and Jaw. en- " forcement investigators trying to “get a handle on the waste . STRICTLY PERSONAL an accountant who had gotten into the waste hauling business, raised $600,000 and bought a cor- porate vehicle called the Browning Ferris Machinery Corp., which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Changing the name to Brown- ing-Ferris Industries, Inc. (BFI), Fatijo had given the garbage in- dustry access, for the first time, to the money markets of Wall Street. This did more, in the long run, to change the face of the earth than anything the astronauts did to the moon, Today, Houston-based BFI is a garbage empire that stretches from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Victoria, with annual sales exceeding $3 billion a year. The era prior to the emergence of the big garbage players was” hardly an eco-nirvana. ~. There were something like ~ 12,000 dump operators, haulers ‘sand recyclers struggting to get by dustry ‘whose power, and: freedom, from’ economic regulation | While Di ity Business described he early. entrepreneurial phase of © » the modern waste disposal in- dustry; Giants of Garbage looks at “the way in which the leading com- : panies have become continental, even global, institutions. °°. The process began, Crooks tells “us, back when everyone’s atten- ion was focused on Neil Arm- strong’s giant step onto the sur- “face of the moon, in July. 1969. . That’s when Tom J. Fatijo Jr., -in North America. Over half the private haulers had no more than three trucks. “Most firms were unincorporated. Try not to be shocked, but the ‘sad truth was that many ‘municipal politicians saw garbage disposal *- contracts as a source of sup- plementary income, cash for slush . funds, jobs for friends, constitu-: ents and allies. The disposal side of the business was the domain of the small-time hustler. To bury garbage for profit, Crooks notes, all you needed was an empty ravirz, an exhausted quarry or a few acres of farmland and a bulldozer, the basic ele- ~ This year he'll turn his grades around. Guaranteed. With Sylvan’s positive, caring, individualized instruction, students find their grades soaring ~ along with their self- confidence. Instead of dreading school, students actually look forward to it. We’ve already helped more than a million _ children turn their grades around. Let's talk about how we can help your child. 'e STUDY SKILLS * READING © WRITING e ESL ¢ MATH/ALGEBRA - Sylvan iZarning Centre’ North Shore 985-6811 Coquitiam 281-9166 Richmond 273-3266 Surrey _ 596-5451 ments of a stump. The business was so disorganized, however, that most firms were highly vulnerable, and Not above resorting to coercive means of self-protection. Enter the underworld, whose job was to keep unwanted com- petition at bay. The Brooklyn Trade Waste Authority, an entirely unofficial body, was the model of how crime-controlled garbage collec- tion worked. It remained that the industry was undercapitalized, cash-poor and with little access to credit. Accordingly, when the new- style conglomerates like BFI and Laidlaw hit their stride, they had little trouble gobbling up the small independents. The typical takeover offer — your shares for ours — was hard .to resist in an era like the early 1970s, when the prices of waste management stocks were rising rapidly, thanks to tough new en- vironmental legislation designed to close down improperly and un- sanitarily-operated refuse disposal sites. h che amonnue of waste being sing dramatical- her of disposal ‘ prec equally dfamatical- tee Facilities that mei the new standards be-ame increasingly valuable as pruperties. Thus, the ‘‘garbage crisis” turned into an extraordinary bo- nanza for sharp-cyed en- trepreneurs. Author Crooks is careful to make the point that, between the late 1960s and today, the garbage industry moved from the lower.to the upper reaches of the economic system. _-““In the process of development ' ... mob protection as a condition for survival was replaced by the creators of a new industry with newer, stronger, more stable forms .... The mobster has become a dinosaur in the waste disposal industry. Financial muscle ERNIE CRIST Who wants monster houses? has replaced the physical kind."’ Crooks’ concern is that this muscle has led to a concentration of ownership among private utilities, which have become prof- it-driven custodians of the en- vironment, capable of brushing all forms of alternative waste management aside, dominating not just the waste trade, but waste policy itself, An excellent, if disturbing read. Sexy, too Duncan B. Cc. NEW CONDOS With excellent ad, and no morgage qualification. 1 & 2 Bedrooms with 5 Appliances. These units are being offered below market value and are all are ae lly rented. Galiano Ventures Ltd. Superior Investment Properties LAU SEN & SON _ CUSTOM DRAPERIES AND — VALANCES Labour $3.50 per Panel unlined, $9.50 lined. CUSTOM BEDSPREADS & COVERS : Low, low prices on ‘blinds: Be tracks, For FREE Estimates Call 987-2966" Serving the North Shore for 23 years Monster houses are the single most divisive issue in che District of North Vancouver. They set neighbor against neighbor and they put at risk our North Shore livability. Monster houses are not latge homes on large lots. Monster houses are 32 feet high homes on standard sized lots or small lots. They are particularly upsetting in established neighborhoods where one or two storey homes are the norm. During the last ten years, district councils have spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of - | taxpayers' money on staff time, countless reports, task forces and committees etc. without reducing ~ the 32 feer height by as much as an inch despite all promises to the contrary. Now district council has set up yet another task force to look into the question of monster houses. In my opinion, this latest endeavor, along with all previous ones, is nothing more than yet another attempt to mislead and hoodwink the public into making them believe that something will be done to address this issue. Bur the very make up of the proposed task force, heavily weighted with pro monster house advocates, is contrived to virtually ensure failure. ; Developers who charge by the square foot. Realtors who use the lure of secondary suites, ic. mortgage helpers, as a sales gimmick. Absentee landlords attempting to accommodate two or more secondary suites in single family homes. Pro-developer bureaucrats and politicians eager to sell land to finance road patching, a morally bank- tupt policy practised nowhere except in the District of North Vancouver. Citizens beware! At stake is not only your view and neighborhood livability but also your invest- ment. Contrary to the dire warnings that you will lose out unless we permit monster houses in your neighborhood, the opposite is true. People pay more for homes with a view and for our famous North Shore livability than they do to stare at a 32 foot high monstrosity in front of their house or next door. Make your views known. Speak up loud and clear. No more costly, time-wasting weighted task forces. Demand immediate action from your council now. If you wish to contribute cowards the cost of this ad, please mail your donation to E. Crist, 2589 | Fromme Rd., North Vancouver, B.C. vi} 3K5. Receipt will be sent t to you.