Inspired

In our environmental section this week, CN&R staffer Daniel Taylor writes about a local almond farmer, Bill Graves, and the nonprofit he started, Green Planet Plastics (see “Ag gets greener,” Greenways, page 16). Several years ago, confronted with a load of empty fertilizer containers and nowhere to put them but the landfill, Graves came up with a solution: Recycle them.

But it wasn’t that easy. That solution required research, planning, proposing his idea to the Butte County Board of Supervisors, and, ultimately, implementation. It’s safe to say all that hard work has paid off. In the six years since Green Planet Plastics began its recycling program at the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility, it’s diverted 600,000 pounds of plastic containers from the landfill. Moreover, local farmers can now unload those containers free of charge, rather than paying a dumping fee. That’s most certainly a win-win.

The world is a little bit cleaner thanks to Graves. He cared enough to do something about the problem he faced—now, that’s inspiring.