So Marten was delighted when she learned about Waste Reduction Partners (WRP), an extraordinary group of retired scientists and engineers in Asheville. “I signed right up,” she says with a laugh. “And now they have me working harder than I did when I was getting paid for it!”
Waste Reduction Partners was founded in 1992 on a simple but powerful concept: Americans are living longer and healthier lives (35 million of us are now over 65, a number projected to rise to 80 million by 2050). And retirees are often eager to continue using the work skills they spent a lifetime developing. At the same time, many environmental challenges cry out for just the expertise these retirees possess.
“What WRP does is bring the people to where they’re needed,” says Terry Albrecht, 39, the group’s energetic director—and the only staff member under 60. One thing that’s needed in Asheville are new ways to deal with water shortages and overflowing landfills—the environmental fallout from the area’s decade of economic growth.
The good news is that by reducing waste, businesses and governments usually can cut pollution and save money. However, they’re often leery of the up-front costs incurred in figuring out a plan of action. And consultants with the necessary know-how can charge as much as $500 a day.
“I became a chemist because I love chemistry,”
says Elaine Marten. “I didn’t stop loving it
just because I’d retired.”
That’s where WRP comes in. Funded mostly by the state of North Carolina, the group’s skilled retirees can provide any institution with a confidential evaluation of how it can improve its environmental performance. In return, they receive a small per diem, travel costs and, as Marten puts it, “the sense that you’re making a difference.”
This lure has been strong enough to attract to WRP more than 40 engineers, architects and scientists with former careers in textiles, electric utilities, aerospace and the chemical and paper industries. Among them, they have more than 1000 years of professional experience and hold more than 100 patents. “It’s a fantastic collection of talent,” says Albrecht.
If Asheville schools and businesses want to install energy-efficient lighting, they can call upon Art Lins, 80, a Westinghouse electrical engineer for four decades. The area’s large textile industry can consult with Tom McCullough, 74, a former fabric specialist for Levi Strauss. Other business inquiries might be referred to Bob Schornstheimer, 87, who spent 36 years at B.F. Goodrich; Don Hollister, 78, a former Northrop aeronautical engineer; or Wayne Rumble, 69, a retired general manager who, in his spare time, invented a new kind of golf club that’s now manufactured worldwide.
The payoff has been enormous. Since Jan. 1, 2000, WRP’s clients have produced 109.1 million fewer pounds of solid waste while using 105.8 million fewer gallons of water and 14.8 million fewer kilowatt hours than they would have without the retirees’ help. Total saved: $5.75 million. In comparison, WRP’s entire budget during this period was less than $500,000.
But the organization is now setting its sights even higher: If it’s good to reduce the amount of trash that Asheville sends to the landfill, it would be even better to sell it. As Tom McCullough puts it, “Just like in nature, somebody’s waste is someone else’s wealth.”
One of the retirees found a way to turn wood pallets destined for the dump into beautiful flooring.
For instance, traditionally, one of the greatest uses for hardwoods in America has been for pallets—the platforms used to transport just about everything. Annually, 305,000 tons of pallets are sent to dumps in North Carolina alone. Inspired by this waste, David Lowles, 65, a retired Silicon Valley entrepreneur, created a process to recycle the pallets’ high-quality wood into flooring. The beautiful samples created from sequences of oak, maple, walnut and cherry are already on sale at a high-end Asheville store.
Meanwhile, Elaine Marten’s current chemistry project is finding a use for the 130,000 tons of fly ash the area’s coal-burning utility produces annually. In collaboration with North Carolina State University, Marten is exploring a method to combine it with hog waste (also plentiful) to create a material suitable for cinder blocks and driveways. The final product is as hard as comparable materials but significantly lighter —not to mention “completely odor-free,” notes Marten. WRP estimates that it could be sold to the construction industry at $38 per ton. That means the utilities could help produce a $4 million-a-year product with what they used to pay to throw away!
Not surprisingly, one WRP scientist sums it up as “a win-win-win situation: It’s good for business, good for the environment and good for us volunteers.” Moreover, as America’s population ages, Terry Albrecht emphasizes that there’s no reason WRP’s success can’t be duplicated across the country. “Conserving water, energy and everything else is vital,” he says. “But people are the most important natural resource of all.
By Jonathan Schwarz
Source: http://archive.parade.com/2004/1031/1031_scientists1.html
Posted by: Christopher Haase
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