Technical Assistance Provider (TAP) Observations The Havasupai still speak their language, but it’s easily converted to English for their RCAC TAP. It is up to the Tribe if they want the community outreach and education flyers and posters only written in their local language or also translated into English. Tribes are always given this option when RCAC develops written materials. As technical assistance providers, we must remember not to contribute to the problem we are trying to help solve. For example, during the pandemic, I started having my training and project supplies shipped to my house instead of to the Tribal community, since many were shut down and there was no guarantee that someone would be at the office to accept the shipment. By unpacking shipments at my home office, all that packaging is now being diverted from small, remote solid waste systems, and I can better recycle and dispose of the materials where I live, in a city that has full capacity to deal with the waste. Most importantly, I realized my personal responsibility to reduce my “waste footprint” when I visited remote and rural communities. I conducted a “micro-waste audit” on my hotel stay and, needless to say, I will start traveling with drinking mugs and a shopping bag. Figures 10–12 demonstrate the waste a visitor can create and add to the problem. Continued On-site Training A 20-hour Integrated Solid Waste Training was conducted in July 2022, including these topics: • transfer station health and safety • transfer station operations and maintenance • staging best practices for used oil • household hazardous wastes • white goods • recyclables • source water protection from improper waste management • expanding the recycling program • the importance of sorting at the source • community outreach and education strategies
Cardboard ready for helicopter sling
Next Steps RCAC will ensure that Havasupai and other Tribal communities covered under the USDA RDSW 21-22 grant program are aware of and understand what the new EPA solid waste infrastructure funding, made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), will be for and how recycling education and outreach grants can provide for their solid waste systems and communities. This new solid waste infrastructure funding can be used to purchase the compactors, balers, and horse and mule tack needed to improve recycling for the Havasupai. Providing alternate sets of horse and mule tack would address the cross-contamination concerns. Hauling waste out by horse and mule also creates jobs and income to local households that provide this service. Importance of O-nsite Training The week after my initial visit to the Havasupai village, I traveled to Chevak, Alaska, a Cupiq Tribal community located in a tundra village along the Bering Sea region. Chevak is only accessible by small Cessna aircraft. Integrated Solid Waste Management best practices can be particularly challenging in rural America, and especially in Tribal communities across our country that have remained in their homelands over millennia. RCAC is grateful for the opportunity the USDA-RD Solid Waste grant provides for our staff to travel to these remote, isolated communities and provide much needed and appreciated technical assistance and on-site training to address their unique and specific waste management needs. Tribal staff I have worked with over the years have shared with me that they cannot afford to send entire staff or departments to train, and when staff do go to training, it is not site-specific, so they must “imagine how to make this work at home.” The RDSW grant funding enables RCAC to visit individual communities on-site and provide training that is locally meaningful. The Tribes have always been most appreciative of the individual attention to their solid waste program needs.
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