TAOS— You might call Melissa Larson the Rag Lady, but that wouldn't do justice to the passion and determination she has shown over the past several years for getting public support for recycling on a much broader scale than is currently practiced in this area.
Larson's interest in all things recyclable began almost 10 years ago after a "holy mackerel moment" when she realized how many still-usable fabrics were being discarded in the Taos landfill.
That moment led directly to "Wholly Rags," a nonprofit company she operates to reclaim textiles and clothing as decorative items or for resale to secondhand clothing distributors.
It should come as no surprise that Larson is behind the drive to ban plastic shopping bags in town, an idea that has earned the support of the Taos mayor and Town Council.
According to Taos County Manager Julia Valerio, the County Commission will also look into adopting a similar measure after the town formalizes its ordinance.
Mayor Bobby Duran said this week that a draft ban will be discussed at the council's May study session to work out the proper language and enforcement policy.
"We don't want it to be punitive or hurt local businesses," Duran said. "But we do want to try to encourage people to re-educate themselves on the importance of cleaning up the town and the surrounding environment."
"It is a problem that is reaching critical mass around the world and affecting our oceans and rivers and lakes as well as land areas, and it is becoming a problem that is not just an eyesore," he added.
"In Taos, you can see plastic bags and cups everywhere, and on windy days we have flying plastic."
Duran said he feels confident that the town can come up with an ordinance that will help solve the problem while not adversely affecting business or creating legal challenges.
Larson said she and members of a local environmental program for children, Rivers and Birds, approached Duran late last year after they learned Duran was concerned about the plastic shopping bag situation.
"He was very receptive to our concerns, and we are very pleased that the town is following through with an initiative to address the problem," Larson said.
The 51-year-old recycling advocate, who lives in the Pilar area, said plastic shopping bags are just the tip of the recycling effort but that's it's a good start.
"I think of recycling as a big toilet-training project for adults," she said. "We have to help people to learn new habits and a new way of thinking in order to accomplish what needs to be done by way of developing a truly effecting recycling program for the town and county."
Larson said that, around the country, the average percentage of the population that recycles is 30 percent, while in Taos it is around two or three percent. "So you can see we have a long way to go and a lot of educating to do," she said.
Larson grew up in the Bay Area of San Francisco and moved to Taos some 30 years ago. A freelance draftsperson by education and training, Larson is also a three-dimensional artist, seamstress and potter. Many of her "discarded textiles" return to life as wall hangings, quilts, tote bags, book and journal covers, pet beds and hats.
Her company's headquarters in a business park on Alexander Street is filled with stacks and stacks of all kinds of fabrics that she collects from the town recycling center, a local free box where residents drop off unwanted clothing, donations and discards from local thrift shops.
In addition to what she keeps to make as decorative items for sale at arts and crafts fairs and other outlets around town, including her business location, she sells to an Albuquerque-based textile recycler.
"I estimate that I have reclaimed and collected more than 200 tons of fabrics in the last three years," Larson said. "And that saves a great big space that it would otherwise take up in the landfill."
Larson teaches her art to children in the Taos County ARC program and other children's groups— including Girl Time, an after-school program for girls 12 to 15— in an effort to get them interested in recycling and better protecting the environment. And she is also one of the original founders of the annual Art de Descartes show at the Stables Gallery that features art made from reclaimed and recycled materials.
Thanks to Larson and others, the county now has a Recycling Committee that obtained two state legislative grants to provide seed money for a county recycling center and to purchase a plastic baler and bins.
"It is a really exciting time for us and we are encouraged that progress can be made," Larson said.
If the town and county decide to ban plastic bags, Larson said, "taoseños can be proud that they live in an environmentally conscious community that saw the harm being done to the environment and stood up and did something about it."
