An Update on Recycling

[Midpack]

It was always partly too good to be true, and how much consumer “recycling” is actually recycled has always been misunderstood (70-80% of what we thought was being recycled, now less), but now recycling really needs to be a last resort. Our “recycling” is going to landfills more and more every day, and while they’re not concealing it, waste contractors aren’t making special effort to let consumers know

Reduce and reuse have always been far better for the environment, and LBYM too.

https://youtu.be/L6S63VXfqMw

 

[Rianne]

Reduce and reuse have always been far better for the environment, and LBYM too.

Bottom line.

Ripping off glued labels, washing out leftover food in containers (peanut butter), searching for the correct recycle symbol on the bag or container...turns out all a waste of time. All going to landfills. Until we can figure out how to use all waste for energy or decompose it, we have to landfill safely and long term. Methane is a big challenge. Lining the garbage properly, a must.

Our community is dealing with a sloppy coal ash dump leaking into ground and waterways. Law finally passed after a huge fight and many years, Dynegy must clean it up. Remove it completely. They did not even line the coal ash dump site to protect the soil. Just dumped into the soil. Both sides were on board with this. Big victory for the environment but a small piece of the overall picture.

 

[OldShooter]

The brutal truth is that individual "save the earth" actions like recycling are statistically insignificant. If it feels good, by all means do it, but you are not having a meaningful effect. You are one among 7,500,000,000. That is a very big number.

 

[Jerry1]

I agree that recycling is a joke. I also think it could be done much better if we managed it better. For example, I understand that the plastic they use for milk jugs is highly recyclable. I think it’s #2. But, in the current system it gets contaminated and most people don’t clean out the food waste. So, something like that which actually has a market, could be carved out and marketed to people who actually want to recycle properly, which would most likely require a drop off location. This could work with other products like clean paper products such as magazines and newspapers, cardboard, glass and metal. In my opinion once they went to the big containers where you put everything together and it gets sorted later, they basically turned recycling into trash.

 

[OldShooter]

Well, to be clear I was not saying that recycling is a joke. I was really not trying to make any kind of moral judgment. It is a simple mathematical fact that it is statistically insignificant. That's my only point. Tar and feathers not required.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Well, to be clear I was not saying that recycling is a joke. I was really not trying to make any kind of moral judgment. It is a simple mathematical fact that it is statistically insignificant. That's my only point. Tar and feathers not required.

Ha! I don't think that your post wasn't clear...of course others may have thought/think different. I think that as long as the world's population continues to grow at the rate that it is...well, there isn't a whole lot that can be done to mitigate that kind of damage to the ecosystem. Is that a defeatist attitude? Perhaps, but the numbers don't lie.

 

[RetireBy90]

In our northern VA location they say don't put glass into recycle bins any more. You have to drive to county site where they have a special purple container for glass now.



Sounds like tech solution would help recycle efforts, better sorting and cleaning machines.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Sounds like tech solution would help recycle efforts, better sorting and cleaning machines.

Yes, but that all costs money and there just isn't much money in recycling these days. WM is all about splashing fancy logos on their trucks to make folks *think* that they are doing their part, but when the bottom line is all about the $$$, then change is slow to happen.

 

[joeea]

The brutal truth is that individual "save the earth" actions like recycling are statistically insignificant. If it feels good, by all means do it, but you are not having a meaningful effect. You are one among 7,500,000,000. That is a very big number.

For the same reason, you should never vote.

 

[ckelly78z]

I try to "re-purpose", and "re-use" as much as possible on my farm all the way from using old lumber for building projects, and resurrecting old rusty tractors for current use, all the way down to re-using a somewhat clean sandwich bag, using shop towels for more than 1 use until they are filthy, and eating all leftovers.

 

[calmloki]

Curbside recycling - instead of throwing stuff in the dumpster or recycling bin put a free sign on it and see if someone else can use it. I get a lot of joy out of that. We tend to use stuff up and only have a 65 gallon container picked up once/month for our house garbage - usually about 2/3 full. That said, we replaced both our desk chairs last month - we got our replacements used and put our old ones at the curb, where someone else disappeared them.

Use it up, wear it out. Make it do or do without.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

For the same reason, you should never vote.

Perhaps you were being sarcastic, but the math in that instance works, too. Outside of local (very local) elections, your single vote doesn't add up to a hill of beans. How many elections (with over 5,000 people voting) has the winner been decided by one vote?

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Curbside recycling - instead of throwing stuff in the dumpster or recycling bin put a free sign on it and see if someone else can use it. I get a lot of joy out of that. We tend to use stuff up and only have a 65 gallon container picked up once/month for our house garbage - usually about 2/3 full. That said, we replaced both our desk chairs last month - we got our replacements used and put our old ones at the curb, where someone else disappeared them.

Use it up, wear it out. Make it do or do without.

When we lived in San Antonio, they did a bulk trash pick-up a couple times a year. The dates were always planned well in advance and highly publicized. Without fail, when you put your "junk" on the curb, within a couple of days almost ALL of it would be removed by the scrap/junk/collector vultures. It wasn't uncommon to see pickup trucks loaded down cruising around the neighborhoods looking for the next treasure. I always thought that was a better way of getting rid of stuff than putting it in a 96 gallon container to be landfilled.

 

[REWahoo]

When we lived in San Antonio, they did a bulk trash pick-up a couple times a year. The dates were always planned well in advance and highly publicized. Without fail, when you put your "junk" on the curb, within a couple of days almost ALL of it would be removed by the scrap/junk/collector vultures. It wasn't uncommon to see pickup trucks loaded down cruising around the neighborhoods looking for the next treasure. I always thought that was a better way of getting rid of stuff than putting it in a 96 gallon container to be landfilled.

We moved out of SA to the Hill Country 21 years ago and that's the only thing I miss about not living in the city.

 

[Jerry1]

Well, to be clear I was not saying that recycling is a joke. I was really not trying to make any kind of moral judgment. It is a simple mathematical fact that it is statistically insignificant. That's my only point. Tar and feathers not required.

To be also clear, I was referring to the first two posts when I used the term "joke" to describe recycling. Your mathematical comment was, imo, valid but not referring to the state of the recycling process.

 

[braumeister]

Curbside recycling - instead of throwing stuff in the dumpster or recycling bin put a free sign on it and see if someone else can use it.

Speaking from experience, if the "FREE" sign doesn't work, change it to "$50" and the item will be gone within a day, guaranteed.

 

[mystang52]

My town recently started cracking down on too much recycling. Apparently, many items heretofore "recycled" were actually being rejected by China, and in turn charged the recycling companies penalties, who in turn are threatening our town (and presumably others)with penalties if we do not comply with the stricter standards.
Now, the only non-paper recyclables are glass and plastic bottles, plastic detergent bottles (all without the caps attached), and cans. Our town's recycling center also accepts metal if you bring it there. The recycling truck employees take a quick look at the contents of the recycling bin left at the curb, and if they see anything in noncompliance they leave the entire thing.
I keep waiting in fear that I will soon be arrested for attempted non-compliant recycling........

 

[Jerry1]

Speaking from experience, if the "FREE" sign doesn't work, change it to "$50" and the item will be gone within a day, guaranteed.

So, they come up and barter you down to FREE or, they just take it (steal it)? Or, they actually pay you $50

 

[ponyboy]

As a consumer, you can choose not to buy products that come in plastic. Or, better yet, instead of complaining about it, what solution do you propose?

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

We moved out of SA to the Hill Country 21 years ago and that's the only thing I miss about not living in the city.

There was a lot I enjoyed about living in San Antonio, but found that all those things came with a visit that lasted a couple of days, not living there....that, I do NOT miss.

We technically live in the city limits of OKC (but are considered rural) but they also do a monthly bulk trash pickup. There aren't nearly as many "vultures" here though, and unfortunately a LOT of stuff goes to the landfill.

 

[Chuckanut]

Plastic is made from petroleum. It's fuel. Recycling plastic is difficult and inefficient. Burning it to generate electric power is far easier and makes a lot more sense.

 

[Aerides]

I agree that reduce/reuse are the most important impacts. But I'm not going to forgo recycling just because it's less effective - perhaps almost ineffective - and start tossing paper and plastic, etc., in with regular trash.

It cost me nothing in terms of effort to continue to separate these items (i'm not going to complain about rinsing out a tub first). Just as I'll still hang my towels in a hotel to indicate no need to replace daily. And while no one person can impact the environment, like anything, every little helps. If we all toss our hands in the air that seems defeatist.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Aerides, I totally agree and do the same.

 

[travelover]

Plastic is made from petroleum. It's fuel. Recycling plastic is difficult and inefficient. Burning it to generate electric power is far easier and makes a lot more sense.

Tires can be recycled the same way. I saw on them doing that in Baghdad on the news last night.

 

[braumeister]

So, they come up and barter you down to FREE or, they just take it (steal it)? Or, they actually pay you $50

They just take it. Very common where I live.