recycling; does the good outweigh the bad?

[Linas]

(in the style of MM) discuss...

[baba]

I know the good, but fill me in on the bad.

[hbarcat]

Originally Posted by baba

I know the good, but fill me in on the bad.

When recycling glass, for example, the amount of processing required uses far more energy than it takes to make new glass. It needs to be sorted by hand into brown, green, clear, white, and other miscellaneous categories and needs to be cleansed of contaminants. Since the majority of the energy required of this comes from fossil fuel combustion, it needs to be weighed against the environmental cost of discarding it and then making new glass. If used glass is simply thrown into a landfill it wouldn't need to be sorted or cleaned, and since glass itself is nontoxic, it doesn't do more than just take up space.

This is not true of most metals, where the energy/environmental cost in recycling is much less than the cost of extracting it from ore and refining it into new product.


Plastic and paper recycling are more complicated than this and the number of factors to consider makes deciding whether recycling is environmentally sound difficult to justify either way and is case specific.

Reusing discarded materials for a different purpose can sometimes be the best alternative.

[baba]

Then I'd have to say it depends on what's being recycled.

[peterbright]

Originally Posted by baba

Then I'd have to say it depends on what's being recycled.

NASA is looking for you.

[Curtybob]

After getting stuck at a landfill for 3 hours while trying to unload a trailer of roofing shingles, I am gonna say that I sincerely hope recycling is the way to go. If you want to take your kids on a nice field trip, go to your nearest landfill.

The smell is horrendous, and it stays with you until you have a chance to thoroughly wash it off. And that was just from sitting in the truck with the windows down. I've been to transfer stations, which is where they load compactor trucks that take the trash to the landfill, but that was my first and last trip to the actual landfill. I saw a truck from the local poultry processing plant dump a few bags of who knows what, along with 2 or 3 dead chickens (feathers and all), several of the large compactor trucks pushing out ton after ton of stuff we tend to forget about after we bag it up, and several smaller trucks like mine that were there dumping construction waste.

Seeing all that has changed my mind about recycling, and I have also began to evaluate my trashing habits at home and at work.

[Pacman]

Not according to Penn and Teller....with the exception of aluminum.

[Linas]

Originally Posted by Pacman

Not according to Penn and Teller....with the exception of aluminum.

I assume this was on BS. I should check that out. I like that program.

[Pacman]

Originally Posted by Linas

I assume this was on BS. I should check that out. I like that program.

It was. And it was a very good program. Not that anything they've ever done on that show was unbiased, but they certainly raised some very good questions.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by hbarcat

When recycling glass, for example, the amount of processing required uses far more energy than it takes to make new glass. It needs to be sorted by hand into brown, green, clear, white, and other miscellaneous categories and needs to be cleansed of contaminants. Since the majority of the energy required of this comes from fossil fuel combustion, it needs to be weighed against the environmental cost of discarding it and then making new glass. If used glass is simply thrown into a landfill it wouldn't need to be sorted or cleaned, and since glass itself is nontoxic, it doesn't do more than just take up space.

That is true, but that "just takes up space" also has a cost. Ottawa, like most cities it seems, is running out of landfill. But nobody wants a new dump in their backyard, so all new initiatives die.

Because of this, anything that keeps things out of the landfill has value. Ottawa recycles a lot of things. Most of the recycling is at a loss but it means the landfill lasts just a bit longer. The cost of replacing a landfill is very high.