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Are you/we really recycling?

#81
Groove Doctor said:
Better than recycling - reduce/avoid stuff that produces lots of waste in manufacture and packaging.
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Great point.
We started trying this three years ago. We recycle less than we used to, but that's because we have less waste.
We have one, maybe two, 2.6 gallon bags of garbage a week.

-Mike
 
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#84
This story is from NPR from their show "Here and Now" and aired on April 4th.

Headline:
Research Finds Plastic Bag Bans Result In Unintended Consequences

Some conclusions of studies on plastic bans.

1) Using paper instead of plastic produces a waste that is biodegradable, but is far worse for the environment to produce because it consumes trees also creates large amounts of solid, liquid, and gaseous polution.

2) Plastic grocery bags tend to be reused for multiple purposes. Paper bags are nearly always thrown away.

3) Because of #2, in cities where plastic grocery bags are banned, consumers make up the difference by buying more plastic bags from the store. Data shows sales of store bought bags nearly doubles after plastic grocery bags are banned.

4) The vast majority of plastic waste isn't grocery bags, but plastic containers for liquids (mostly food and drinks) but also retail packaging for manufactured goods.
 
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#85
hbarcat said:
This story is from NPR from their show "Here and Now" and aired on April 4th.

Headline:
Research Finds Plastic Bag Bans Result In Unintended Consequences

Some conclusions of studies on plastic bans.

1) Using paper instead of plastic produces a waste that is biodegradable, but is far worse for the environment to produce because it consumes trees also creates large amounts of solid, liquid, and gaseous polution.

2) Plastic grocery bags tend to be reused for multiple purposes. Paper bags are nearly always thrown away.

3) Because of #2, in cities where plastic grocery bags are banned, consumers make up the difference by buying more plastic bags from the store. Data shows sales of store bought bags nearly doubles after plastic grocery bags are banned.

4) The vast majority of plastic waste isn't grocery bags, but plastic containers for liquids (mostly food and drinks) but also retail packaging for manufactured goods.
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Yeah we (society) thought we were putting a huge dent in things by smashing soda cans for years. Turns out our collective energies have been focused in the wrong directions for the most part. I'm not saying it was useless. But it wasn't as effective as we thought.

I'll still keep doing my part. But it seems a bit futile at this point.
 
#87
two fingers said:
Yeah we (society) thought we were putting a huge dent in things by smashing soda cans for years. Turns out our collective energies have been focused in the wrong directions for the most part. I'm not saying it was useless. But it wasn't as effective as we thought.

I'll still keep doing my part. But it seems a bit futile at this point.
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I'm a bit more optimistic. According to the EPA, current recycling practices cuts landfill waste volume by 34%. Aluminum recycling is particularly effective because it reduces production costs of new aluminum products by more than 90% and saves about $1 billion a year. They estimate recycling of all metal products is the equivalent of removing almost 30 million cars from the road in terms of CO2 emissions.

Still, we should be doing a lot better. We could easily increase our recycling rate from 1/3 of waste material to at least 2/3.
 
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#88
hbarcat said:
I'm a bit more optimistic. According to the EPA, current recycling practices cuts landfill waste volume by 34%. Aluminum recycling is particularly effective because it reduces production costs of new aluminum products by more than 90% and saves about $1 billion a year. They estimate recycling of all metal products is the equivalent of removing almost 30 million cars from the road in terms of CO2 emissions.

Still, we should be doing a lot better. We could easily increase our recycling rate from 1/3 of waste material to at least 2/3.
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I hear yah. And, again, I'm still going through the motions and hoping against hope that it's doing some good.

I ain't give up just yet. :D
 
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#90
two fingers said:
I hear yah. And, again, I'm still going through the motions and hoping against hope that it's doing some good.

I ain't give up just yet. :D
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It frustrates me when I see whole families who simply refuse to even try. They just throw their soda cans and plastic and metal containers in with the garbage. At least 1/2 of the volume of trash is recyclable, yet it goes into the landfill.

The worst part of it is, most of the people I know who refuse to recycle tell me it's because recycling is really just some scam and doesn't actually help the environment. They believe it's a government conspiracy (no one seems to know what for) and their refusal to recycle is a way to be a good patriot and rebel against an intrusuve government telling us what to do in our own homes.

It's bizarre and I don't know where ideas like this come from.
 
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#91
hbarcat said:
It frustrates me when I see whole families who simply refuse to even try. They just throw their soda cans and plastic and metal containers in with the garbage. At least 1/2 of the volume of trash is recyclable, yet it goes into the landfill.

The worst part of it is, most of the people I know who refuse to recycle tell me it's because recycling is really just some scam and doesn't actually help the environment. They believe it's a government conspiracy (no one seems to know what for) and their refusal to recycle is a way to be a good patriot and rebel against an intrusuve government telling us what to do in our own homes.

It's bizarre and I don't know where ideas like this come from.
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Yeah me either. I'm all for less government intrusion into my life. But that line of thought is just dumb. :D
 
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#92
Does anyone know whether or not the electronic waste recycling efforts have been effective? When I used to live in Atlanta, a local organization would take old electronics (stereos, computers, VCRs, DVD players, etc) so they could allegedly be recycled. I did it several times with my old stuff, but I've never known anyone else that has done it. They seemed to accumulate a good bit of e-waste, though.
 
#93
I live in central British Columbia. The girlfriend and I are pretty religious about recycling...but as to where those items actually end up after we take 'em to the recycling depot, I couldn't say for sure.

My understanding is that China - and maybe some other places, but especially China - has cut back significantly on accepting recyclable products from other countries. And really, who can blame them...I can't fathom the mind-blowing amount that must have gotten shipped to that country over the years...as big a population as they have, as many factories as they have, etc., it was probably going to end at some point.

Meanwhile, here in the first world, if I know our governments, there was/is probably no contingency plan for what to do with this stuff, because HEY - China will just take it all, right? ER...until they won't, that is...:eek:

I recently went for a drive with a friend who told me that her parents (she doesn't live with them anymore) only recycle stuff that is refundable. Everything else - largely plastic, but also tin cans, maybe some non-refundable glass - gets burnt in their fireplace...:rollno:

I have a feeling that history is going to look back none too fondly at the generations of the 20th/early 21st century. We've messed this planet up something fierce.:meh:
 
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#94
HubbardsFate said:
...a friend who told me that her parents (she doesn't live with them anymore) only recycle stuff that is refundable. Everything else - largely plastic, but also tin cans, maybe some non-refundable glass - gets burnt in their fireplace...:rollno:
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As in an indoor fireplace? I can't even imagine how long it would take a tin can to burn up indoors or out, let alone burning plastic things indoors :eyebrow:
 
#96
I listened to a Planet Money podcast yesterday that, sadly, backed all of this up.
Apparently "recycling" just meant putting our garbage on giant cargo ships to China, where they would use it to make the plastic junk we buy insistently. As it turns out, the US wasn't living up to its part of the bargain (surprise surprise) and what we were sending them wasn't properly cleaned or sorted. You know that giant pile of plastic confetti swirling around in the pacific? It got there because China was dump the stuff we didn't prep correctly into the ocean!
Well, China got sick of that, and has started cleaning up their environmental polices (despite talking points to the contrary) so they stopped buying our literal garbage. Without a major buyer like that, some municipalities have nothing to do with the sorted recycling waste, so it ends up right back in the land fills.
FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUHHHHHH!!!!!!

Our options are to recycle our own waste, which we won't do; dump it in the land fills; or incinerate it Germany\Austria style.

The more a learn about stuff the more I am convinced that, failing a 50% reduction in the global population, the human race is going to kill its self.
 
#97
socialleper said:
I listened to a Planet Money podcast yesterday that, sadly, backed all of this up.
Apparently "recycling" just meant putting our garbage on giant cargo ships to China, where they would use it to make the plastic junk we buy insistently. As it turns out, the US wasn't living up to its part of the bargain (surprise surprise) and what we were sending them wasn't properly cleaned or sorted. You know that giant pile of plastic confetti swirling around in the pacific? It got there because China was dump the stuff we didn't prep correctly into the ocean!
Well, China got sick of that, and has started cleaning up their environmental polices (despite talking points to the contrary) so they stopped buying our literal garbage. Without a major buyer like that, some municipalities have nothing to do with the sorted recycling waste, so it ends up right back in the land fills.
FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUHHHHHH!!!!!!

Our options are to recycle our own waste, which we won't do; dump it in the land fills; or incinerate it Germany\Austria style.

The more a learn about stuff the more I am convinced that, failing a 50% reduction in the global population, the human race is going to kill its self.
Click to expand...

In my view, you haven't crossed the line into politics .... yet. But you've walked up to that line. Please don't let anyone drag you over that line. :D
 

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