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Recycling - 3/3/2008 2:06:28 PM

Aneirin

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Recycling, who does it and what do they recycle?

Another thought about recycling, is it worth it?

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 2:12:47 PM

MsIncontrol

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I recycle. I recycle metal, plastic, foam and paper. Is it worth it? Absolutely! I am not looking to make money and only turn in my recycled goods to our city but each can that doesn't make it to a landfill is worth it. In our city we have to pay to dispose of our trash (we don't have a dump here) so for each pound of goods that is recycled it is less costly to dispose of, additionally, we get paid for recycled goods. So it makes good economic and environmental sense.

We also try and repair, re-use or repurpose items before throwing them away as well. Most importantly we try to not buy and consume so much. Instead of buying 6 1/2 gallons of laundry soap I buy one giant 3 gallon bottle and therefore less waste in the long run.

Being mindful of these things isn't difficult, doesn't take much of your time but the rewards are great.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 2:17:35 PM

meatcleaver

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Recycling has a part to play but being more efficient with resources and only using what we really need is just as important. A country also has to have the right services in place to make recycling possible and efficient or you can just end up using more energy and creating more waste.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 2:18:02 PM

LaTigresse

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Some.

Glass, plastic bags and cans yes. I burn paper. I compost, but make a trip to the landfill several times a year. Almost everything here at the shop gets recycled.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 2:21:32 PM

luckydog1

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They are starting free curbside recycling of Paper, plastic, and cans here in the spring. I already recycle all my glass and paper (hauling it myself), and compost the food waste in my garden. I will be down to almost zero landfill garbage production.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 2:25:45 PM

colouredin

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I recycle, but then thats because we have to in the UK, Plastic, Tin, Paper and Garden waste, we have bi weekly collections.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 2:33:30 PM

mhawk

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From: Washington
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well where we are we can only recycle plastic bottles(usually just water bottles),newspaper and soda cans. most of everything else with the regualtions where we particulatly live in PA is very limited.we can't recycle wine bottles(any color not just green).

but i also will say years back when i lived in Ohio i worked for a trash and so called recycling company.i was on the sorting end for milk jugs(ewwww) it was nasty.but not once while i worked there after we had sorted everything did i see things actually being recycled,the so called recycling stuff after we sorted wen right in with all the trash.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 3:30:25 PM

pahunkboy

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From: Central Pennsylvania
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if one is close to a drop off yes. if not no. PA has a high rate of recyling.

--coffee grounds,vegie stuff orange peels egg shells get tossed into my yard. it is good for the plants. some dont like it -ihavent had any problem,have done it for yeaqrs.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 3:42:19 PM

Aneirin

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I said, another thought, is recycling worth it due to the transportation of the deposited waste. Is the cost of transportation and reprocessing these materials cheaper or more costly than the end result.

Thinking diesel costs, pollution from diesel combustion and whatever else, just to recycle.

Is the need to recycle a method to ease a public conscience, or is it worthwhile to protect and help the enviroment

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 3:43:57 PM

Lumus

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I recycle at work but not at home. The apartment building doesn't have provisions for such.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 4:16:11 PM

sub4hire

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I've recycled pretty much everything until I moved to the midwest. There are zero recycling facilities here to recycle anything.

We really need to get with it. It is something I'm working on for the city council.
So, due to red tape...we should be up and recycling in about 25 years.

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Post #: 11

RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 5:35:04 PM

LuckyAlbatross

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Yay! Great thread. Considering my partner works for a renewable energy related company, this is big for us. I recycle all the shredded paper, cans and bottles from my work. We recycle all our cans, plastic bags, cardboard, bottles, newspapers and other stuff.

Aneirin your questions are valid and need to be evaluated. Ultimately though, it's not through any one thing, but the changing and incorporation of "green living" at every step and every way which will be what we need- withOUT sacrificing any standard of living. Every bit of awareness and work towards this will help.

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RE: Recycling - 3/3/2008 6:56:21 PM

petdave

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

I said, another thought, is recycling worth it due to the transportation of the deposited waste. Is the cost of transportation and reprocessing these materials cheaper or more costly than the end result.

i don't have the numbers, but based on a bit of background in the industry, i can tell you that the answer is almost certainly "yes" for aluminum cans, almost certainly "no" for paper. Plastic is going to vary based on the type of plastic and how efficiently it's handled... if it's a .gov recycling program with tax dollars to fall back on, then probably not.

We don't have mandatory recycling, or even a can & bottle deposit system in this state. i recycle bottles, and when i get a 13-gallon bag of crushed soda cans i run them by at the scrapyard on my way to work for $0.40/lb... Not much, but somebody's going to get the money, might as well be me...

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RE: Recycling - 3/4/2008 2:54:03 AM

Rayne58

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From: Sydney Australia
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Our unit block has yellow lidded recycling bins where I put all our paper, cardboard, glass, aluminium cans, tin cans and plastic containers/bottles (not plastic bags). There's even one out by the mailboxes to put all the junk mail in. All other household waste goes into our red lid bin. Our rubbish is collected weekly.

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Post #: 14

RE: Recycling - 3/4/2008 4:01:38 AM

LadyEllen

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From: Stourport-England
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quote:

ORIGINAL: mhawk
but i also will say years back when i lived in Ohio i worked for a trash and so called recycling company.i was on the sorting end for milk jugs(ewwww) it was nasty.but not once while i worked there after we had sorted everything did i see things actually being recycled,the so called recycling stuff after we sorted wen right in with all the trash.

and this is what concerns me - right now in my area we have weekly collections of glass, plastics and paper - but apparently its all then trucked down to the southeast because there are no facilities here to deal with it; what happens when it gets down there I dont know, but what I do know is that trucking (my industry) produces a lot of carbon emissions. I'd hate to think it went all that way so that we didnt see it going into landfill - but then we only found out it was going anywhere outside the area because a Tory council member let it slip out (the area is run by the Tories - a bit like the Republicans).

what I also dont understand for the life of me, is why the weekly collections cannot deal with cardboard. We're not talking corrugated thick cardboard here like one finds in packing boxes, but the sort of thin card, probably equivalent to two/three pieces of quality writing paper, thats used for retail packs. This is a real problem as with two cats I get through a lot of cardboard boxes of this description - which then fill my refuse bin well before the two weekly collection is due.

E

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RE: Recycling - 3/4/2008 5:32:40 AM

mhawk

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From: Washington
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unfortunately at the cost it would be for us to get to the recycling place it would be over the cost of what it would be if our company here would just pick it up. and seeing how our Lord has to drive 300 miles every week for work,any extra major trips with the cost of fuel just is not reasonable enough to go do so. we live in central PA in a small commnity.heck just as an example, for one local fire no matter how small it takes 4 fire companys from surrounding counties to douse the blaze. so going 3 or four counties over to drop of othe plastic stuff,it's not a reasonable cost unfortunately.

90% of the time even the empty cat litte containers(about 2 a week,so 4 a month,yeah we have that many cats) they are supposed to pick them up and don't.it's on our list that they should. so , thank goodness for the roofers in the area that come by and get them for storing their stuff otherwise we'd have one huge pile up of containers.

i guess it is hard for me to fathom, seeing as i grew up with extensive recycling programs out west and here it's nearly none.

i just think in alot of places they really need to expand the programs,but right now in my county they are debating what new businesses to bring in and what will be in the next fuel wasting parade.

< Message edited by mhawk -- 3/4/2008 5:40:25 AM >

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RE: Recycling - 3/4/2008 5:41:40 AM

GreedyTop

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From: Savannah, GA
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I would love to recycle. I tried to.. for the first few months that I lived at this place, I'd put out bottles and cans for recycling. Sometimes they would take it, mostly they wouldn't. When I had put some bottles out, and the container sat out there untouched for 5 weeks (and our garbage pick up is twice a week), I gave up. A couple of weeks later I noticed that both the recycling bins were gone.
I seem to recall a couple of articles in the local paper about the poor recycling practices here.

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RE: Recycling - 3/4/2008 5:58:52 AM

verysweet

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Recycling here is very expensive. Our city waste management charges an arm and a leg over and above the normal cost of trash pick-up. The alternative is taking it to the dump or other collection centers---which I do, but not with any great regularity because they're usually closed by the time I get off work. I wish 'the powers that be' would make it a bit more accessible.

I do take the extra plastic grocery bags back to the store, however. And we save empty water bottles because the local high school recycles them and gets a cut of the proceeds.

I'm sure Al Gore would disapprove of my lasse faire attitude.

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RE: Recycling - 3/4/2008 6:04:28 AM

mhawk

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From: Washington
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well i just looked it up where we are at. the center isnt really a center it's a farm feed store (wth) and they have a company from state college pick it up nad the company in state college has different regulations on recycling so it's really not much of a help to the local recycling resources, and of course at $3 something a gallong for gas(don't really know becausemy Owners's see no reason for me to drive,is not reasonaable to make an hour and a half drive to the next possible location.

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Post #: 19

RE: Recycling - 3/4/2008 6:07:46 AM

NeedToUseYou

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Well, our entire business is recycling consumer items. So, yeah, we recycle. But we don't recycle plastic, every thing I've looked up on recycling plastic says it takes more energy to recycle it than to make new plastic, especially in a rural setting like this, they'd have to probably truck it all the way to Saint Louis. So, ironically until we come up with a cheaper alternative energy source, from what I've read it is more damaging to recycle it. We reuse good thick boxes, we trash the others. If we get a broken item that has parts value we'll part out the good parts or take it's parts to repair others we have. We'll reuse good foam, or bubble wrap trash the rest. Items with a lot of metal that are non-repairable at reasonable cost, go to the metal scrapper.
But most of the plastic I'm speaking of is the type of plastic your monitor is wrapped in, but I 99% sure it holds true for plastic bottles to. As in pollution created by recycling it is greater than that created by making a new bottle. As they have to use a lot of energy and different chemicals to break it down to a usable form, and they have to pay workers to sort it, and they have to transport it.

I went so far as to look into ways of cleanly burning it as fuel(as it's just oil, and chemical added, basicly oil) there is a company that is making one of these incenerators that is supposedly clean, but as of the time I was looking they weren't selling to the public, and even then it was rated for much more plastic than we come by, as in industrial levels of waste.

That sounds like a more realistic solution to me though, instead of recycling it, and creating even more pollution in the process, rather burn it in an clean manner, and just take a coal plant offline. Net effect is the same as recycling only easier.

I don't have a link or anything for that company, it's probably been a year since I was looking into what to do with junk plastic.

edited to add: should state generator instead of incinerator, as the machine produces electricity in the same unit, and the heat loss is designed to be used to heat the facility.

< Message edited by NeedToUseYou -- 3/4/2008 6:16:15 AM >

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