Do you judge your neighbors who don't recycle? (Austin: buy, maintenance)

[imcurious]

Originally Posted by Gorfml

recycling doesn't help jack **** except for making corporations even more money...gg green..

Totally disagree. What about land fill, waste, more plastic production, et al . . . can't understand how anyone could be against recycling.

[love roses]

Wow. What if you had a compost pile and used your food scraps to put in the compost bin? Too many rules. Using some of your lawn refuse like leaving some of the leaves is supposed to be good I hear. We don't throw all of ours away and let them decompose in the gardens from time to time to help feed the soil. It WOULD be cool if they had something for that though, for what you don't reuse.

[sxrckr]

People shouldn't "judge", but we always recycle. We try to teach the kids to "take care of the earth" too. Maybe your neighbors and others who choose not to recycle just need to learn more about it, see that it's really not hard to do, etc. Sometimes it's also just a matter of getting in a good habit (or getting out of a bad one.)

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by Gorfml

recycling doesn't help jack **** except for making corporations even more money...gg green..

The monetary benefits of recycling have been, and will continue to be debated. These vary by location, and go up and down with the economy. I don't know whether recycling in Austin loses money for the city. But for many materials, it is clear that less energy is used when they are recycled than when they are made from virgin materials. Aluminum is not even a question; it is much more efficient to recycle than to mine and manufacture. The benefit of recycling glass and paper are more dependent on local and economic factors. The most problematic material for recycling is plastic. Mostly, plastic is not actually recycled into a repeat of what it was, but made into things like park benches, composite wood, etc, that are not themselves recyclable, so it has just delayed rather than eliminated the waste. So although I still do recycle plastics, it is better to try to use them as little as possible. And it would be better still if the plastics industry would use fewer types of plastic. If there was a more unified pattern of plastic production, recycling would be easier. So we need better solutions with plastics, but just throwing them in the trash guarantees that they will be in the landfill or worse, in the ocean, for thousands of years, so I still think it is better to recycle them.

There are few things in this world that work perfectly. We should be working toward using materials efficiently (Reduce, reuse, recycle) and thinking twice before throwing stuff in the trash or even the recycle bin. But doing our best is better than using the fact that the system is not perfect as an excuse for being lazy and thoughtless and trashing the world.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by someguyatx

I never mentioned anything about the contents except for the trash can I saw with stuff spilling into the street.

That is even worse, you are judging them without knowing why they did not set out the container. Maybe it wasn't full yet, maybe they forgot.

[JayBrown80]

If you judge someguyatx for judging other people, is that Ironic, or Meta?

The judgemental judging the judgemental. Say that three times fast.

[someguyatx]

Ha I never said my behaviour is healthy or normal but thanks for the comments anyway guys. After reading over these I think a better topic might have been "What do you think about people who do not recycle when the option is available with minimal effort at no additional cost" I know I always feel strange if I'm at somebody's house for a bbq or to watch a game finish my beer and ask where they to put recycling and they say they don't recycle.

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by someguyatx

Ha I never said my behaviour is healthy or normal but thanks for the comments anyway guys. After reading over these I think a better topic might have been "What do you think about people who do not recycle when the option is available with minimal effort at no additional cost" I know I always feel strange if I'm at somebody's house for a bbq or to watch a game finish my beer and ask where they to put recycling and they say they don't recycle.

I have to agree. I have many times taken empties of various containers home with me because I can't tolerate not recycling. I admit that if there is a no extra cost program, I don't know why people wouldn't do it.

[Big time bro]

To be truthful with you all.........most people don't care about recycling and see no problem throwing away a plastic bottle.

[Rapunzll]

Originally Posted by someguyatx

I judge my neighbors who don't recycle and this week out of 6 immediate neighbors I was the only one who had a bin out and it makes me a bit mad. As I looked down the street I saw maybe half recycle and I even noticed one trash can overstuffed with recyclable materials. I dont understand why people do not use this free service that is provided by the city. Thanks to single stream recycling we easily generate more recyclables than trash on a weekly basis.

I recycle, but I think you have way too much time on your hands if you are actually counting the recycling bins on your street.