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Landfills? In the 1960s? We had the town dump. People knew to put usable stuff in one area so others with less money could use it, tires in another, and general trash in another. It actually worked fairly well during the period there was a hermit that was paid to live there and watch over things. It wasn't ideal, but neither is people rooting through your garbage to see if you've been good or bad.
It worked fairly well only until you consider the long-term impact of hazardous waste components slowly seeping into soil/town water supplies.
This is no joke - old landfills were indeed just town dumps, modern ones are state of the art by comparison (lead liners & various other engineering marvels stop residue from escaping).
Option 1: It cost so much to dispose of trash. Recycles usually create income. Tax everyone as if the city had to dispose of everything as trash. Credit those who recycle their portion of the income. Those who recylce, compost and reuse will be paying less, those who don't will be paying more.
Option 2: Eliminate all trash service and reduce taxes by the amount not spent. Everyone pays their own trash cost from private companies. Those who throw everything out will pay more, those that recycle, compost and reuse will pay less.
Option 3: Eliminate all trash service period and make each property owner responsible for their own trash on their own property. They are forced to keep their own trash on their own property. If they don't recycle, their backyard, garage, spare bedroom will be a pile of crap. Recycle, compost, reuse, etc will make for little trash. If your trash harms your neighbors house value or poses a health hazard, you pay them compensation cost.
Option 4: Get with the program and stop whining about government intrusion. If your neighbor has a bunch of old abandon cars and trash on their property bet everyone will be calling in the governement to intrude on their property, so what makes trash & recycling any less a community thing?
As I have said many times before, the true Internet "whiners" are those that accuse others of same. Obviously it bears repeating.
To answer your question - let me take a wild guess. It is called trash pickup for a reason. It is picked up and taken away from the neighborhood. Could that be what makes it different from "your neighbor has a bunch of old abandon cars and trash on their property"?
"Get with the program" is all we need to know about what drives you here. It is all about the program. You are evangelizing for the recycling religion and it is all about micromanaging the lives of others. Same as the "climate change" religion. That's it.
Wring your hands to your heart's content, but don't expect adults who are dealing with real challenges in their daily lives to pay you much attention. Recycling..or not..is among the least of our problems.
To answer your question - let me take a wild guess. It is called trash pickup for a reason. It is picked up and taken away from the neighborhood. Could that be what makes it different from "your neighbor has a bunch of old abandon cars and trash on their property"?
I wouldn't assume there is always going to be someone willing and able to take that trash away.
Increasing population and suburban sprawl are reducing available landfill space, it's just a matter of time before all municipalities/local governments are forced to deal with their own waste.
There are many people that will not recycle without enforcement and could care less. You will end up paying for people that don't recycle in solid waste fees if you choose not to enforce recycling.
That's a subjective statement to end all subjective statements.
I'm pointing out reality. Reality is that in a large, well-populated country you inevitably get rules and codes that annoy people individually, but are necessary for the survival of the group.
You see recycling mandates as govt intrusion.
I see farmers in some areas in rural Indiana with signs by the roads saying "No More Landfills!"
So who is really being more intrusive, the farmer sick of the big city slickers dumping their trash, or the city slicker who produces all that trash without a concern in the world of who ultimately has to live with it?
As I said...
Quote:
If the codes are stupid, yes and there are many that are borne of nothing but political scheme.
There ARE many codes which are borne out of political scheme, money, etc...
When I lived in California, there were numerous cases of codes to which never achieved the goals they were claimed to be put in for, but did succeed in either giving certain parties more power or gaining money through the process.
That is not subjective, there are many codes throughout the states which are impractical, counter to their intentions, and destructive to the society. They serve no purpose as they do not achieve anything they claim to exist for.
It is expected that some regulations need to exist in order to protect individuals. Food safety regulations exist to limit the spread of disease and food borne illness. Fire and building codes exist to protect an individual from harm.
The purpose of codes and the like are central in that their main goal is to insure that one persons actions does not infringe on another. It is the process of protecting the individual rights of each as they function in society.
Vehicle safety laws exist to protect people from each other when they interact. Again, serving to protect the individual rights of other. Afterall, if you drive recklessly, drunk, etc... and crash into me, killing me. You have effectively violated my right to live. These are why they exist.
Codes exist to serve people, not us serve them. When codes demand conformity to ideology, they overstep their bounds as they violate the purpose of these codes and laws which is to insure my individual rigths are protected. They do not exist to serve your opinion or ideal of what society should or should not be doing. Individual rights trump your personal opinion every time. That is, if I think your crusade is a waste of time, then that is what it is, and I do not participate.
When you demand I do, again... you have overstepped your bounds. I respect your right to live as you choose, function as you choose, believe as you choose, and go as you choose. You will respect mine as well.
In order for you to be able to push such restrictions on me, you need to properly show that my actions are an direct infringement on you. That doesn;t mean if I annoy you, upset you because I may disagree with you, but rather that I am directly infringing on you to which you have no freedom of choice.
You can not show that in these cases, but I can certainly show that your institution of codes are an infringement, that is, your demands force me to your will to which I have no choice.
Telling me I must separate my garbage and then fining me for not doing so is an oppressive dictation that infringes on my freedoms.
Your attempt to evade this fact by rebutting with a response concerning codes that exist is not a valid means of objection. Even if there already exists oppressive codes, pointing them out and claiming that it is wrong to object to this is also a fallacious response. Two wrongs don't make a right and just because little billy did it, doesn't mean little sally is off the hook for doing it as well.
Ultimately, the issue comes down to the point as I mentioned earlier. Everyone's "opinion" is meaningless, only that which they can reasonably show as an infringement on them is a valid position.
If you do not like the look of your neighbors yard, you move. If you do not like that a restaurant may allow smoking, then you do not eat there. You can complain and promote your opinion against it all you like, but once you begin to dictate your opinion on others, then you become the one who is infringing on others.
Like I said, if you want to recycle properly, then do so yourself. If you want others garbage to be recycled properly, then start up a business and pick up their garbage and find a way to do so and be profitable in it. If you want to walk on to peoples property, point your finger at them and demand, well... don't be surprised at the reaction that may come from such.
I wouldn't assume there is always going to be someone willing and able to take that trash away.
Increasing population and suburban sprawl are reducing available landfill space, it's just a matter of time before all municipalities/local governments are forced to deal with their own waste.
You seem to be very concerned about this. Why are you here complaining rather than going out and finding solutions?
If I was so concerned about this issue, I would be looking into technology and the like which would allow me to harvest the material from these land fills and then recycle it or even use it for power.
In fact, there was specific company that was working on just that (I think it was in California) several years ago. they were taking the trash from these landfills and processing it.
Just think, they were doing all of this and they not once stepped into someones face and demanded anything from them. They didn't demand conformity, they simply worked with what existed and found a solution.
If you are worried about nobody stepping up to take on such tasks, then what are you doing sitting here on an internet board? You could be taking up these challenges yourself, innovating and finding solutions to the issues.
Or...
You can complain here and lobby your city governments to dictate choice to individuals.
Seems the latter is the lazy way out, not to mention disregarding of others.
We are running out of landfills and resources, there are some people that are bascially too lazy to make the effort and it costs the municipalities money. Just a simple thing like newpaper recycling could save considerable money as opposed to dumping it in landfills.
My town has "bulk trash pick-up" four times a year. For your bulky items.
We also have nice, big "recycle" wheelie-bins for people to put their paper, cardboard, etc. into. Very simple to use. Just pop open the lid, deposit paper products, wheel to the curb every week. Easy-peasy.
Guess what is the #1 item put out for bulk pick-up? Bingo! You win! Cardboard boxes.
Makes me nuts because it's always the thirty-something, healthy as a hog neighbors who can't seem to use a knife and spend five minutes to cut down a big box to feed into the recycle barrel. Meanwhile, all us old 60's types with bad knees and arthritic hands are re-using, re-cycling and cutting up our bloomin' paper boxes to put in the bloody recycle bin!
My town has "bulk trash pick-up" four times a year. For your bulky items.
We also have nice, big "recycle" wheelie-bins for people to put their paper, cardboard, etc. into. Very simple to use. Just pop open the lid, deposit paper products, wheel to the curb every week. Easy-peasy.
Guess what is the #1 item put out for bulk pick-up? Bingo! You win! Cardboard boxes.
Makes me nuts because it's always the thirty-something, healthy as a hog neighbors who can't seem to use a knife and spend five minutes to cut down a big box to feed into the recycle barrel. Meanwhile, all us old 60's types with bad knees and arthritic hands are re-using, re-cycling and cutting up our bloomin' paper boxes to put in the bloody recycle bin!
Rant over. Thank you. I feel better.
If you really want to feel better, why not just relax and realize that what your neighbors do with their cardboard boxes is not your concern and certainly not something to work yourself into a "makes me nuts" kind of frenzy - unless, of course, they're throwing it into your front yard.
If you're an "old 60s type", you remember a much simpler and saner world - a world where you could spend a relaxing afternoon or two or three with no thought whatsoever given to your neighbors' cardboard disposition. And yet you still lived with yourself and life went on!
Remember those days? We dealt with our real problems and considered them to be quite sufficient. We felt no need to dream up imaginary crises to supplement them and would have told fringe activist groups attempting to impose delusional panic upon us to go jump in a lake.
I you really want to feel better, recapture that sane perspective we once had. Relax. Tune out the crazies. Dispose of your cardboard as you see fit and leave your neighbors alone unless they're shooing their dog over to your back yard when they let it out for relief.
Oh, CrownVic I know all those things. And of course you're right on.
But I had a bee up my butt and it felt FABULOUS to vent.
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Makes me nuts because it's always the thirty-something, healthy as a hog neighbors who can't seem to use a knife and spend five minutes to cut down a big box to feed into the recycle barrel. Meanwhile, all us old 60's types with bad knees and arthritic hands are re-using, re-cycling and cutting up our bloomin' paper boxes to put in the bloody recycle bin!
