Why Don't People Recycle When It's Available? (garbage, Phoenix, cities)

[Wilson513]

All recycling programs are subsidized meaning that they require additional resources. This is not just money, it is electricity gasoline, machinery, etc. further polluting the environment and creating carbon and waste.

300 years from now the landfills will be rich treasure troves. We will be better able to extract the valuable materials and they will be worth more. There is not even the tiniest speck of this country or any other that is devoted to landfills and there is endless capacity. What there is however is unreasonable regulation of landfills by well meaning but ignorant environmentalists.

[Ecovlke]

Originally Posted by katepa

I do not recycle and I am not convinced it "helps" the planet. I believe it is just as harmful to recycle something as to throw it away. Do some research, I hope you aren't too disappointed when you find out you have been digging in the trash for no good reason.

<LI class=maintext>Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollution. Trash to Cash <LI class=maintext>Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months. Environmental Defense Fund <LI class=maintext>About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 28%. Environmental Protection Agency <LI class=maintext>Over ½ million trees are saved each year by recycling paper in Boulder County. Eco-Cycle <LI class=maintext>There are more roads in our National Forests than the entire U.S. Interstate Highway system. National Forest Protection Alliance <LI class=maintext>Recycling creates 6 times as many jobs as landfilling. Colorado Recycles <LI class=maintext>Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, and air pollution by 20%. Environmental Defense Fund <LI class=maintext>Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours. Eco-Cycle <LI class=maintext>If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees--or about 26 million trees per year. California Department of Conservation <LI class=maintext>The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used by 18 million homes each year - or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for eight years. Steel Recycling Institute <LI class=maintext>If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of 1,000 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100% recycled ones, we could save: 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 155 million gallons of water. Seventh Generation Co. <LI class=maintext>The U.S. is 5% of the world's population but uses 25% of its natural resources. Environmental Protection Agency

[LaoTzuMindFu]

Doesnt everyone have three bins? One for trash, one for grass/yard clippings and another one for recyclables.

Its easy to just throw everything to be recycled into the recycling bin, there is no extra work involved.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by LaoTzuMindFu

Doesnt everyone have three bins? One for trash, one for grass/yard clippings and another one for recyclables.

Its easy to just throw everything to be recycled into the recycling bin, there is no extra work involved.

I don't. I'm semi rural and only get one can for trash pickup.
I do recycle but I have to haul it myself.

When I lived in town we had 2..one for garbage and one for papers.
Never had any for glass. Not too much glass these days in the supermarkets though. I do look for glass because I reuse myself for storage jars.

I can't believe that folks want to throw out their grass clippings. Why not start a compost pile in the corner of the yard ?
You water and fertilize only to cut and want someone to haul it off somewhere ? How green is that..throwing out your grass ?

[smokingGun]

I'll be honest, I don't recycle packaging & food waste as much as I should just because having 2 or 3 separate trash cans in my kitchen, bathroom, bedroom & office takes up a lot of space in my apartment. Also I still can't figure out if cellophane/shrink-wrap is recyclable or not.

[phoenixscorpiogirl]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

I don't. I'm semi rural and only get one can for trash pickup.
I do recycle but I have to haul it myself.

When I lived in town we had 2..one for garbage and one for papers.
Never had any for glass. Not too much glass these days in the supermarkets though. I do look for glass because I reuse myself for storage jars.

I can't believe that folks want to throw out their grass clippings. Why not start a compost pile in the corner of the yard ?
You water and fertilize only to cut and want someone to haul it off somewhere ? How green is that..throwing out your grass ?

We have 2 bins here, a blue one for recycling, green one for trash.
As much as I would like to start a compost we have very hard dirt here (Phoenix) and I dont know if it would work...however I commend you for going our of your way to recycle ! And I do rep ya for that

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by phoenixscorpiogirl

Ok so when all the landfills are filled up, what then? Do we just burn the garbage and pollute the air?

.

Landfills? You mean garbage dumps? Why use corporate euphemisms?

Anyway there's plenty of room for garbage dumps. Burning is a good idea too; there's lots of money to be made installing and maintaining pollution control equipment like precips, baghouses and scrubbers.

[phoenixscorpiogirl]

Originally Posted by smokingGun

I'll be honest, I don't recycle packaging & food waste as much as I should just because having 2 or 3 separate trash cans in my kitchen, bathroom, bedroom & office takes up a lot of space in my apartment. Also I still can't figure out if cellophane/shrink-wrap is recyclable or not.

See, that I can understand.
When we lived in an apartment we had no way to recycle and I hated it plus our trash always filled up so fast with things we could have recycled...

I wish apartment complexes had recycling bins but I understand why they don't...b/c people do not care and throw it wherever...once I saw some little kids taking out trash, they were probably like 5 yrs old they couldn't reach it and just left it on the ground ...as long as there are lazy people or parents that don't watch what their kids do it makes it difficult to try and be proactive.

[theatergypsy]

Before the whole recycling craze began, many people, myself included, saved our aluminum beverage cans. I even bought a "can crusher" to smash them flat, thereby taking up less space in the garage. When we had accumulated a sizeable container full, we took them to the junk yard while doing our Saturday afternoon errands and the man weighed the bag and gave us cash for our cans. Some kids even arranged to collect them from friendly neighbors who a. didn't want to go to the junk yard, or b. had enough money and didn't need more.
The Boy Scouts also came around once a month and collected our newspapers to sell and help with financing their camping trips.
When mandatory recycling began, we couldn't get bupkus for the cans and newspapers. (I never asked but I wonder if the municipalities get paid for the stuff they drop off.)

[Wicked Felina]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Landfills? You mean garbage dumps? Why use corporate euphemisms?

It's not a corporate euphemism. There are garbage dumps and there are solid waste dumps (landfills) where items are sorted and placed in the landfill. This is a picture of usable land which was a solid waste landfill:




Recycling has been going on for decades. It's only recently taken on some sort of a political meaning - "greening."

Garbage is separated because there will always be compostable materials that are dumped with plastics, hazardous materials, tins, etc. Also, some trash is hazardous to human beings and when mixed can cause deadly fumes and gasses (paints, solvents, gasoline, hospital waste, etc). Much of that leaks into soil and waterways. That's what can and does happen when people chose not to recycle.