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Yeah, that's a separate issue, but still a very real one. If folks are tossing beer and soda cans on the side of the road or in the trash, that is a real loss.
But the other issue still remains: if the recycling stream were cleaner and higher quality, it might be easy to find profitable uses for the end product. There are still other challenges to work through, but we have to start somewhere!
Yeah, that's a separate issue, but still a very real one. If folks are tossing beer and soda cans on the side of the road or in the trash, that is a real loss.
But the other issue still remains: if the recycling stream were cleaner and higher quality, it might be easy to find profitable uses for the end product. There are still other challenges to work through, but we have to start somewhere!
Recently my County installed fences around our recycling. Too many people were just dumping at our local recycling areas. We would have people that tossed out old TVs and others that tossed out construction paints and miscellaneous items. Now we have a man that checks to see what people are leaving. We did have cameras at the place before the fence; but I never recall anybody ever being prosecuted for dumping improper items?
I have to wonder if the newer robotics and newer sensors will ever be able to pick though our mess?
Go back to aluminum containers? Soda tastes better in cans anyway. On the rare occasion I buy soda.
I buy water in gallon jugs.
I loved Atlanta where there was a place to take recyclables with different dumpsters for each type.
Of course they did curbside too.
Oddly enough California has been the worst for recycling. (Between Memphis, MS, Atlanta, Hawaii, CT)
not knowing quite what it meant until I started reading it.
In the rental house, I did have a one bin for all but that's not the story out here at the ranch. There is a bin for the garbage and that's it. Further, I am not seeking, not hoping for a recycling bin. The reason is that with my life, going to the central point, as one heck of a load up trip it is, is a way to stay a part of the community, to have a reason to go out, as oppose to hide behind my walls.
Okay, that's me, but........
..........does being able to toss it into the bin rather remove us from the concept, the spirit of things? Just toss it in and forget about it? Does going to the recycling central with our 50 shades of wine bottles and cat food cans keep us in the motivation of why we are doing this?
Is maybe not having things so easy actually a good thing?
In my area we don't have recycle bins at our houses. There's no recycle central with loads of wine bottles and such. There is a "Green Truck" parked at WalMart about 4 miles away for several hours one day a week. It takes only paper or plastic...no glass, no metal. It's quite a hassle gathering it up and taking it. I didn't think it would be, but it is.
Going to the "Green truck" doesn't get me any closer to realizing the value of recycling than a bin at my house. I'm well aware of what will happen to the item when I put it in a recycling bin or deliver it to the Green Truck, or if I would take to a recycle center. It makes no difference to me. I really care about recycling, though. I am disturbed that I can't recycle glass here. I hate to see all that good glass going into my garbage to go in the landfill, when it could go to make awesome glass countertops or other things. But I guess it's expensive and a hassle to handle glass for recycling.
I was separating paper/cardboard from plastic for the Green Truck to take, but they told me I don't need to do that. They dump it all out in the truck, together, for delivery somewhere.
I would be happy if we can go back to recycling. A few weeks ago we received notice that Recycling is being curtailed. Starting Feb 1st, only straight metals and glass are accepted for curbside recycling. No more paper, cardboard, plastics, mixed main metals, wood or poly. Wood and mixed metals are accepted only at the transfer station. The market for the other products has dried up.
Recently my County installed fences around our recycling. Too many people were just dumping at our local recycling areas. We would have people that tossed out old TVs and others that tossed out construction paints and miscellaneous items. Now we have a man that checks to see what people are leaving. We did have cameras at the place before the fence; but I never recall anybody ever being prosecuted for dumping improper items?
I have to wonder if the newer robotics and newer sensors will ever be able to pick though our mess?
The cameras may have been there to prevent theft.
Think about it for a moment, the recycling place has to have some money coming in somehow, otherwise, how could it last? Well, it doesn't help if someone would take what they move.
Who would take that stuff? I recall on one trip of seeing a woman drive up, go through the cardboard dumpster, and take boxes, some of them being the ones I just dropped off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hunterseat
Go back to aluminum containers? Soda tastes better in cans anyway. On the rare occasion I buy soda.
I buy water in gallon jugs.
I loved Atlanta where there was a place to take recyclables with different dumpsters for each type.
Of course they did curbside too.
Oddly enough California has been the worst for recycling. (Between Memphis, MS, Atlanta, Hawaii, CT)
Think about it for a moment, the recycling place has to have some money coming in somehow, otherwise, how could it last? Well, it doesn't help if someone would take what they move.
Who would take that stuff? I recall on one trip of seeing a woman drive up, go through the cardboard dumpster, and take boxes, some of them being the ones I just dropped off.
Recycling the cardboard was easy......where do I find someone to take the plastic bag?
Oh I'm sure people take stuff, especially cans they can take to the scrap yard to get money for. I don't recycle mine on recycling day, my hub takes ours and scrap metal; it gives us a few hundred extra per year
Oh I'm sure people take stuff, especially cans they can take to the scrap yard to get money for. I don't recycle mine on recycling day, my hub takes ours and scrap metal; it gives us a few hundred extra per year
A few yrs ago, the price of metals was way up. Thieves were going to commuter parking lots, crawling under cars and sawing off the catalytic converters because the metals in there like platinum were bringing big bucks.
There's a good market for most recycled metals because it's much cheaper to melt down a used item and retrieve the metal, than mining, shipping and smelting down tons of rock to yield a few pounds of the metal.
Plastic, OTOH, Is made from waste material from the petroleum distillery. If not used to make plastic, it would be discarded. That's the history of gasoline, too-- it was discarded before the carburetor was invented to allow internal combustion engines to run on gasoline instead of kerosene (Diesel fuel)…..Plastic can only be re-cycled once or twice. Its integrity breaks down with each re-cycling and becomes progressively more brittle until it just can't perform.
Paper & cardboard, under the microscope, are seen to be made up of fibers. With each re-cycling, the fibers become shorter until they're too short to re-use-- not to mention that the original source of the paper- trees- are 100% naturally re-cyclable. It's kinda dumb to bother re-cycling paper.
A few yrs ago, the price of metals was way up. Thieves were going to commuter parking lots, crawling under cars and sawing off the catalytic converters because the metals in there like platinum were bringing big bucks.
There's a good market for most recycled metals because it's much cheaper to melt down a used item and retrieve the metal, than mining, shipping and smelting down tons of rock to yield a few pounds of the metal.
Plastic, OTOH, Is made from waste material from the petroleum distillery. If not used to make plastic, it would be discarded. That's the history of gasoline, too-- it was discarded before the carburetor was invented to allow internal combustion engines to run on gasoline instead of kerosene (Diesel fuel)…..Plastic can only be re-cycled once or twice. Its integrity breaks down with each re-cycling and becomes progressively more brittle until it just can't perform.
Paper & cardboard, under the microscope, are seen to be made up of fibers. With each re-cycling, the fibers become shorter until they're too short to re-use-- not to mention that the original source of the paper- trees- are 100% naturally re-cyclable. It's kinda dumb to bother re-cycling paper.
Yup! Paper, cardboard and clean scrap wood can be composted just like leaves and twigs. Glass is nothing more than super-heated sand and I imagine if it was smashed and left to weather, the bits of glass would eventually return to a gravel or sand-like state. It would just take longer than composting the more organic material.
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