Recycling -RANA experience (Athens: cars, money, engineer)

[cooldiver]

The market for recyclables has collapsed in this country and others.



https://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...-trash/584131/


In many locations, that has meant an end to convenient and inexpensive recycling of mixed materials. By mixed I mean having all recyclables mixed in the same bin or cart.



Perhaps we will end up going back to the days when there were large dumpsters at recycling locations with separate dumpsters for each type of material. Or it may end up all going to the landfill. Or it could be that we get charged a fee to pay for the recycling, which could end up being close to what we pay for garbage disposal.


If you're going to be gone on "the day", ask a neighbor to roll it out for you. Or roll it over to their house and retrieve it when you return. (That assumes the truck will pick up more than one bin, and maybe it would be good to double-check on that.)


These pickup trucks cost money to run and now there is little if any income from the recyclables to pay for that.


For now let's try to do our best with the system we have!

[Rick In Madison]

I ran across an interesting article about the recycling of plastic.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/plas...062542808.html
https://www.oecd.org/environment/was...management.pdf

This coupled with a story about how a select few asphalt/repaving companies are experimenting with using recycled plastic in roadway resurfacing projects made me think of this thread.
https://dot.ca.gov/news-releases/news-release-2020-024
&
https://constructionclimatechallenge...uilding-roads/

A friend of mine who is a Chem-E by education but not trade anymore talked about the use of recycled plastics in roadway construction ~4 years ago. I recall him talking about the challenges of using the various type of plastics in construction projects like roads or non-load bearing "timbers". He quickly went over my head. His bottom line on the whole thing was similar to what others have often said; it costs more to recycle than to create from new. Although not having anything to cite, he said much of the plastic that is placed in recycling containers here in the states is just dumped in landfills. He also said that was the reason he didn't bother with recycling plastic. I was disappointed but understood his point.

I'm not keen on Big Government; however, I wouldn't mind seeing the government put money and effort into some of these technologies that use recycled plastics like the roadway resurfacing projects.

[MisterEd51]

Originally Posted by Rick In Madison

I ran across an interesting article about the recycling of plastic.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/plas...062542808.html
https://www.oecd.org/environment/was...management.pdf

This coupled with a story about how a select few asphalt/repaving companies are experimenting with using recycled plastic in roadway resurfacing projects made me think of this thread.
https://dot.ca.gov/news-releases/news-release-2020-024
&
https://constructionclimatechallenge...uilding-roads/

A friend of mine who is a Chem-E by education but not trade anymore talked about the use of recycled plastics in roadway construction ~4 years ago. I recall him talking about the challenges of using the various type of plastics in construction projects like roads or non-load bearing "timbers". He quickly went over my head. His bottom line on the whole thing was similar to what others have often said; it costs more to recycle than to create from new. Although not having anything to cite, he said much of the plastic that is placed in recycling containers here in the states is just dumped in landfills. He also said that was the reason he didn't bother with recycling plastic. I was disappointed but understood his point.

I'm not keen on Big Government; however, I wouldn't mind seeing the government put money and effort into some of these technologies that use recycled plastics like the roadway resurfacing projects.

New plastic is cheaper to produce and of better quality, so there’s literally no financial incentive to recycle old plastic

That is only because the environmental costs are not taken into account. If the companies making the plastics had to pay for damage done to the environment they would think differently.

I am not for Big Government either but if the government wanted to make a difference they might consider encouraging companies to use plastics that can be recycled. Whether that takes the form of subsidization or taxation is another matter.

[maillemaker]

Personally, I think they should ban all single-use plastic packaging and items.


It's not really a problem in developed countries where people have waste infrastructure. The problem is all of this packaged stuff gets sold in developing countries who have no waste infrastructure, and all the plastic (and everything else) ends up in the waterways and then in the ocean.


Use paper. It's renewable, takes carbon out of the air, and is biodegradable and recyclable.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by maillemaker

Personally, I think they should ban all single-use plastic packaging and items.


It's not really a problem in developed countries where people have waste infrastructure. The problem is all of this packaged stuff gets sold in developing countries who have no waste infrastructure, and all the plastic (and everything else) ends up in the waterways and then in the ocean.


Use paper. It's renewable, takes carbon out of the air, and is biodegradable and recyclable.

I pretty much agree. One of the most sensible things the nuts that run California has done is that they banned the flimsy plastic shopping bags. And why not put drinks in paper cartons like they used to instead of capturning them in plastic strapping that difficult to release - not to mention terrible for small animals that happen to be caught in them.

[Rick In Madison]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

I pretty much agree. One of the most sensible things the nuts that run California has done is that they banned the flimsy plastic shopping bags. And why not put drinks in paper cartons like they used to instead of capturning them in plastic strapping that difficult to release - not to mention terrible for small animals that happen to be caught in them.

Agree on the use of paper over plastics.
However the Californians would most likely complain about the use of paper and destruction of trees. Analogous to the same irony with PGP wanting to increase power line clearings and there associated uproars.

https://www.sierraclub.org/californi...ts-power-lines

It's a tough balancing act. My hope hearkens back to the asphalt / resurfacing technologies gain traction. It doesn't make plastics go away but could decrease the tonnage floating in the oceans and buried in landfills.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by Rick In Madison

Agree on the use of paper over plastics.
However the Californians would most likely complain about the use of paper and destruction of trees. Analogous to the same irony with PGP wanting to increase power line clearings and there associated uproars.

https://www.sierraclub.org/californi...ts-power-lines

It's a tough balancing act. My hope hearkens back to the asphalt / resurfacing technologies gain traction. It doesn't make plastics go away but could decrease the tonnage floating in the oceans and buried in landfills.

Apparently PG&E doesn't realize that trees are renewable - meaning, new ones grow. We don't really have a tree shortage. I suppose they could just do without electricity ....

[johnsonkk]

Apparently the RANA experience isn’t fun these days. Their subcontractor has declared bankruptcy, which won’t help the delayed pickups of the blue cans.

https://www.waff.com/2022/11/30/rana...ick-up-delays/

It’s always been a week behind and now the delays will get worse. One suggestion is to put Christmas lights on the blue cans to spruce up your neighborhood.

[tn_native]

Originally Posted by johnsonkk

Apparently the RANA experience isn’t fun these days. Their subcontractor has declared bankruptcy, which won’t help the delayed pickups of the blue cans.

https://www.waff.com/2022/11/30/rana...ick-up-delays/

It’s always been a week behind and now the delays will get worse. One suggestion is to put Christmas lights on the blue cans to spruce up your neighborhood.

My pickup is scheduled for 3rd Monday. Ours got picked up late yesterday (4th Monday).

I also read that 5 out of their 7 trucks are not running, non-operational awaiting parts.

[RocketDawg]

We're scheduled for the 4th Thursday of the month, which in November was Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully it'll be picked up tomorrow. I expect the same issues around Christmas and New Years, especially given the problems RANA is having right now.

But we can't justifiably complain since it's a free service.