Recycling

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The more I read about plastic recycling the more I think it was done with good intentions but will never work with current plastics.

So in my single stream container will go cardboard and metal and aluminum. I will return the soda bottles to the store.

I do not send any yard waste to the landfill and that is (combined with food waste) 24% of landfill.
 
My Towns Recycler only collects plastics that are 1 or 2 / along with paper and metal.

The Town also goes around every week collecting Yard Waste.
It's ground up and the Residents can go pick up Mulch any time for free.

The triangle symbol on packaging contains a number which dictates what the plastic is made of.
But, the three corners also stand for:
1) Reduce
2) Reuse
3) Recycle
And we are surpose to do them in that order.
 
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What the town collects, and what actually ends up being recycled are two different things.

For one, folks in my hood often put their recyclable plastic bottles in a plastic bag tied with a knot. I am fairly certain they pass along the inspection belt and continue on to the landfill. The inspectors pull out what appears to be clean and a product that can be easily recycled with commercial value, the rest goes to the landfill. There is a lot of more of "feel good" recycling by folks than is actually never realized.
 
I saw a blurb the other day about a guy from MIT who said we should just bury plastic. For now at least, maybe someday we could dig it up and it'd have value then--maybe still sort it, but otherwise just bury it. Otherwise think of all the fuel and energy spent on trying to recycle it? I plan to continue to recycle #1 and #2 as my town takes it.

Paper, glass, cans seem easily enough recycled. I looked a while ago at glass vs aluminum and it seemed rather strange but there wasn't a consensus as to which was better. I was surprised as glass is heavy but apparently new aluminum is still required, and that takes far more energy to refine than you'd think.

I think out on our seacoast there is a town or two toying with styrofoam bans, presumably just for takeout, and I wonder how well that will go. Not sure what the cost differential is, for styrofoam vs some sort of paper product.
 
Plastic Bags and Plastic Straws are the next to go.

I believe part of the solution will be in the use of Bamboo.
I see it used as Flooring, Cutting Boards etc.
Fast growing and biodegradable.

Styrofoam packaging could be recycled but is sooo light, even a truck-load isn't worth much.
 
We collect cans at work and copper radiator cores. Nothing else since scrap is so low right now it's not worth the hassle. I loaded an 02 Mercury sable onto my trailer and hauled it in. I got a whopping $73 for the whole car.
 
Since the Chinese restricted scrap paper and plastic import to China, our garbage pickup takes all the boxboard from the recycling bin and throws it in the truck destined to the landfill. I only bother putting metal in the recycling bin, as the rest goes to the landfill anyway.
 
Originally Posted by supton
I think out on our seacoast there is a town or two toying with styrofoam bans, presumably just for takeout, and I wonder how well that will go. Not sure what the cost differential is, for styrofoam vs some sort of paper product.


A lot of people (including local goverments) don't understand how to properly analyze the COMPLETE environmental impact (carbon/otherwise) of products, nor do they understand the economic forces at play. Have you even been to a paper mill? Don't even pretend for a second that's somehow more "environmentally friendly" than the equivalent plastic container factory.

Also, check out this Planet Money podcast for some interesting results from plastic bag bans: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/09/711181385/are-plastic-bag-bans-garbage

It's not what the disposable thing is made of that's the problem. It's that its disposable, period. We bring our own re-usable glass pyrex containers for doggie bags when we go out to dinner. No joke.
 
Some effort should be made to see how we can utilize the plastic waste before going into the landfill.

I saw a recent blurb on the television where a company in India is shredding the plastic into fine bits and mixing it into asphalt for roads. Supposedly it is more durable than asphalt alone.

Ideas like that should be looked into.
 
Recycling has turned out to be a scam. It was collected and then shipped in containers to poor countries to be left in a landfill.

All the while the collectors in the US charged customers extra and got government grants.
 
Originally Posted by benjayman227
A lot of people (including local goverments) don't understand how to properly analyze the COMPLETE environmental impact (carbon/otherwise) of products, nor do they understand the economic forces at play. Have you even been to a paper mill? Don't even pretend for a second that's somehow more "environmentally friendly" than the equivalent plastic container factory.

Yes, been to one or two paper mills. Not been to a plastics factory though.

I don't doubt that the powers that be can't do math--they can't even balance a checkbook, so I wouldn't trust them to figure out anything more complicated than that.
 
Originally Posted by MasterSolenoid
Plastic Bags and Plastic Straws are the next to go.

I believe part of the solution will be in the use of Bamboo.
I see it used as Flooring, Cutting Boards etc.
Fast growing and biodegradable.

Styrofoam packaging could be recycled but is sooo light, even a truck-load isn't worth much.


Plastic grocery bags have been gone for me for years. How hard is it to carry 2 or 3 large canvas bags into the store to put groceries in. If you cant do that simple task there is no hope for the future of mankind.

And Who uses straws?

Drive up coffee houses? Really insane.

Ban them all. Done
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Plastic grocery bags have been gone for me for years. How hard is it to carry 2 or 3 large canvas bags into the store to put groceries in. If you cant do that simple task there is no hope for the future of mankind.

And Who uses straws?

Drive up coffee houses? Really insane.

Ban them all. Done

You should move to Seattle. Eating with your hands is the next step.
 
Only certain types of plastics can be used to mix in with road tar. They would have to be culled from the waste stream for use. And the plastic content is limited to 1% of the paving mix. That would still be a lot of manual labor per mile of road.

Aluminum cans are very desirable for remelters. The chemistry has the tightest control of any aluminum product, so the remelt would have a very predictable chemistry for secondary use.

If there is ever a doubt of whether something is recyclable, it is better to put it with the regular garbage. All too often waste streams are contaminated and the whole truckload must be thrown out.

I've started using canvas bags for shopping. I have way more plastic bags than I know what to do with.

I try to incinerate all paper goods like milk containers, cereal boxes, packaging, and junk mail. The air has a better chance of cleaning itself than the landfill.
 
Most contaminated plastics can be converted to diesel fuel at about 97% efficiency with very simple crude technology. (there are people who do it at home, in Japan a countertop machine is sold for the purpose)

It likely makes more sense to do this than recycle #2-7 plastics given the energy outlay and the amount of spoilage.

#1 & #3 should be all but banned given the many issues with effective re-use
 
I am honestly now curious where all my single stream recycling ends up but I am inclined to believe it actually ends up recycled. Reason being my locality stopped accepting glass a little over 2-3 years ago and posted big "No Glass" stickers on all the containers, if all this ended up in a landfill anyways why go through the effort of printing and applying hundreds of thousands of "No Glass" stickers?
 
Originally Posted by pezzy669
if all this ended up in a landfill anyways why go through the effort of printing and applying hundreds of thousands of "No Glass" stickers?


Probably for the same reason why there's a "caution, hot" label on coffee cups.
 
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Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted by MasterSolenoid
Plastic Bags and Plastic Straws are the next to go.

I believe part of the solution will be in the use of Bamboo.
I see it used as Flooring, Cutting Boards etc.
Fast growing and biodegradable.

Styrofoam packaging could be recycled but is sooo light, even a truck-load isn't worth much.


Plastic grocery bags have been gone for me for years. How hard is it to carry 2 or 3 large canvas bags into the store to put groceries in. If you cant do that simple task there is no hope for the future of mankind.

And Who uses straws?

Drive up coffee houses? Really insane.

Ban them all. Done


I use the plastic grocery bags (the ones with no holes) for used cat litter.
 
The Walmart / Target plastic bags are great trash bags for the bathroom, bedroom , office. And they're great to carry around to pick up the dog poop. Instead of having specific dog poop bags made. And slipping in to boots for winter.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
The more I read about plastic recycling the more I think it was done with good intentions but will never work with current plastics.

So in my single stream container will go cardboard and metal and aluminum. I will return the soda bottles to the store.

I do not send any yard waste to the landfill and that is (combined with food waste) 24% of landfill.


The county my wife and I moved to does not have any sort of recycling. The country my parents live in just North have a weekly deal that comes out of their taxes whether they use it or not. After hearing the Chinese no longer accept our recycling because of it containing too much trash makes me wonder whether or not anyone recycles anything at all. Probably depends on the current price of crude.

Either way, I just haul our junk to my parents and either use their can or their neighbors. The trash service we bought at the house is a bi weekly thing and even then the container is ~75% full. Yard waste is burned in our burn pile once a month or whenever we feel like having a fire.

Last I knew, glass such as Bud Light or Coorse bottles is not worth the hassle of recycling and is thrown away.
 
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