Back Story: We are required to recycle and separate different colors of glass and metal/plastic at work. Some people who end up doing this task do not understand or care why we do this. This lead to a reminder from several of my bosses of why we separate such things. Boss same age as me: "You are a hippie, so you should care about recycling." Me: "Actually, it takes electricity to recycle, and in general fossil fuels are used to create said electricity, thus negating the time it takes for glass or general metals to decompose." I aint saying we should not reuse or try to save the Earth, but general cities do nothing but waste power and resources being "environmental." Glass and metals break down, though slowly in their processed state, but they still become part of the soil.
Well, I think that would depend on just how much energy (of all kinds) is needed to recycle a bottle into a new bottle v.s. how much energy is needed to make a bottle from scratch, for example. If recycling uses more energy than mining up the silica and whatever else is needed to make glass and making the bottle from scratch then it's a net loss, but if it uses less than making one from scratch then it's a net gain. asssit:
Not only does it use fuel to recycle, but it also leaves less stuff in the landfills for civilizations to mine after the apocalypse. In the far future, when the aliens find my daughter's "non-degradable biological information containment capsule" (crap-filled disposable diaper wrapped in 3 layers of plastic bags), they will not only be able to use her DNA to build a master race but also clone various strains of bud from the plant matter I stashed in the bags. Now THAT's thinking of the future. Even the aliens will be all like, "Damn, that Fomorian was really a forward thinker... Is that a Cheez-It molecule?" :bong-2:
no, it's not a perfect system, but in many cases it's better, and there is room for improvement. for example, to recycle an aluminum can takes 96% less energy than to manufacture that same can from ore. granted, it's probably the highest one, but there are many others that are cheaper, quicker, and less energy to recycle. although i am a self-admitted greenie-weenie, it still makes sense to me from a business standpoint. to be a successful business, in many cases, you need to find the most inexpensive, quickest, easiest method to make a product. in most cases, it is recycling material vs. creating from scratch. i don't know why MORE production companies don't recycle. not only would it save money, but with the current trends, would gain them business from others who are jumping on the "green train" GTWT :XXhippylove:
You're right--ti's ridiculous. The ONLY material that MUST be recycled is goddam PLASTIC!! 1000years from now (IF there IS a thousand years from now on Earth) archaelogists will call this the Plastic Age. Instead of stately pyramids...WE will leave behind us great, permanent piles of our plastic garbage for future generations to remember us by. Oh, wont they be proud? Dixie
You got that right! Those aliens will say, "Those humans must have really LOVED their kids shit...look how carefully they wrapped it in plastic to guarantee the crap would never be forgotten!" jesus.... Dixie
You know what REALLY kills me? That most of the "green" products are sold in PLASTIC bottles. Jesus F. Christ. Maybe it's just me...but when the entire oceans are so full of plastic garbage that I can practically WALK to Japan....is it maybe time to say, "Whoa...we may have a problem, here."? I mean...is it REALLY that "inconvenient" to REfill our plastic water bottles from the goddam tap? Dixie
all this talk about leaving this stuff behind because of the cost of recycleing reminded me of something and I had to laugh. We have a phos fertilizer plant here that closed down after about 40 years in production. All the ground water is polluted from the surface ground. I have a friend who is a envirenmental engineer that told me there is so much phos in the surface soil if you kick it with your boot it will start the end of your boot on fire. They have a recycle machine for taking the phos out of the surface soil but the cost of doing it is very high. So when the epa told them to clean it up they closed the factory. Capped all there holding ponds. dismantled the factory and have it guarded with no intent on ever cleaning the place up. The ground is useless for several hundred years. Apparently they are being fined every day for leaving it but it is cheaper to pay the fine than clean up the mess! Nice hugh Teamster6
hey lion do you get fined if you dont separate the proper colors and recycle???.... recycled goods generally cost more so im not all pro recycle...hell landfills make natural gas as they break down, but i do recycle....not cause i really care about the earth....i dunno....i jus do it, but now after reading the fomorians post im starting to rethink:roffl: ...and all this talk about plastic makes me wanna bust out the george...for those that didnt watch the first time i linked it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw and always watch out for them "green" people....theyre all watermelons i say.....theyre appear green on the outside but are all red on the inside :roffl: .
My thoughs.....its Mob owned and i dont like working for free. Its bullshit....unless of course i get my slice of the pieasssit:
If we don't separate shit the right way, not only will they fine us and not pick up said mixed bin, but then we have to throw it away in our dumpster, which technically could also cause us a fee. Not only does the recycling itself cost fossil fuels, but also does the pick up and transportation. Honestly I was more pissed that someone would assume that because I have long hair and am pro-pot would mean I am some kind of recycling activist and wanted to pull out a counter argument to confuse my completely ignorant co-worker. Throwing that argument out to GK helps me understand my own views a lot better. I am not against recycling, but I am pretty sure we should concentrate on things like microbes that eat trash and produce energy, and not having to completely recreate metal to make a new Dr. Pepper can.
Denver has made it really easy. It's free. We have a big purple rolling bin that goes out to the curb every other week. We just toss ALL of our recyclable stuff in the bin and roll it out to the curb. No sorting. Big truck rolls up, arm grabs bin and dumps contents in truck. repeat :thumbs-up:
yes you dont seperate tho guess what.... you pay taxes that pay someone to do it for you, and at an exagerated price. Heres an idea..... start a revolution, dont buy anything with any UNRECYCLABLE parts/pieces. LOL is that even possible?
Well, that's what I was talking about. Sure, it takes energy to recycle, but if the energy it takes is less than the energy it would take to build the same thing from scratch then you get some net energy gain from recycling, don't you? Seperating trash, or not, is a seperate, sub-issue, imo. Back home, before I came to Japan. We had one blue bin for all the recyclables. It was so easy. Here, it's a huge pain in the ass. Not just recyclables, but all garbage. There are lots of different groups and they all go out on different days. Cans might be 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, newspapers every 4th Friday, etc... Like Lion was saying, if it's not sorted properly, it doesn't get picked up. But, on top of that, you can't put it out until the morning of pick-up, like 5 - 7:30, thereabouts. And, there are people from the neighborhood waiting there at the trash drop off spot waiting in the morning to make sure you sorted and did everything else right. It's actually a little more complicated where I live than what that sign shows, except for the colored bags. Jeez, how ridiculous. I just let my mother-in-law take care of the household junk. All my beer cans, liquor bottles, etc... I bring to my office and throw it away there, as since it's a private company any day is ok and there is only two categories, recyclables and not. But, even though the Japanese are really strict about their garbage and recycling, they still do lots of stupid wasteful stuff like leaving their cars running and overpackaging is a big problem, as well. Like, you get a bag of snack crackers and inside there are 10 more little packages of crackers and when you eat them all you leave a big pile of plastic and it's not even that much food, for example.
I agree. Also, in recycling, they also burn the plastic materials to form new products like plastic chairs, table and the like. This means we are recycling but we're still harming the environment.
Yup, thats how the UK does it too. All recycleable material in 1 bin. Im all for recycling. I dont have a clue whether or not it uses less energy or if it benefits the enviroment on a whole, but it does employ a lot of ppl. And here in the UK we dont have much room for land fill. Noone wants to live next to a landfill site or incinerator.
