Reduce Reuse Recycle... Remember?

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milefile

milefile

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I can remember when I was in school there was a big push for recycling. Most towns and cities implemented programs, and everybody seemed to be on the bandwagon.

From a purely rational standpoint, recycling is a great idea. As long as the technology is there to do it effectively, we should. It only helps keep garbage down, conserves trees, etc. Sure, it has it's limits, but every little bit helps. And I'll admit that I refuse to wash my garbage so it can be recycled.

But I have noticed recently this rash of what I see as totally wastefull new products. One that comes to mind right away are these disposable cutting surfaces for your kitchen counter. What ever happened to a cutting board? And these Swiffer things. More garbage every time you clean your floor. Another example is excessive packaging. Lunchables are a good example of it.

I'm definitely not some big environmentalist, but it seems any reasonable, thinking person with a conscience can see the trend, a backward motion toward reckless waste when we know better.

Can you think of anymore examples? Does this bother you, too?
 
I make it a point to throw garbage around the place. It improves the economy if the city hires a worker to clean it up. Yep.

I wouldn't say that the lack of recycling bothers me, but it wil probably be a serious problem in the future when we run out of place to dump the trash. Hopefully I'll be gone by then.

When is Earth Day?
 
I've noticed it creeping back in, too, but I'm more surprised than horrified.

Lunchables do indeed have excessive packaging (and they ain't cheap, neither) but the bulk of it is HDPE which can get recycled with milk jugs (which we do).

We recycle newspapers/magazines/catalogs, milk/water/soda jugs, metal cans, and glass bottles. It isn't curbside, either, which means I have to sort it and haul it to the self-service center
 
Originally posted by Klostrophobic
Hopefully I'll be gone by then.
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I was just talking to a co-worker about how I used to think to myself . . .

"I just hope the world remains a bearable place to live until I die. After that I don't care."

Recent events have made me unable to keep that perspective in good conscience.
 
Originally posted by Klostrophobic
You need to get rid of your conscience. As do I.
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ROFL,... there's a contradicton in terms.

I recommend a tax write-off for each pound of recyclable matterial you give back. There has to be more insentive than "It will make for a better world".
 
Originally posted by Klostrophobic
I make it a point to throw garbage around the place. It improves the economy if the city hires a worker to clean it up. Yep.
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And I thought I was the only one that thought this way. IMO, it keeps unemployment numbers down. If I keep throwing trash out the window, their will always be a job available to pick it up. Hell, I might lose my job one day, and might be the one thanking myself for providing a great inbetween job.
 
I don't have the swiffer, I don't think. Actually, I might, or, my Mom might, if you want to get technical. But anywho, mops and brooms work wonders.
Oh, another thing that creates a lot of trash:
disposible daipers(sp, I know it has to be wrong.) What happened to cloth daipers?
 
Originally posted by milefile
But I have noticed recently this rash of what I see as totally wastefull new products. One that comes to mind right away are these disposable cutting surfaces for your kitchen counter. What ever happened to a cutting board? And these Swiffer things. More garbage every time you clean your floor. Another example is excessive packaging. Lunchables are a good example of it.

I'm definitely not some big environmentalist, but it seems any reasonable, thinking person with a conscience can see the trend, a backward motion toward reckless waste when we know better.
Click to expand...
I for one hate waste. Anything that's excessive and useless is out in my books. I have enough junk already, I figure. That's why I don't buy much of anything but food and gas anymore.

Hmmm, I thought I was the only one who thought this way: There are a whole lot of disposable items for sale lately. Everywhere I go, I see so much wasteful crap that has such a limited lifespan. The consumer attitude lately is, "Oh well, I'll just buy another..." Industries takes advantage of this by offering us poorly-made products at a cheap price. Also, we're getting lazier because so many items in our life are easier to operate than ever before. Heck, we don't even finish paying off a new car before we're on to the next one!

Well, the example of disposable cutting sheets is a perfect one: all you have to do for proper food safety is to wash your cutting board with soap and hot water, wash it off with a clean towel and you'll be fine. But instead of "doing all that work" you can simply buy a wax-and-plastic-coated paper to do the same and save time.

Every ad claims you will save time and energy with this new product and that one; it's aperfect lure because everyone looks to do that. However, sometimes it comes at the cost of the environment and your billfold.
 
Originally posted by pupik
But instead of "doing all that work" you can simply buy a wax-and-plastic-coated paper to do the same and save time.
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Right, so instead of doing all that "work," all you have to do is work to get money to get the gas to drive to the store and work to get more money to throw down a bottomlesspit any time you want to cut up an apple.
 
Or you could just rub the apple on your shirt, and eat it until you have a highly-biodegradeable core remaining.
 
Originally posted by pupik
Or you could just rub the apple on your shirt, and eat it until you have a highly-biodegradeable core remaining.
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Or, realistically, just wipe it with a cloth towel, then eat it...
 
We're very poor at recycling in the UK. I think that one of the useful things that the government could do is to subsidise pre-sorted waste, simply by giving us divided bins that facilitate simultaneous dumping of paper, glass, aluminium and general waste.

One of the main problems is that recycling is more expensive than making from scratch, which is why we need government subsidy. (In my view, governments should do more to facilitate programs that are in society's good, rather than the nest-feathering they normally do).

Sadly, it'll probably never happen. I bet we could have the best recycling system in the EU if the government invested as much as they have done in the current conflict.

But let's not go there...
 
Warning: this is a garbage post.

Every week, I get recycling pick-up along with my regular garabage days. We pay about ~$1.50 a month for recycling, whereas the other ~$15 of the trash bill is the regular stuff.

They take newspaper, plastic PETE 1 plastics, HDPE 2 plastics, as well as green, brown, or clear glass

However, canned soda (rather than bottles) has become more expensive even though aluminum is not all that rare despite all these recycling programs. Go figure.
 
It suprises me than all costal states dont have deposits on their bottles. We pay 10 cents per bottle/can that we buy,... as incentive not to throw it away.
 
They've done it in many New England states for some time now; you paid a 5 or 10 cent deposit on every can or bottle as an incentive to recycle. I was told it worked rather well.

20+ years ago, my cousins and I would go to a beach outside Boston, where they had a recycling machine right next to the soda dispensers. We'd clean up the beach and natural area around it by picking up cans and bottles; toss them into the machine (bar-code to the side), out would pop a nickel after it crushed it.

So an 8-year-old could make some good money in an hour; cleaning up a nice little spot.
 
Yep,. we used to hang out under the grand-stands at the local race way. We'd battle other can-whores and such :lol: Could walk outta there with over 50 bucks on a saturday night though :)
 
There's a 5-cent deposit in Delaware (yes we're a coastal state), at least on soda bottles etc. No idea about milk jugs. I've never claimed a single nickel back and never knew anyone who did. I wouldn't even know where to do it.

We don't have curbside recycling here, but there are unnattended recycling depots all around. I use ours monthly for HDPE, glass, paper, and metal cans.
 
Think about it duke,.. you pay 5 cents per bottle,... you drink say one a day. Thats 35 cents a week,... or 20 bucks a year. Now if your a 4-5 pop a day drinker like myself, then at 5 cents,.. thats 100 bucks a year. Here in Michigan, they nail us for 10 cents per,... so, I'm not ready to give away 200 bucks a year, we just return them at any convienience store or gas station.
 

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