The recycling poll

When recycling started, there was an effort to get the end
consumer to pre-sort the stuff. That's gone by the wayside,
because people are too lazy. Now, at least, they can be mostly
convinced to separate into "trash" and a largish class of "recycle".
It all gets dumped into one or two big bins in the truck, without
much regard for metal/plastic/glass let alone what COLOR of glass
or TYPE of metal. For a while I saw this and figured the whole
recycling thing was a pork-barrel scam, and everything was going
into the landfill anyways. [Well, in some places it might be, but..]
.
Then I had an opportunity to tour the local FCR recycling plant in
Charlestown. And that's where the part we never see happens --
there *ARE* people being paid to sort recycling. Some amount of
it can be automated -- air blasts to push out paper and plastic
bottles, magnets for steel, crushing and sifting for glass... but
ultimately there are systems of big-nice person conveyer belts with real
live PEOPLE standing next to them, identifying things and picking
them off the belts and tossing them down into the right chutes
next to them. Material comes up from floor level and across an
elevated platform where all this happens, and the chutes empty into
big bins underneath. There are a couple of different stages of
this for some materials. Meanwhile, trucks roll in and out, and
guys with forklifts shuffle bales of stuff [some actually *does*
get pre-sorted, such as white paper bins at offices] and eventually
it all gets to the right places for outbound shipment. The output
of the plant is bales of various materials, rated as to nominal
"purity" since the process isn't completely perfect, which customers
buy in bulk to plow back into manufacturing processes elsewhere.
.
So it really does go somewhere useful. And you wanna know who the
plant manager said buys almost *all* our recycled steel? China.
See the Wal-Mart thread.
.
_H*

 

I want to add that, in addition to recycling, my wife and I are heavily into the first TWO of the 3 R's. Reduce and Re-use.

I have refused to buy some products simply because I was disgusted at the amount of packaging. We also use very little throw-away stuff.

It isn't a lot, but I picture "if everyone did this...."

Think globally...act locally (I don't know who sid that...but I am glad they did)

 

first off.. it's unfortunet that my family uses paper plates and bowls; they also use plastic silverware. it's sad.. i telll them to not be lazy.. but there is no hope. We do recycle... Aluminum, plastic, and glass. We do get a lot of paper.. but it probably gets thrown away.. i don't see.. or we used it to start fire place fires. *shrug*.. it works.

If i had it my way.. i would collect the recycles from the entire block.. take them down and recycle them myself. In recycle laws, you are allowed to go out every week and take them.. but i would feel bad for the people getting paid to do it.

I was thinking of making my own recycling company. I guess it would only really work if i made a trailer for my prius. I don't see my dads F350 making profit since it only gets 13mpg. I wouldn't want to try to put these items in my moms 400h or burden her with using it as a tow vehicle every week.

 

actually Nokia does this already. See their website for more info

and I know it was a "random" choice, but the EU has been effectively mandating this sort of behavior for a while, the random choice would have been better made from US companies...

 

We have a "split" can with recyclables on one side (all plastic, cans, bottles, paper, styrofoam, etc.) and trash on the other. In addition, we have a separate can for "green waste" from the yard ... grass clippings, branches, weeds, wood scraps (but no metal or other non-organics). We use both cans religiously.

Computers, TVs, paints (even latex) and other things considered too dangerous for a landfill like batteries, etc., must be taken to a free recycling center run by the jurisdiction. Larger appliances, like water heaters, etc., are also taken there, but subject to a $10 drop off fee. We follow these rules also.

I think most California communities do this as most of it is required by law. I think there is even a computer-replacement law on the books requiring companies like Dell to provide a way for consumers to dispose of old computers in a safe manner.

Plastic garbage bags are recycled into "plastic wood" products like Trex decking, so you shouldn't be shy about using them if you have a way to recycle them. Reuse of cloth bags is a great thing too; I won't criticize anyone's voluntary choice to reduce/reuse/recycle.

 

Even though Nokia does it, I wish they would have an educational scheme for its customers.
If you’re really motivated to recycle, then you will probably go and search their website to find out if you can recycle your phone, but the information is not even on any of their main pages (or I am blind ) and recycling is voluntary.
The potential customer is oblivious to such scheme.
I am not anti Nokia but I wish the company would put more effort to promote recycling.
This goes for all cell phone manufacturers.

 

Oh wow, thanks for the insight!

 

I think your durn right!!

Ok, so I'll let it out. I dumpster dive regularly.

Why??

well... My sisters brand new solid wood kitchen table came from a dumpster + the 4 matching chairs. Btw, I toted this home in my Prius.

Any party good you could ever want I've gotten. Brand new again.

Numerous curling irons, and blow dryers, some new, some needing minor work.

My dad's 6' long computer work station.... brand new, and yes, dumpster dived.

My very first cd player? yep-- back in the mid ninety's... I had the FIRST one in the house.

All the 6+ disc changers here? I found two at once with the same problem that were trashed cause some idiot loaded two disks in the same slot and jammed it. It was as simple as removing the cover and couple of plastic housing pieces, taking both discs out, and it worked again.

my mini palm corder... all I needed was a power supply and tapes!

My Sony Linear driven arm turn table... + stack of records (on my desk) came from a house down the street-- I was coming one night and said to my dad hey thats a stack of records-- and turntable GO BACK! Woman throwing them out told me to wait cause her son was getting rid of more stuff for it.

Oh my sisters signed Woz apple computer. I don't know how many of them exist, but I'm sure not many. Works too.

I've also dived and pawned vacuum cleaners cause i couldn't use but wanted the money.

No I don't go into locked ones, no I don't dig through rotten fruit and fish heads (though the one time we did wind up with a case of OJ in the middle of winter from a certain store that no longer exists)... its clean if you know what you're doing.

ETA: I'm an other. I recycle and do the above.

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Laugh, but some of my close friends know and others don't b/c of the misconception of doing that. It's not smelly gross, or even dirty.

Course I have been stopped by the cops once. They let me go with little more questioning of "what are you doing" "getting boxes" and they drove off.

I've hooked several of them on doing what I do (thankfully none live around me) just by taking them.

You ought to see my lilly garden in full bloom. All its ever cost me was water.

^_^

[Broken External Image]:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v660/amy_icon/PICT1758.jpg
Theres the table and one chair in the prius... should look familiar.

 

You are so right! I will look and have definitely pull stuff out an dpicked up stuff on the street. One of my favorite lamps was on the street as trash. Took it home and repaired it and it is always noticed by folks in my house.

Our condo only has only paper recycling but I still do cans and bottles and then I leave them out for the folks who dumpster dive for their living money. I try to re-use and get recycled and low packaging items as well.

 

Allow me to quote from the book of Futurama, Chapter 1acv08:

So say we all

 

I mean the phrase was funny..! Heck, I'd be doing it too if there was a place nearby...

Although a rough equivalent, I was at the auto junkyard just this past Saturday to get a windshield washer switch for my gas-guzzling summer car. When I was a teenager, I LOVED going to the junkyard to pull parts off cars....!

 

HFS, dude. That's truely amazing. It's amazing how cheap goods really make people lazy. I mean, my god, throwing out a 6 disc changer because it's jammed?!? Wth? Sounds like you're pretty chuffed about it though. You scored two through someone else's laziness/stupidity. Wow.

 

Letsee - We get a box for plastic and metal, a box for bottles and a box for paper/cardboard. We get a big can for yardwaste. We wash and sort and make sure everything gets to where it needs to be.

We also store stuff in copy paper boxes from my husband's office.

And there is the computer desk I'm sitting at - The top is new (a solid core door with formica top), but the brackets that attach it to the wall were a dumpster diving. The pedestals are actually desk returns - one was bought at a used office furniture store. and the other was free from one of my husband's surplus electronic stores. We got a nice filing cabinet free from there too. The chair I sit on, we bought from the surplus store (it was too nice for them to just give away).

The rest of the house isn't very different. We do a lot of dumpster diving and buying from surplus and Salvation Army (they actually get nicer more gently used furniture).

We'd rather spend our money on computers, travel, and nice cars .

Lisa

 

I Forgot to Mention!

Another Important Part!

All the paper I use in our printers in the house has recycled paper! I check when ever I buy paper (even the fancy photo kind) and my first choice is the one made with Recycled Paper!

I'm forever looking for items made with recylced paper or plastic or whatever, so that there is a need for the stuff I'm throwing into my recycled bins.

Even one of my t-shirts is made from recycled soda bottles. The material is a nice soft rayon feel to it. Not surprisiing, rayon is an artificial material which starts out very much like melted plastic.

Don't forget to look for "Made from Recycled Materials" when you buy new things too! B)

Lisa

 

We recycle everything that our trash hauler takes, which is nearly everything, plus a few things I have to take to the transfer station. Basically, anything recyclable that 'drifts through our transom' [bonus points for naming the movie from which that was paraphrased]. Plus, all the recyclables we find when we clean our section of 'adopted' county road.

I was raised to recycle from very early childhood. At my house, we would get reprimanded for throwing away the foil wrapper around a stick of gum! Seems silly, and it is, a bit, but it is my parents' philosophy in a nutshell: you CAN make a difference, and every little bit DOES help. I was lucky.

 

Hmmm.... Transom... that's roughly the same as a Taffrail, right? Probably a sail boat not a square rigged vessel... Now I've reached the end. No idea but I'm intrigued... More clues?

 

Well, our old recycling bins were good, but we recently got a new 'holds-all' rolling bin. It 'goes to 11'.