That's sad.

AgGrad99 said:

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I'm forced to pay for a recycle bin, every month, by my municipality. I just throw everything in both bins, regardless of the content.

I'm also forced to have all sorts of recycling options around the office, and our company has to submit an annual recycling plan to the city of Austin (Universal Recycling Ordinance). They also require us to have a trash bin, and recycle bin outside our building. Costs us an extra $170 per month.

https://www.austintexas.gov/uro

All of this, and it makes zero difference, other than raise costs.

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Agreed. In the old days I had to pay extra if there was too much trash. Now with the recycle bin we all have an extra trash receptacle.

Use landfills. Then extract methane. Or turn into beautiful parks.

Rapier108 said:

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Plastic recycling is pretty much a scam. If we want to recycle it, we should turn it into fuel oil and burn it for power generation.

Paper and metal are much more recyclable than plastic.

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Metal, maybe. Paper products should just be thrown away. It requires harmful chemicals to clean the paper, and you aren't "saving the trees" by recycling it, because trees are grown and farmed for paper products and fewer trees would be planted.

My big green recycling bin has sat empty for the 15 years we've lived here.
Oh, and Stossel is a national treasure

BaileyAg said:

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My big green recycling bin has sat empty for the 15 years we've lived here.
Oh, and Stossel is a national treasure

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I painted the top of mine black a few years back to match my regular garbage can; the top was blue. They are city provided. I use both for trash now.

I used my recycling bin as a place to throw plastic, papers, and metal. I don't care where it goes.

Plastics should honestly be burned for fuel in garbage burners.

AgGrad99 said:

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I'm forced to pay for a recycle bin, every month, by my municipality. I just throw everything in both bins, regardless of the content.

I'm also forced to have all sorts of recycling options around the office, and our company has to submit an annual recycling plan to the city of Austin (Universal Recycling Ordinance). They also require us to have a trash bin, and recycle bin outside our building. Costs us an extra $170 per month.

https://www.austintexas.gov/uro

All of this, and it makes zero difference, other than raise costs.

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Buy a used bin, paint it blue, then never use it.

waitwhat? said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Plastic recycling is pretty much a scam. If we want to recycle it, we should turn it into fuel oil and burn it for power generation.

Paper and metal are much more recyclable than plastic.

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Metal, maybe. Paper products should just be thrown away. It requires harmful chemicals to clean the paper, and you aren't "saving the trees" by recycling it, because trees are grown and farmed for paper products and fewer trees would be planted.

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Most trees that are harvested are not sent directly to paper mills; instead, they are typically sent to other primary wood manufacturing facilities, such as plywood and lumber plants. Wood chips, which are a byproduct of these processes, are then transported to paper mills via trucks and railcars.

Oriented Strand Board (OSB) plants receive truckloads of timber and produce wafers onsite to create their products.

I worked with the Plant Manager at the Champion Paper mill in Sheldon, and he told me they relied heavily on recycled paper in their paper production processes.

ABATTBQ87 said:

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waitwhat? said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Plastic recycling is pretty much a scam. If we want to recycle it, we should turn it into fuel oil and burn it for power generation.

Paper and metal are much more recyclable than plastic.

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Metal, maybe. Paper products should just be thrown away. It requires harmful chemicals to clean the paper, and you aren't "saving the trees" by recycling it, because trees are grown and farmed for paper products and fewer trees would be planted.

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Most trees that are harvested are not sent directly to paper mills; instead, they are typically sent to other primary wood manufacturing facilities, such as plywood and lumber plants. Wood chips, which are a byproduct of these processes, are then transported to paper mills via trucks and railcars.

Oriented Strand Board (OSB) plants receive truckloads of timber and produce wafers onsite to create their products.

I worked with the Plant Manager at the Champion Paper mill in Sheldon, and he told me they relied heavily on recycled paper in their paper production processes.

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Interesting. Good intel. So then reduced recycling of paper would result in more trees being planted (and probably higher prices for paper products, to be fair).

There's still the chemical cleaning factor that makes recycling paper less than "green".

So then reduced recycling of paper would result in more trees being planted (and probably higher prices for paper products, to be fair).

Pulpwood, which is between 15-20 years old, is used in both pulp/paper and OSB plants. These plantations are on a shorter harvesting rotation, so more trees are planted to provide the fiber to plants.

Larger diameter timber, 25+ years old, is used in plywood and lumber mills.

I used to care about recycling after having some projects that I had visit within or adjacent to landfills that seemed to grow taller by the week.

Fast forward a few years and I learn that most "co-mingled recycling" ends up in a landfill anyway so I just gave up.

The only thing I separate these days are aluminum cans and plastic drink bottles that I have to pay a deposit on (thanks Oregon) that I take back to a collection center to get my dime back. Every few months I draw some cash out that account and take the family out for a nice mediocre meal.

#usernamedoesn'tcheckout

Age with others...
Plastics should be cleanly incinerated for energy. Cardboard and paper should be economically evaluated.

There's real savings in the metals.

Glass has zero economic savings to recycle vs create new. Clean silica sand and waste glass melt the same.

For the consumer- aluminum recycling is the only that makes sense.

rocky the dog said:

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I support the right of sea turtles to choose extreme body modification.

Can we go back the paper grocery bags? Please?

Don't care. It gets me an extra trash day per week.

We have two cans. One for trash and one for extra trash.

So, glass half full is that those of us who get recycling cans get double capacity. I just hope the city never acknowledges reality and takes away our recycling can.

I watched a documentary about 15 years ago about some guy that invented a machine that would take garbage and melt the plastics or anything that contained petroleum based products back down into re-usable oil. Seemed like a good ideal for landfills and maybe lucrative for the owner of the machine. Probably got shut down by the green freaks because the machine put off some smoke/ gasses...

IIIHorn said:

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Dude was right

I use the recycling bin for cardboard boxes just because they otherwise take up a lot of space in the regular trash.

Seven Costanza said:

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I use the recycling bin for cardboard boxes just because they otherwise take up a lot of space in the regular trash.

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Ditto. Which makes me insane. Online shopping requires that two bins be present.

Aston04 said:

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For the consumer- aluminum recycling is the only that makes sense.

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I take my milk bottles to the store

Will someone pay you for your trash? It's recyclable.

I wish we didn't use plastic in every damn thing so I didn't have to toss it. But it's a superior product. It would be nice if we just had an honest conversation about what can and should be recycled but it most cases, it's too expensive. We have too much need and too many people to change how things are done. People are lazy as **** and cheap. If I have to pick between recycling a drum or used oil and antifreeze where I'll be charged, I'll just kick it over in the pasture or dump it down the drain. Just how it is.

My buddy puts his in a container in his truck and has a hose that runs under the truck. He just opens the valve and drains it onto the road. He can drain 50 gallons in a couple of 40 minute drives to the office.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be smart and responsible and preserve the planet but if we can really fit all of our trash somewhere ok and it will handle 1,000 years of waste, then it doesn't matter. Society likely won't even be around in 1000 years if we're being totally honest. Probably won't make 500.

Recycling is one of the most wasteful things we do. So many people waste time (our most valuable resource) washing their trash, sorting it, and putting it to the curb. It's then picked up with a diesel truck on a separate route, supposedly sent to a sorting center where people are paid to sort the recyclables and send all the items to separate places to be recycled, but most likely trashed. It's all a big farce.

SociallyConditionedAg said:

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washing their trash

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To keep the bears out of it.

Or so I've been told. I have never heard of bear encounters anywhere near where I live. I guess it is people like him keeping them away by washing out cans and bottles.