Large Scale Central

Coming soon to your town? aka better start recycling your train

General Discussion
#21

We have three garbage bins - one for normal garbage that may be used as landfill, one for recyclable products and the other for green garden waste. The recycled items are hand sorted on a conveyor. The household waste is dumped as landfill and the green garden waste is composted and sold back to consumers as valuable compost for their gardens.

In so far as recycling, then 25% of all concrete used in construction, is derived from previously laid concrete that is salvaged, crushed and then added to bulk out new concrete. Road surfaces are now partially composed of shredded car/truck tyres and feed for cattle is derived from petroleum distillation byproducts.

#22

Where we live (BC) the city put up a recycle depot. We used to put out 2 full cans a week before. Now we recycle and compost and only put out less than 1/2 can per week. Has to be all good except the city doubled our garbage collection fees.

#23

I don’t think the solution is microchips, fines or anything other than just making it easy for people to do it. If it’s simple, then people will do it. That simplicity has two components. First, there’s the simplicity of recycling in the home, which is pretty easy to get going. We’ve got a big blue container on one side of the steps leading into the garage for recycling, a big green one for trash on the other. Even my 4-year old knows what’s recyclable and what’s not. But the other component has to do with the recycling contractor and what they’re able to take in. If I have to read every plastic bottle to see if it falls into what my recycler can handle, I’m far less prone to bother than if they can handle pretty much anything I throw at them. None of this “if it’s cardboard, we can take it, but not if it’s foil lined, but maybe if it’s plastic coated then foil lined, but not if it’s got grease spots that resemble an ink blot, but those are okay on Tuesdays…” kind of rules. Our recycler’s list of what they can accept grows every year as they upgrade their facilities. It’s great. At this point, pretty much the only things they don’t accept are plastic grocery bags and phone books. When you drive up and down our neighborhood on trash day, it’s clear that people are very willing to recycle. We also recycle all of our old electronics because… it’s simple! We pile them up in the garage until they reach a critical mass, then take them up to the electronics recycling center. Unless it’s a CRT or computer, it’s free!

Yes, it costs us more to have the recycling contractor. But people want to do it because it just makes sense to do it and it’s easy to do. We can’t all convert to solar and get “off the grid,” drive electric cars, or other things, but this is one little thing we can do to help preserve the environment. I live in a state where I can look out and see 100 miles in any direction probably 8 days out of 10. We can tell right away when we get any kind of environmental pollution in our atmosphere. Is recycling alone going to stop that? No, but it’s sure a good reminder as to why we do it.

Later,

K

#24

I find this amusing, since I have been in the Refuse business all my life, I have dealt with the people who want to “make you recycle for the good of others” , I find those people very annoying, you dont see me in your backyard telling you what to do, enough said about that and those kind of people. What people do not understand is it costs money, when my family had our business we had one truck picking up everything, now we have 3 trucks going down the same road picking up refuse, recycling, and yardwaste, is that good for the environment? Good for the roads? Look at the cost for 3 trucks and union drivers. The biggest myth is you make so much money selling that stuff, wrong, you need to close the loop on recycling, but products that have recycled content in it cost more, go figure. There is not enough room and time to discuss all this, just I wish people had more common sense, I have 1 can for 4 people in my household, you know what, I dont make garbage. Get it.

Sorry for the rant, just sick of people trying to make other people do it just because they do it, does not make it right.

Tom H

#25

Kevin,
You hit the nail on the head…make it EASY! At this point we have 6 bins for sorting and three garbage cans. A can in the kitchen for “household waste”, a tote in the ktichen for plastic bottles (not containers) tin cans and clear glass, a box in the laundry room for deposit bottles and cans which includes soda and water bottle but not any other bottles (gatorade or juice for isntance) A tote for newspapers whihc must be tied with string or bagged in a paper bag, a box for magazines and catalogs (glossy paper) which can be tied or bagged the same way and go in the same container they have to be separated. Cardboard and corrugated get tied and set in a different container at the transfer station so another spot in the laundry room. It is now illegal for us “in the country” to burn our own garbage in a burn pit or burn barrel but everyone still does. I still bag and recycle most of that though since it does not burn well. I’ve been thinking of getting a compost barrel going though for us…of course we do not yet have a garden but will probably next year…

Chas

#26

That’s all fine & dandy and I will start recycling once big business starts in doing the same. Ever wonder what’s in those big 50 cu. yd. roll-off dumpsters sitting around a construction site? How about old tires, lumber, appliances, drywall, concrete, copper wire, steel, garbage, old paint buckets, oil filters, batteries etc. It’s cheaper for contractors to pay the dump/landfill fees than it is to sort everything out.

How about big office complexes?? One guy that I know of that owns his own garbage truck says those offices throw out tons of papers every week and they don’t recycle. Try getting the folks in the Sears/Willis Tower or the Hancock building to recycle trash.

How about Wal*Mart?? When they receive something like a damaged riding lawn mower where does it go?? Yep, in the trash as it’s not worth their time & effort to send it back to the manufacturer or shipper…Toss it & move on.

The Gov’t should crack down on those businesses but no…let’s hammer the little guy. What a crock of sh*t.

#27

That is because big business runs the show anyway.
They have a vested interest in getting the general public to CONSUME not recycle.
Here in Australia it has been the same for generations.
Lately it is changing. We have been recycling for many years. Once we had to sort out the different types of plastics but that is not the case any more. Now we can lump in any sort of plastic with metal glass and papers. They get sorted at the waste depot.
We have three bins. General trash, Recyclables and Garden waste.

Now in a few months the Greens will have the balance of power in our Senate (more or less the same as in the USA) federal upper house and you can bet your bottom dollar they are going to extract environmental concessions if the big boys want their support getting legislation through the Parliament.

#28

I can really see this happening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM

#29

Rick, they’ve recently begun re-airing that commercial here, its still funny! I wonder if Cheap Trick did the new version of their old song.

#30
Victor Smith said:
Rick, they've recently begun re-airing that commercial here, its still funny! I wonder if Cheap Trick did the new version of their old song.
I wonder too. One of the best commercials I've seen. Kinda scary at the same time. I work in the safety and compliance arena and it all seems to be pointing in that direction. EPA is getting out of hand.
#31

I had wanted to take plastic bottles for recycling, sometimes water here is a bit odd tasting from the river when it is high or it is low so we can go through a lot then.
But the nearest plastic recycling location is a 30 mile round trip from here.

Is a paper recycling place here in our little town, though.

#32
John Bouck said:
Back in the fifty's us kids would get a penny for small beer and pop bottles and a nickle for larger ones. Any neighborhood small grocery would take them and pay you. You usually bought candy at the store with your money anyway. Why not revive that?
Indeed John, I remember those occasions well. Some will tell you that we have "progressed" since then. I find that quite debatable.

In my neck of the woods the local council has handed over the recycling to a national conglomerate company. It is a fiasco. The town centers are ancient and hilly with no sidewalks in many places and naerrow where they exist: there are also many flights of steps steps. But they still issue wheelie bins and other containers which render the place like a shanty area. (We are supposed to be a tourist area of beauty. aaaargh. They have soon changed that!) I am fortunate: I have a sidewalk and both front and back gardens so I have no issues but many others are not so fortunate. There may be a rebellion - most likely verbal - but natives of this Country rarely take to the streets. Immigrants are more likely to but they are in a small minority here.

We had problems with immigrants (the French and Spanish) when parts of North America were our Colonies lol)

Twenty years ago many British Cities saw riots after the introduction of a Poll Tax (which was soon abolished). The woman Prime Minister of the time had failed to read British history it seems. The Peasants Revolt of 1381 (Richard II) should have forewarned her. lol

#33

I recycle beer and rum, process the liquid and return the water to the source it came from. Its been going on since Cleopatra’s time and should continue for quite a while. Yep, I’m an environmentalist I am.