JillUser JillUser

Do You Recycle?

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Do You Recycle?

If so, how?

from JoeUser Forums

I have two young, very imaginative boys so one method of recycling in my home is giving them stuff to "create" with.  Creamer bottles, milk cartons, oatmeal containers, they all can become very cool space ships!  They use things in ways no adult would ever imagine.  It is fascinating to watch and great exercise for their brains.

We have a great recycling store in Ann Arbor called the Scrapbox.  People and businesses can donate materials and then you can come in, purchase a paper bag and fill it with treasures for only $2.  The last $2 I spent there provided my sons with months worth of creating.  There are factory reject parts, parachute scraps, scraps from paper, plastic and foam products.  All sorts of goodies that send the imagination soaring.  Luckily our elementary school has been taking advantage of this wonderful resource.

We also have curbside recycling.  I do as much of this as possible but get discouraged sometimes because I have caught the garbage guys just dumping the recyclables into the compactor rather than leaving it for the recycling truck.  I keep trying though and have made a couple of calls to the waste management center.

I recall my most discouraging experience with recycling.  I was in high school and our french club was trying to raise money for a trip to Quebec.  Our teacher was an extreme tree hugger (I don't mean anything negative by that.  She was a very wonderful person) who lived in a barn and ate only vegan food unless it was brownies :)  Well, she had the admirable idea to collect newspaper to take to the recycling center.  Unfortunately she didn't do her homework on how much we would get paid and it turned out that 4 van loads (which was equivalent to an entire weekend of driving all over northern MI) only got us about $10.  We spent way more than that on gas alone!

I don't composte though which is something we did growing up.  But I grew up in farm country and now live in suburbia.  I think farmers are probably the experts on recycling.  Farmers and people who lived during the depression.  My grandma reuses and saves everything.  She even washes and reuses sandwich bags!  She has a lot of time on her hands though :)

It is hard to believe what a disposable society we have now.  There is disposable everything now.  I even heard they came up with a disposable cell phone!

misc
26,633 views 39 replies
Reply #26 from JoeUser Forums Top
"The earth has been through much worse than this. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, the reversal of the magnetic poles....and we think a little bit of plastic is going to destroy the planet? When the earth gets tired of us, it'll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we're gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, 'cause that's what it does. It's a self-correcting system.

The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic.

The earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, "Why are we here?"

Plastic...asshole.

Besides, people who claim to be concerned about the planet aren't really concerned about the entire planet, they're really only concerned with their little piece of it. They're afraid that they might be inconvenienced." - George Carlin

Everything came from the earth and everything will return to the earth sooner or later. Some people are just too impatient to wait. Ask yourselves this: Who's in charge of the recycling program?
Reply #27 from JoeUser Forums Top
I should have you and your kids come over to my basement. I've been saving stuff for the Scrap Box for awhile and it's starting to get out of control. I have LOTS of egg cartons, for example.
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Reply #28 from JoeUser Forums Top
I do as much of this as possible but get discouraged sometimes because I have caught the garbage guys just dumping the recyclables into the compactor rather than leaving it for the recycling truck.

I know this is going to disappoint all those who fastidiously separate out all their recycleables, but at least here what happens is that everything gets thrown together and then mechanically separated on a giant rubbish floor. So I don't feel bad about throwing the odd milk jug in the trash! They also burn the burnables for energy...

Reply #29 from JoeUser Forums Top
everything gets thrown together and then mechanically separated on a giant rubbish floor


Not here. We actually have separate landfill and recycling centers. Usually the recycling truck comes by and it has separate compartments for plastic, glass and paper products. Sometimes the garbage truck will come first and be buttheads by just dumping the recycling bin in the compactor.
Reply #30 from JoeUser Forums Top

I know this is going to disappoint all those who fastidiously separate out all their recycleables, but at least here what happens is that everything gets thrown together and then mechanically separated on a giant rubbish floor.

We have a great recycling program around here, and it is run by a completely different company than any of the trash companies. 

Reply #31 from JoeUser Forums Top
the garbage guys just dumping the recyclables into the compactor rather than leaving it for the recycling truck.


Who better to know that recycling is bullshit?
Reply #32 from JoeUser Forums Top
Who better to know that recycling is bullshit?


Yeah, your average garbage man is really up on ecological preservation. Please! I've actually been to waste management conferences before, have you Icono? Recycling isn't bullshit but you can recycle bullshit...it's called fertilizer

Anyone who is against recycling will be hard pressed to convince me that using something once and sticking it a landfill is better than reusing and recycling.
Reply #33 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sometimes I pedal up the same hill twice.  I suppose that's recycling.
Reply #34 from JoeUser Forums Top
Anyone who is against recycling will be hard pressed to convince me that using something once and sticking it a landfill is better than reusing and recycling.


Resusing something is fine, but the idea that it's going ot harm the planet is b.s.
Reply #35 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sometimes I pedal up the same hill twice. I suppose that's recycling.


Nyuck nyuck!

Resusing something is fine, but the idea that it's going ot harm the planet is b.s.


What about conserving energy and resources?
Reply #36 from JoeUser Forums Top
Do you believe that it is right for third world countries to be a part of this same world ? Today as I look around I can only see recyclables strewn everywhere. My country is one of the so called largest LNG producers from the caribbean. What shall we do for christ sake?
Reply #37 from JoeUser Forums Top
Do you believe that it is right for third world countries to be a part of this same world ? Today as I look around I can only see recyclables strewn everywhere. My country is one of the so called largest LNG producers from the caribbean. What shall we do for christ sake?
Reply #38 from JoeUser Forums Top
I am trying to find out how many trees are needed to make a given amount of paper. In my office, people often say what difference does it make if we print out extra copies. My response is that it results in the loss of trees. But their response is always. What difference does it make. I would like to respond with some kind of fact. Does anyone have an answer? How much of a tree is needed to make a piece of paper???? Thanks!!!!
Reply #39 from JoeUser Forums Top

It costs more to recycle things than to either compost them or landfill them. And, landfill doesn't really take up that much room or do that much damage to the earth. Comparatively, I mean. I've read that 85% of pollution is caused by energy consumption. And that makes sense to me. Recycling uses LOTS Of energy.I like the premise behind recycling, however. I can't imagine anyone who doesn't. But the fact is that recycling is more damaging to the environment than landfilling.



I don't know where you get the idea that recycling uses more energy than using raw materials, but I really do not understand any thing about your generation to begin with. How do you figure that more energy is used in the recycling process? You must take into account the energy spent on replacing old stuff with new stuff. There is honestly no comparison to the costs of extracting new raw materials and then manufacturing them.


Landfilling is just plain laziness and stupidity.