popularmechanics.com— Americans haul 82 million tons of trash to recycling centers each year. But does it pay off?for the environment or the economy? PM has some real answers.
Nov 18, 2008View in Crawl 4
@ bunghole999: I think we can agree that your idea is admirable (boycotting actions that perpetualize what you feel is a corrupt industry), except the way you are going about it is somewhat destructive. What are you doing to increase people's awareness of alternative paper products? Where are the other 20 million of them? How do you spread the message? Or is your activism limited to making a personal decision not to recycle paper and nothing more? If so, then the bottom line is that you're doing a disservice to the environment in favor of a political view, which is as flawed an action as a politician working within his political interests to protect and perpetuate the corrupt paper industry.If you do not recycle, then you do not recycle. It does nothing to help solve or answer the problems of corruption you set forth because few others are being enticed to follow in your example. All your actions seem to do is increase the amount of un-recycled (wasted) paper in the world.
I reckon every school should have a yearly excursion to the local tip. We need to see at an early age how we dispose of things. I've gone many times to my local tip to throw away things too big or complex to put in the trash (broken furniture, refrigerators, ovens, etc) and it is a rel eye-opener how one works and what gets sorted and how. I was encouraged to see how they treat scrap, for instance; also how they sort recyclable goods. But more needs to be done. Recycling starts at home. There are many MANY things you can do to reduce waste - composting food wastes is a start; reusing plastic bottles instead of buying new ones, and linging bins with bags made out of vegetable oils.But more
It was an economic question, not a scientific one. If 100 million people spend one extra minute a week sorting recyclables, you're looking at 1.68 million hours of work, which at a Federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour represents $10.9 million dollars a week.
... which is awesome. The problem is, though, that most don't. And the principal is universal. Apply it to cars, homes, even vegetable oil. My sister runs her car entirely off of waste vegetable oil. McDonald's uses it to the max with their frying, and then she saves them disposal costs by burning it in her diesel car. There is just SOOO much unnecessary waste out there....
mdude85Nov 18, 2008
@ bunghole999: I think we can agree that your idea is admirable (boycotting actions that perpetualize what you feel is a corrupt industry), except the way you are going about it is somewhat destructive. What are you doing to increase people's awareness of alternative paper products? Where are the other 20 million of them? How do you spread the message? Or is your activism limited to making a personal decision not to recycle paper and nothing more? If so, then the bottom line is that you're doing a disservice to the environment in favor of a political view, which is as flawed an action as a politician working within his political interests to protect and perpetuate the corrupt paper industry.If you do not recycle, then you do not recycle. It does nothing to help solve or answer the problems of corruption you set forth because few others are being enticed to follow in your example. All your actions seem to do is increase the amount of un-recycled (wasted) paper in the world.
Closed AccountNov 19, 2008
I reckon every school should have a yearly excursion to the local tip. We need to see at an early age how we dispose of things. I've gone many times to my local tip to throw away things too big or complex to put in the trash (broken furniture, refrigerators, ovens, etc) and it is a rel eye-opener how one works and what gets sorted and how. I was encouraged to see how they treat scrap, for instance; also how they sort recyclable goods. But more needs to be done. Recycling starts at home. There are many MANY things you can do to reduce waste - composting food wastes is a start; reusing plastic bottles instead of buying new ones, and linging bins with bags made out of vegetable oils.But more
amielbNov 19, 2008
I thought this was a great article.
barackalypseNov 19, 2008
It was an economic question, not a scientific one. If 100 million people spend one extra minute a week sorting recyclables, you're looking at 1.68 million hours of work, which at a Federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour represents $10.9 million dollars a week.
jennicaNov 19, 2008
Reusable grocery bags are only a dollar.
alexlinebrinkNov 19, 2008
... which is awesome. The problem is, though, that most don't. And the principal is universal. Apply it to cars, homes, even vegetable oil. My sister runs her car entirely off of waste vegetable oil. McDonald's uses it to the max with their frying, and then she saves them disposal costs by burning it in her diesel car. There is just SOOO much unnecessary waste out there....