Posted on 03/09/2019 7:18:11 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
After decades of earnest public-information campaigns, Americans are finally recycling. Airports, malls, schools, and office buildings across the country have bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans and newspapers. In some cities, you can be fined if inspectors discover that you haven’t recycled appropriately.
But now much of that carefully sorted recycling is ending up in the trash.
For decades, we were sending the bulk of our recycling to China — tons and tons of it, sent over on ships to be made into goods such as shoes and bags and new plastic products. But last year, the country restricted imports of certain recyclables, including mixed paper — magazines, office paper, junk mail — and most plastics. Waste-management companies across the country are telling towns, cities, and counties that there is no longer a market for their recycling. These municipalities have two choices: pay much higher rates to get rid of recycling, or throw it all away.
Most are choosing the latter. “We are doing our best to be environmentally responsible, but we can’t afford it,” said Judie Milner, the city manager of Franklin, New Hampshire. Since 2010, Franklin has offered curbside recycling and encouraged residents to put paper, metal, and plastic in their green bins. When the program launched, Franklin could break even on recycling by selling it for $6 a ton. Now, Milner told me, the transfer station is charging the town $125 a ton to recycle, or $68 a ton to incinerate. One-fifth of Franklin’s residents live below the poverty line, and the city government didn’t want to ask them to pay more to recycle, so all those carefully sorted bottles and cans are being burned.
*SNIP*
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Thanks! Yep, there are tons of ways to re-use things. I sell books as a sideline - any plastic wrap recyclable is used as a moisture barrier, and then I use plain brown paper bags for wrapping and if it’s a softcover book, I slip in a piece of recycled cardboard for stability.
I also shred a lot of paper waste and use it in the compost as a ‘brown’ v. a ‘green’ additive, and when I get laying hens again, I’ll use shredded paper for their nesting boxes.
It’s a good way to avoid Identity Theft, LOL!
You could make Chicken Sweaters, LOL! :)
I listen to OTR. I think "Casey, Crime Photographer" had Anchor-Hocking as a sponsor.
In some of the epis, they hype the new, non-returnable beer bottles.
Of course, they also hyped the new Flame King(?) pie plates for 10¢.
Up here, beer cans and bottles and also wine and liquor bottles are taken to Beer Store locations across Ontario and you get money back. The Beer Store (formerly Brewers Retail) likes to boast about being green before it was cool.
Never had a rag man, but in the late 60’s an old blind guy would walk down our street with a sharpening wheel on a cart. Housewives would bring their knives out for him to sharpen.
Millions of I-told-you-sos in there.
Paper is stacking up in warehouses all across the land and has been for decades.
Way back when the Miami garbage truck drop off was next to Jackson Memorial Hospital .It was burned to heat the water for the hospital .
Guess that kind of logic is verboten today.
He consulted on a waste-to-energy plant in the Boston area, probably mid-1970s, and they didn't check the materials going in, and the resulting ash was very toxic.
Some things do need to be considered in bringing back otherwise great ideas.
Our recycle center never recycled glass ,they said it might beak and cut someone ,LOL
I was a garbage man for 5 years 20+ years ago. Had a few customers on my routes that got “premier” service. Mrs. Pelican and Bill and Nell especially. Mrs. Pelican owned almost an entire block in PDX as rentals. Whenever a tenant would move out there’d be a large pile of garbage. “Not a problem Mrs. Pelican, I’ll clean that up for you”.
:)
$$ makes the world go around! :)
Recycling has NEVER been profitable. It has been a money maker for the private companies who are paid by municipalities to recycle. The bales and containers of recycled material always end up in the landfill. China used to take recycles but they no longer do. It is simply not cost effective. Construction and reef materials are about the only use for these items. Paper cost double the cost of making new paper and is loaded with toxins. Plastics can be compressed into wood materials but it is not a cheap process. The quality of the material, if done properly, outlasts wood but cost twice as much. Sealed landfills provide a chemical soup for future reclamation.
Floating debris masses in the ocean provide highly effective habitat for fish and crustacea. They can remain at sea for years nurturing generations of fish,before finally making landfall where they can then act as habitat for plants. The oceans remain the most effective means of disposing waste.
And decent work is the only thing that gives value to money... Think about it.
And to people. 5 years on ssdi from head injury the worst part was no sense of worth from working.
If it is a sickness that you will never get better enough to work again then it is what it is and you shouldn’t lose your sense of worth.
But even though doctors said my working days were done I knew I would be working again one day.
Back full time 5 years now.
Dems will never understand intangible values.
They have none.
Yes, and if you ever tried to pick one of those things up, you would know where the “ton” reference comes from. That thing was so heavy.
Whenever a tenant would move out there’d be a large pile of garbage. “Not a problem Mrs. Pelican, I’ll clean that up for you”.
That would be HEAVEN for a Junker/Recycler like me! :)
Lets just say not everything went to the landfill. LOL!
Hi —read an earlier news article how it’s so hard for AOC to recycle plastic bags and that the grocery store gives her oh so many more than she needs
I had run across this just a day ago and may give it a whirl. There is a group (I know they have a YT video of their work) called the “bagladies” and they use Plarn (plastic bag made into “yarn”) to crochet mats and bedrolls for the homeless. It wouldn’t make much of a dent in the overall world of recycling, but someone may be able to have some fun with this:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=plarn+crochet+projects
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