Back at Junk Value, Recyclables Are Piling Up

NYTimes ^ | December 7, 2008 | By MATT RICHTEL and KATE GALBRAITH

[gibsosa]

Recycle scam bump

[Mrs. Don-o]

bttt

[Renegade]

I did the same thing on Black Friday . Yesterday’s Dicks ad jumped the box of 9 mm. from $7.98 to $9.98 for the case price ( 10) and “sale price” per box from $8.98 to $10.98
Besides that Cabela’s is out of stock for all sale prices on premium 9mm. as of yesterday.

[Badeye]

Latest ‘Cheaper than Dirt’ catalogue had some great deals. I’ve purchased ammo from them, never had a misfire.

[exit82]

This isn’t the first time this has happened.

NJ was one of the first states to mandate recycling.

We had to dutifully sort our recyclable in tied bundles of newspapers, cardboard, some had to sort colors of glass, bundles of magazines, etc.

Turns out there was no market except for the cardboard and the aluminum. All the rest of the stuff got carted off to landfills in Pennsylvania, neatly tied, bundled and sorted.

And this is after countless towns bought recycling trucks, paid for the men to operate them, etc., etc.

I’ve brought stuff to scrap yards and junkyards for many many years. Markets rule—if no one wants your commodity, you don’t get any money.

At least the scrap thieves have stopped robbing the copper and brass from the graveyards. Here i Delaware, the scrap yard has to keep the material for 18 days before shipping it out, so the thiefs here sold the stuff they filched up in Philadelphia, where, of course, no such holding periods exist. One graveyard had brass gates on a vault, with the person’s name on them, 100 years old, disappear. No one in Philly saw a thing, donchaknow.

In Delaware residents PAY $ 72.00/year for curbside pickup of now worthless recyclables, but it is voluntary. We just use a convenient drop off bin area, like about 150 others set up around Delaware.

The thing that is cool about Delaware is that, for the last thirty years, a PRIVATE company oversee all recycling by business and residents in the entire state. No tax money is used.

[icwhatudo]

"Freepers have lost their damn minds."

Nah, just the ones who have been here barely a year and defend Michelle Obama while attacking Cindy McCain, attack California's prop-8, defend Golden Compass, think Spitzers prostitute was a resourceful teen, think driving while smoking pot is no big deal, thinks the theatre guy who lost his job for donating for prop-8 is an idiot, complements how the Dixie Chicks stood by their sister, attacks Drudge on hit counts, disses FR itself, defends Obama as the only reasonable and fair person in this debate, complains about FR saying "I dont get this site"

And yet with all that has the nerve to write "You are hardly a Freeper if you believe..."

-------------------------------------------

Happy one year anniversary FRiend, keep hope alive on that Golden Compass sequel!

[sickoflibs]

In NYS they force you to do much work sorting and rinsing. But now the labor to re-cycle it is more expensive than the raw products which are deflating. Maybe Obama can add that to the stimulus package, paid for by printed money.

Wish I could print money. Makes you wonder about savings. Something unsettling.

[Liberty Valance]

LOL - REALLY big!

[ElkGroveDan]

Thanks for the ping.

I was at the huge dump/landfill a couple weeks ago getting rid of old furniture and such and I noticed a big green recycling truck dumping its load. So on the way out I asked the guy at the kiosk what was up with that. He says they get dozens of those trucks every day. The processing stations can only handle so much material and after that they turn the trucks away, so the localities all have a standing account to enter unweighed and just dump it all. He says the so-called "green waste" (lawn clippings etc.) is even worse. According to him 90% of it winds up in the dump and they are happy to take the stuff for no charge as they need it for their mulch and soil layers that get compacted over the dumped trash.

So next time any of you Green Freepers are rolling up your sleeves rinsing out milk bottles and sorting garbage into colored containers like good little government robots, remember it's all for naught. But the collectivists appreciate you dutifully and blindly following instructions from on high.

[icwhatudo]

In NYS they force you to do much work sorting and rinsing.

Thats the kind of stuff my comment was directed at. There was also an article on FR recently that some town was going to fine people $300 that did not take part in the forced labor....I mean...that did not recycle.

[dead]

Harvard, for instance, sends mixed recyclables — including soda bottles and student newspapers — to a nearby recycling center that used to pay $10 a ton. In November, Harvard received two letters from the recycler, the first saying it would begin charging $10 a ton and the second saying the price had risen to $20. “I haven’t checked my mail today, but I hope there isn’t another one in there,” said Rob Gogan, the recycling and waste manager for the university’s facilities division.

That's really funny. D'oh!

[sickoflibs]

Maryland has very high taxes but it is voluntary and they make it easy, as easy as the garbage. In NYS it's mandatory and naturally complicated, provides incentive to dump it.

[icwhatudo]

Steamed crabs on a Friday night? Thats 6 days of fomenting in August heat. Forget once to take the trash down and its 2 weeks of nastiness.

I’d rather pay more and have 2 TRASH pick-ups a week like we used to get. More power to the folks who like rinsing out milk containers, piles of soda cans in their kitchens (along with the little gnats that come with them), and the always falling over piles of newspapers in the hallway. If thats your thing, no problem. Hopefully it will stay voluntary.

[Malsua]

What is it with the Chinese(Asians in general really) and overloading cards?

[ScottyinTN]

Have you seen the price of copper lately? The collapse of China's economy brought all commodity prices tumbbling down with it. 57,000 factories closing is going to have an impact, even if they are in China. It was that fact kept 'secret' for 4-5 months until after the olympics that snuk up and bit our markets in the @ss.

Could you elaborate on this a little? Your post makes it sound as if China's economy collapsed before ours. I'm wondering if you mean commodities, or markets in general. Either way I find this very interesting.

[dhouston]

Remington $19.00 per 100 shot at Wal-Mart

[Joe Boucher]

NOt a problem at my house.
In an effort to contribute to global warming I burn everything that will burn in a 55 gallon oil can out back.
Sometimes when the wind blows just right I burn plastics.

[SteamShovel]

then forced you to recycle so they could sell your material to make even more money off your labor

They even forced you to wash the matarials or they wouldn't take it where I lived about 10 years ago. Talk about wasting hot water and soap!

I just continued to throw it away when they refused to take it.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

I just continued to throw it away when they refused to take it.

I gave up on it when the private garbage collection service started threatening to issue fines in California.

[wbill]

I recently met a guy who used to do forestry management for a paper company in Maine. I asked him if he ever got any green protesters. "Oh yeah, but they never lasted more than a day. Once the black flies came out, they went running."

Having grown up in Maine, I can believe it. Locals have immunity, folks from away are just miserable. Besides, some blackflies are trained to attack!

http://www.maineblackfly.org/

The Green Protesters mostly stick to campuses and the coffee bars in Portland. Less hassle there. :-) And, the locals in Northern Maine are not as "enlightened" and "tolerant" as their big city bretheren in Boston. Protesters likely would get sent home with a kick in the pants.