Posted on 05/30/2018 3:41:04 AM PDT by Haiku Guy
Oregon is serious about recycling. Its residents are accustomed to dutifully separating milk cartons, yogurt containers, cereal boxes and kombucha bottles from their trash to divert them from the landfill. But this year, because of a far-reaching rule change in China, some of the recyclables are ending up in the local dump anyway.
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Theresa Byrne, who lives in Salem, Ore., said the city took too long to inform residents that most plastics and egg and milk cartons were now considered garbage. “I was angry,” she said. “I believe in recycling.”
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In particular, exports of scrap plastic to China, valued at more than $300 million in 2015, totaled just $7.6 million in the first quarter of this year, down 90 percent from a year earlier, Mr. Pickard said. Other countries have stepped in to accept more plastics, but total scrap plastic exports are still down by 40 percent this year, he said.
“There is a significant disruption occurring to U.S. recycling programs,” Mr. Biderman said. “The concern is if this is the new normal.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
“...oceans are so full of plastics right now...”
Horseshit. Ever been in/on/over the ocean? It’s not full of plastics. You are a dupe.
THE OCEAN IS ENORMOUS! Three times larger than the entire land mass of the earth, and, unlike the earth, it’s DEEP.
“...but it is messing up the oceanic ecosystem at a cellular level.”
No, it isn’t.
Bet you believe America is responsible for ‘global warming,’ too.
Don’t be a fool, man. Put down your bong and stop reading Scientific American, Popular Science, National Geographic.
I recycle newspaper, magazines and cardboard. I do this because it saves me money.
The fees for home trash pick-up are somewhere north of $22/m (I haven’t checked in a while) with no re-cycling requirements. If I bring my trash to the transfer station I am charged $1 per 30 gal bag. Newspapers, magazines and cardboard take up too much room in bags, but can be disposed of there for no charge. I live alone and so generate less than a bag a week. Since I have receptacles (cans) a place to keep them (old coal house) and the Xfer station is not very far out of my way, this works well for me. I just keep my receipts to satisfy the county regs.
The problem is that the supply curve is inflexible. This is a unique problem in economics, because usually the supply will respond very quickly to price, so when the price drops, less is produced, and prices can stabilize.
In this case, the supply is fixed by the regulations that require recycling. So when more product is dumped on the market than the market can handle, the price drops. However, the price signal to decrease production is defeated. Low price does not effect supply, because people are required to recycle, regardless of the price. The material is produced at what amounts to a fixed rate. So the price gets driven down to zero, or pretty close to zero.
There is a fiction that there is a functioning market for recycled materials, but as long as the supply rate is fixed, a functioning market is impossible.
“I think the problem is that it costs us more to sort and clean the stuff than it does in China.”
At a federal park about 10 years ago 3 high paid GS employees spent a whole day sorting recyclables and putting them in a trailer. The nearest recycling facility was over 180 miles away. Two of them hauled them to that facility consuming another days wages. This operation was demanded by the park superintendent so she could feel good about saving our Earth. It was estimated that in wages and fuel spent it cost close to $900.
But there is a good side to this. The Earth was saved for two days. Meanwhile, there were good men and women fighting for their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan just so these leftists a$$holes could waste taxpayers money.
It is called Waste-To-Energy. It is how many municipalities satisfy their recycling requirement.
Nowadays, on each "garbage day" TWO garbage trucks come polluting through our neighborhood, one for garbage, and one for recycling. Those neighbors who actually pay extra for this "privilege" park TWO garbage cans in front of their houses, one proudly colored green. The reason for this extra payment is, of course, that the cost to society for this far exceeds the value, so the true believers must pay.
I simply feel sorry for those in a municipality who get this for "free", often have no knowledge of the true cost.
A friend gave me a home burned DVD of the Penn and Teller BS episode on Recycling.
I was a Seattle area strident recycler until I watched that and did some follow up research. I’ve not recycled since. Done.
If I went through a lot of aluminum cans, I would recycle those, but I don’t, so I don’t.
Recycling is about conditioning people to follow the law, no matter how stupid, and feel righteous about doing so.
If you count the value of the hours spent by people recycling, and added the value of the collection and handling systems built into every house, there is no way this system makes economic sense.
The only way it makes money is by not compensating the people who do most of the work. Kind of like cotton farming in the American South back in... say... 1855.
I used to recycle plastic. Now I burn it. But I live in a VERY sparsely populated area (a house every 500 yards or so. I also don’t go through a lot of plastic in the first place.
Excellent point. They try to guilt us or force us by law into being unpaid processors of their product.
This is a “must see” video on this very issue. It is absolutely hilarious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcdNaajKExs
It is an excerpt from the penn and teller recycling video where they “test” consumer response to using something like ten different recycling bins at home.
Waste To Energy plants must add Natural Gas to the furnace to keep the garbage burning. In reality, they would produce more energy by just burning the gas in a turbine. But then they would not be “recycling”.
What makes the whole thing economically viable is the tipping fees. WTE plants charge municipalities to dump their recyclables, and this money is what makes the plant run.
The difference between a Waste To Energy plant and an old-fashioned garbage incinerator is a matter of signage.
I’m of the opinion that the manufacturers should go back to a biodegradable and glass . I am a little older and saw plastics work it’s way into the system . Don’t get me wrong their are excellent uses for plastics/bubble packs and the litany of other products , but I always look at items as to what I can use it for so as not to have a mountain of trash . Incinerate all trash and generate electrical power as many plants do across the nation and having landfills is not a bad thing ....just need to keep an eye on what you dump . So just go back to glass which is always worth recycling and metal tins for cans etc...the non-biodegradable (or the ones that take awhile) packages are what needs to be avoided . I even get my meats wrapped in paper IMAGINE that?
Because it made politicians and the locals “feel good” about what they were doing.
What is this ‘recycling’ thing y’all are speaking of? Is it the same as I do with my burn barrels once or twice a week?
Sounds to me like the best way to deal with trash.…put it to work
We have 2 dumpsters. One for trash and the other for recyclable stuff. Same truck picks up both at the same time.... They are just labels on the dumpsters. Reality is they go in the same garbage dump. But don’t you feel good?
Yes, and someone needed you academic explanation.
As I said in simple terms - our turning in goods for recycling has become greater than the need of those that can convert those goods into new goods, and so they are not willing to pay as much for all we want them to take. Our contractors are taking the hit, and they will either recover their costs from us or give us the choice of dumping more stuff in landfills.
right because they are charging you fees for the pretend recycling that they say that they are doing.
Agreed. Most of the plastic comes out of “Just 10 rivers carry 90% of plastic polluting the oceans”
https://news.sky.com/story/just-10-rivers-carry-90-of-plastic-polluting-the-oceans-11167581
Note Sky News, which is very liberal.
Note those rivers are not on USA and is China, Asia, and Africa. Actually none of those rivers are in any of the Americas. Asia needs to clean up it’s act. If any one has been there it is obvious....
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