Ha! We recycle all the kitchen vegetable waste in my compost heap! About a quart a day! Free nitrogen that helps the pile break down.
You can pulverize egg shells in a blender and reduce them to calcium with white vinegar 1 part egg shell to 2 parts vinegar)or just crumble them and spread them where snails are! (Don’t like them apparently—sharp edges.)
Of course, the more you garden, the less you have to recycle. We have not done any canning lately, but mason jars are glass you do not normally recycle which results in cans you do not have to buy!
In the 90’s Waste Management determined recycling to be a loser, so if you wanted to continue, it would cost $3 a month.
HA!
Awesome article...I agree 100 percent.
For one thing washing many recyclables uses fresh water. And the trucks picking up the recyclables use a lot of gasoline to do their pickups. All in all, the juice is not worth the squeeze.
I got in an argument with a liberal about 20 years ago over recycling. He ended up saying to me “So, what you’re saying is that you only recycle what you get paid to recycle?” I said “Yes.”
Basic economics and liberalism are not easily joined.
If my recyclables have value, then why should I give them away?
Why don’t I get paid for them?
I save money recycling almost everything because, that way, I don’t have to buy trash bags. I use only plastic shopping bags that are free with every purchase. Meanwhile, I rinse out the plastic bottles, aluminum cans, etc., and dump them into the recycle bins - no trash bag needed. I can’t even remember the last time I had to buy trash bags.
That said, I might be paying more in my taxes for the recycling, but whatever the extra cost is, in my township it’s dwarfed by what I have to pay for the local school system and everything else.
It irks, that one has to rinse the recyclables...has anyone calculated the water it wastes? .....especially if you use hot water?
I put everything in the trash. My husband comes along behind me and sorts it out. I have told him it’s not cost effective and misuses other resources. It’s one of those feel good things that has little effect other than feeling like you are doing something and I won’t play the game. This article is vindication of my views. :)
I'm not sure exactly when this *happened* but it is getting pretty universal, now. We frequent a lovely state-owned lake in southern Vermont...with a *carry in-carry out* policy. The stupid people will leave their trash in the changing rooms...and port-a-potties. Disgusting. It's going to lead to admittance charges, policing and spoil it for everyone.
Where I live we have the myth of recycling. Separate bins and all that. Then they just take all of it to the land fill and toss it in. No recycling whatsoever. Just a feel good program.
I don’t mind throwing my plastic and cans and crap in the recycling bin but some of my neighbors take great pains to sort out the paper from the cardboard, different colors of glass, aluminum from steel cans, etc. But if they’d ever bother to watch, they’d see the garbage men throw all the recycled stuff into the same container on the truck!
i used to defy the recycle police by using black construction bags for my trash. now i put everything in the white kitchen bags. i let the trash guys figure it out. it all gets collected either during the recycle phase of collection or the next.
Thanks for the excellent essay about recycling. Sad. I’ve always recycled.
Two years ago a friend who works at Magic Mountain in Santa Clarita, CA told me that he transports the trash every night at Magic Mountain. I asked him what he does with the bottles in the blue containers. He said that all the recyclables go into the trash. No recycling.
Plasma recyclers are the size of a semi truck’s trailor and can recycle anything (glass, paper, metal) and produce electricity. One plasma recycler in every poor city will get rid of the brown cloud hovering over India and Asia.
Plasma recyclers. The future. http://www.wired.com/2012/01/ff_trashblaster/
I throw bottles and cans in the recycling bin. I’m not trying to save the planet, nor is it mandatory in my city, but it gives me a hell of a lot more room in the garbage bins every week. Plus, the trucks would routinely drop the glass bottles in the alley and make a mess.
Nice to see this in print. Thank you.
I have two choices. I can pay for garbage service and get three trash cans and sort my garbage, or I can take my garbage to the dump myself and not worry about sorting it. My dog loves our weekly trips to the dump.
I burn a tire every Earth Day.
I think recycling is a waste of time. However, I AM in favor of deposits on bottles and cans and would like to see the same on plastic water bottles too........
The way both teens looked at me, you'd think they found a stash of dead puppies in my fridge. Their mom just rolled her eyes at them and told them to shush, this was Mrs meowmeow's house and she can do what she wants!
At some point, I'm sure my friend and I will be hauled off to the re-education camps.