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The problem is that when we set up curbside recycling programs, the material we collect doesn't get recycled it gets landfilled. If we are just going to landfill the material anyways, why bother with the hassle and expense of setting up curbside recycling programs?
That is where the point that these programs are just expensive virtue signaling projects.
Just go outside or for a drive or down to the beach....that crap is blown or washing up everywhere.
If you like to walk, hunt, fish, be outdoors or are a raging tree hugger named Spirit Flower...I don't care...it's nasty to see all the garbage and plastic.
100% agreed.
I would goto our lovely lake for some beautiful natural break from the city... to encounter plastic bottles, slippers, coffee cups and lids and bottles and ... well everything in the water and on the land.
And this is world wide. You can't escape this nonsense... and it's just the "tip of the iceberg" in the garbage we strewn everywhere.
It's moronic, lazy attitudes that perpetuate the mess that we are creating on this earth.
I wish all the people who think it's just "virtue signalling" magically get ALL this garbage strewn all over their lawns and backyard.
I am not in favor of litter. I am also against making garbage disposal into an Insurmountable project. Because of the restrictions on recycling or disposing of computer and other electronic equipment, I regularly see it dumped at night in parking lots. I once took a picture but could not find it. In a perfect world people would dispose of garbage perfectly. But this is not a perfect world and the task has to be made as one involving minimal effort. If you make trash disposal a lot of effort people will simply dispose of garbage arbitrarily.
Here in Phoenix metro, private companies will pay for aluminum cans and plastic water/soda bottles. They will also accept steel cans, but won't offer any $$ for them. I believe corrugated cardboard is also a good candidate for recycling. I have my doubts about anything else... random plastics, scraps of paper, etc.
Businesses / manufacturers will only use recycled content if it's profitable or marketable.
Americans love single-use plastic/convenient products (and manufacturers have notoriously catered to such). That said, per a recent poll, perhaps the ‘tides are changing’ as 80% of people support (national) policies that reduce single-use plastic as they aren’t easy to recycle (even if folks were willing to do so).
That said, several states have taken on responsibility (California, New York, Vermont, Connecticut and so on) relative to such, including a ban on plastic bags.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HodgePodge
I wish all the people who think it's just "virtue signalling" magically get ALL this garbage strewn all over their lawns and backyard.
What benefit is magical thinking or your personal frustration?
Americans love single-use plastic/convenient products (and manufacturers have notoriously catered to such). That said, per a recent poll, perhaps the ‘tides are changing’ as 80% of people support (national) policies that reduce single-use plastic as they aren’t easy to recycle (even if folks were willing to do so).
That said, several states have taken on responsibility (California, New York, Vermont, Connecticut and so on) relative to such, including a ban on plastic bags.
When the costs of these approaches become apparent people change their minds.
Here in Phoenix metro, private companies will pay for aluminum cans and plastic water/soda bottles.
Same in Southern California. The caveat is that they have to be marked "CA CRV" and you pay a $0.10 "deposit" when you buy one of those items (mostly soft drinks and bottled water; not, for instance, 100% juice or alcohol), so taking them to a recycling center is just getting your own money back. I do it, because I have the time, but most people just throw them in the curbside recycling bin and the waste management company, I assume, collects the money.
Any glass/plastic/aluminum not marked CRV also goes in the recycling bin along with paper and cardboard. I don't know what happens to those items, but I do sort them out from the regular trash.
I would goto our lovely lake for some beautiful natural break from the city... to encounter plastic bottles, slippers, coffee cups and lids and bottles and ... well everything in the water and on the land.
And this is world wide. You can't escape this nonsense... and it's just the "tip of the iceberg" in the garbage we strewn everywhere.
It's moronic, lazy attitudes that perpetuate the mess that we are creating on this earth.
I wish all the people who think it's just "virtue signalling" magically get ALL this garbage strewn all over their lawns and backyard.
You're conflating two different things. Littering and recycling are not the same. Being realistic about what can and what can't be economically recycled does not imply one wants litter. It implies different solutions to different problems.
Sometimes recycling pays, sometimes it doesn't. To expect anyone to lose money recycling is stupid. It also results in mistaken predictions and false explanations. Whether YOU understand recycling costs usually has little effect on what others understand, and what they do.
You're conflating two different things. Littering and recycling are not the same. Being realistic about what can and what can't be economically recycled does not imply one wants litter. It implies different solutions to different problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ben Shunamit
Sometimes recycling pays, sometimes it doesn't. To expect anyone to lose money recycling is stupid. It also results in mistaken predictions and false explanations. Whether YOU understand recycling costs usually has little effect on what others understand, and what they do.
You both seem to agree with me. With certain limited exceptions recycling is uneconomical.
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