Question by lar_dawg54: How many of you feel recycling is a waste of time and space in your garage?
I hate to take that attitude but it seems as though there would be more incentive to recycle by paying more per pound for cardboard and aluminum cans.
Best answer:
Answer by Enviro-guy
We are consumers. We cause pollution every time you buy something made of plastic. The manufacturing plants discharge ash and toxins like mercury into our air and waste chemicals into our land and water tables. The air is polluted buy the trucks that deliver the cheep (and usually useless) plastic items all around the world. We buy the cheep products, use them up and then expect to get rewarded for not polluting our world even further buy putting it in the trash. Doesn’t anyone just want to do what’s right? Doesn’t anyone feel good about being better?
What do you think? Answer below!
I know that these bins invite gnats and insects of every volition. Has not humanity taken careful steps to avoid this dilemma? Are we not retrograding to a time of infestation? Is this not insanity on the most ridiculous level?
The return from cardboard, aluminum and other recyclable materials is very dependent on the cost of the commodity. Recently the commodities markets “collapsed” (e.g. new Al was almost 1.50/lb in summer of 2008 vs. 70 cents a pound 1/7/09). Almost all recyclables followed a lock step trend sharply downward.
The reason a household should recycle is multifaceted:
1) Gives you some return (even today cans are about 25 cents/lb)
2) Reduces your trash volume – saving your municipality money and ultimately impacting your taxes.
3) It’s much cleanerto get raw material from scrap than pulling it from the ground which effects your health (albeit indirectly) and your availability of natural resources.
The second 2 items are hard to measure in actual dollars. The first is easy. If you have the room in your basement or garage why not save up enough to make an occassional trip to the recycler? Many (at least in this area) are open on Saturdays. If you have kids this is a good way for them to get spending money without directly impacting your pocket.
Oh, and if your kids complain that it was hardly worth the effort you can look at them and say “welcome to the work world.”
We seem to get stuck on the 3rd R of the 3 R’s, if you begin with Reduce, you will have less to recycle. The reason there isn’t more value in recyclable materials is the demand. We need to complete the cycle and buy recycled content. The other thing you need to consider is the cost you will be paying when the landfill your city currently uses becomes full. Where I live we will be looking for a new location in the next few years, with all the urban sprawl, I’m afraid of how far away they will need to build it and how much more it will cost to ship it there. You are saving yourself money with every cubic foot you pull from the waste stream, we are running out of locations to build landfills in many states, some east coast states already have to burn their garbage and decrease air quality or pay huge fees to ship it to another state.
If you’re only recycling for the money, you’ve missed the ENTIRE concept! We dont need to recycle to get change……we need to recycle to MAKE change. To change the way landfills are constantly used, to change the way manufacturers package, to change our own habits. At the rate we’re going our grandchildren’s children wont have any resources left…………..trees will live in museums. Get the correct attitude and recycle to SAVE our planet. Or either put in to be one of the first to colonize the moon.
Unfortunately recycling is a necessary thing to do to sustain many of our planet’s natural resources and for now it is a pain sometimes but there are a variety of technologies that will soon allow us to recycle much easier, not having to sort anything and perhaps even letting it be included with trash. If you want to read more about if recycling is really worth it, you can check out this recent article: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/how_your_house_works/4291566.html
The concept is well intended, but it’s always destroyed through implementation.
Municipal recycling is not meant to be eco-friendly, but pork for the sanitation company supporting the local politicians.
And at least you get paid for the recyclables. I pay for mine with property taxes.
Ultimately, being green requires a collection of individual decisions, not communal “laziness”. You’re starting to get it.
Good luck!
I read some where, that I think it was New York or New York city, stopped doing glass because it wasnt even cost efficient? I saw once tons of glass being conveyer belted into a huge cargo ship heading to some foriegn nation for processing, how green is that!! Where I use to live, I liked the ideas that the neighborhood kinda left thier recyclables in a bundle for those going thru the rubbish. To me, that was recycling to its best intent. It was horrid when the city gave out bins, and tickets to the people who really needed the money.