Question by Honesty2008: What are the ethical and practical considerations for building a waste recycling plant in your neighborhood?
How would your concerns for the environment affect your view on this action? Would you oppose this action?
Best answer:
Answer by Beans
NIMBYs. that’s what people in the industry call citizens who don’t want power plants, waste dumps, mine drainage reclamation sites… (N)ot (I)n (M)y (B)ack(Y)ard! well, it’s always someone’s backyard. there’s also another saying, “we all live downwind.” so you want to yell at ohio factories for the northeast windstream carrying soot to ny? well, canada wants to tell NY iron mills to keep it to themselves. we all use the products so we all have to pay the price: be it taxes on gas to remediate lead pollution or having a smelly waste recycling plant across the river. it has to go somewhere. unfortunately, $ talks, so poor people, who tend to be less educated & don’t know they have a right to a voice in these debates, get the short end of the stick. i have always said that i would donate my land to better the environment. & i have smelled what reclamation can be like. it’s not all that pleasant, but neither is sulfuric acid in the stream. i don’t expect that many others share this view, but this is something i think is important & that everyone needs to take responsibility for.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Are you talking about collection or acutal re-maunfacturing? With either, I envision all of the issues that go with increased traffic, noise, smell, and air pollution. Typically, we place these types of activities outside of neighborhoods and residential areas.
Due to the costs involved with most honest recycling and/or re-manufacturing facilities, they are larger and specialized by type of material. This means that any one facility will undoubtedly become a regional or world-wide handling facility for which recylcing refuge will be shipped, trained, and trucked in. In addition, if you are thinking in terms of a “one stop shopping” type of recycling and remanufacturing center, you are in actuallity speaking of multiple manufacturing facilities. And, you’re speaking of closer to a square mile or more of manufacturing and composting facilities/processes/plants. Every process has waste and in particular, manufacturing even if it is a re-manufacturing plant for recycled items. Lastly, full recycling and re-manufacturing is still in its infancy in terms of making re-useable product and, the types of items that compose our waste are still in flux (i.e. types of plastics for example). Once this plant/or set of plants are built, they could just as likely become unusable or so costly to operate that they are then abandoned. Manufcturing ghost towns are negatively impressive if you’ve ever seen them.
Placing a waste recycling facility within a residential neighborhood, community, or even an abandonned plot of land has a lot of drawbacks and considerations that go beyond the simple NIMBY considerations.