BS: Recycling

Subject: BS: Recycling
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 12:45 PM

Why is it that the responsibility for recycling is with the consumer rather than the producer?

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 12:51 PM

Because we're the ones who buy and ride the cycles. Whether a bicycyle or a motorcyycle you probably need to get a new one every now and again. I have this really great, classic Jap Honda hyperbike now and I haven't recycled in a long time and doubt that I will anytime soon. When I was younger I would recycle every year.   Sometimes more than once a year too!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: saulgoldie
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 12:51 PM

I think that when you buy a new computer, you should be able to turn in your old one at the dealer, and they should have the responsibility of recycling it. Same with bottles from bottled water. If that added to the cost, then so what? We don't pay nearly the entire cost of almost everything we consume. That reminds me of a thread I was going to start...

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 01:04 PM

Automobile batteries and tires must be recycled by the dealers and there is a fee charged to handle some of the cost. I don't know if that is just in Texas or a federal law, though.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: Becca72
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 01:16 PM

Here in Maine bottled water has a deposit, so I turn them in with all my other bottles and let them handle the recycling part of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 02:00 PM

Alberta has the tire-battery recycling regulations. A fee is also charged on all computer, TV, etc. hardware to cover recycling.

Alberta has recycling for most bottles and gives the collector cash for liquor and soft drink bottles and cans- a nickel a soft drink can, etc., so Scouts and other organizations come around and collect them. Scavengers clean the bottles and cans out of dumpsters, trash cans and gutters and receive cash.

Beginning in 2009, Calgary will have city-wide residential re-cycling; at present recyclers pick up paper, plastic, glass and metal from neighborhoods for a set monthly fee, but this is voluntary.
Until people are forced to recycle these materials, and recyclable materials are picked up along with garbage,much will end up in landfill. The 2009 city residential program should take care of this.

One problem is 'foam' plastics used in packing- there is no market, and thus it ends up in landfill.

Alas alack also, no one has found a formula for recycling or conversion of Catspaw 'humor' into a useful or environment-friendly product.

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: Desdemona
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 02:20 PM

A somewhat related question has recently come up in Boston, where an attempt to make recycling compulsory at restaurants and bars is in the works. I'd never given it that much thought before, I suppose I just assumed that was already the case. It's an obvious no-brainer: the amount of glass, paper and plastic tossed out by those establishments dwarfs what we put out in our little bins every week, but owners are already saying that it will make more work for the staff (how throwing it in the recycling bin is more work than throwing it in the dumpster escapes me), they don't have the space (see previous comment), etc. It will be interesting to see how it comes out.

~D

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 03:48 PM

We have had compulsory recycling here (DC suburbs) for a number of years, and I *KNOW* it has reduced the number of trash collections a LOT and the volume of bottle and can and paper collections, thus saving fuel for trucks as well as landfill space.

It truly OUGHT to be required almost everywhere.

We can now recycle almost all paper, cardboard...and the % of plastics recycled is rising.

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: John Hardly
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 04:19 PM

I don't want a pickle
I just want to recycle
And I don't want a tickle
I'd rather recycle
And I don't want to die
I just want to recycle

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 04:46 PM

How about your office? It's been an uphill climb but I finally got management to allow me to haul off our paper trash. We've recycled 110 pounds of paper in the last four weeks.

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: Sorcha
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 05:08 PM

I 'can' recycle most everything, BUT...I have to store, haul and deliver. I don't have ROOM to store anything. NO ONE will come after it. The only thing I get paid for is aluminum, cans only. Not sheet foil. The City could make it easier by putting bins or tubs on the alleys for different things, and the (private) company that does the re cycling here could pick it up, except...

The company is a handicapped/sheltered business, and of course the 'clients' can't drive so they'd have to hire more pick up drivers and that just isn't going to happen.

If I put my own bins on the alley right of way (for storage) the City would get very High Behind about it. They would have to be on our property which means in the driveway. Oh well.

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: bubblyrat
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 05:18 PM

Recycling in Great Britain is a FARCE !! Here in Oxfordshire, where I live, us ordinary mortals are requested and required to put our wine bottles and glass jars into a designated container for re-cycling. So this takes place,every week ,at the up-market, exclusive,expensive, housing complex where I work as the Caretaker/ Concierge. I guess that the residents of the 17 apartments ,between them, throw away maybe 30-40 empty wine bottles per week. BUT--the Hotel next door, that shares the same garbage collection service, generates about 400 empty wine (and other) bottles EVERY DAY !-----and they get put out with the ordinary garbage EVERY DAY !! So there"s one set of rules if you live in a private house, and one set of rules if you run a business !! RECYCLING ?? Don"t make me laugh !!! Waste of time !!

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: tutti flutti
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 06:00 PM

bubblyrat:
So there"s one set of rules if you live in a private house, and one set of rules if you run a business !! RECYCLING ?? Don"t make me laugh !!! Waste of time !!

I know it must feel like a waste of time but it really, really isn't! We have just got to recycle more and every bit we can do ourselves really does help - even if it is dwarfed by the waste from businesses. Eventually they will have to recycle too - it can't be avoided long term and it's better if we all do our bit now even if it does seem hopeless.

This reminds me of a passage which comes, I think, from William Cobbett's Rural Rides. The farmer takes his young son out with him into the fields at harvest time. The son is given a sickle and set to work to cut corn. It takes him all day to cut just one sheaf of corn but, at the end of the day, that was one sheaf the farmer didn't have to cut himself. The child had made a valuable contribution even if it was very small. And it was something !!

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 06:22 PM

As to recycling by restaurants, the US Army was one of the first to do this as a general practice, many decades ago. Many, if not all, Army Mess Halls had separate "garbage cans" marked "EDIBLE" and "INEDIBLE" and the orts were quite carefully separated. The Mess Hall was permitted/encouraged to SELL the "EDIBLES" to livestock feeders (mainly hog farmers), and could retain most of the proceeds to "augment" their official budget.

The practice was threatened some time ago by Dept of Agriculture rules that, in the US at least, required that all "hog food" be thoroughly cooked before serving, but appeared to survive that "new" demand, despite the requirement that the buyers certify their uses.

It may have been done in by the newer regulations on animal feed that have come into play due to "mad cow" and some other threats. It's more likely to have faded due to the increasing use of "contractor services" for many such functions (although I don't know that Blackwater has offered this particular one).

I don't know that it remains common now, although it appeared to be a net profit situation for the Mess Halls.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Recycling
From: Rog Peek
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 06:30 PM

Yes bubblerat, a pub my son worked in just put all the empties in with the rest of the rubbish, while we're expected to separate them.
Bloody joke isn't it?

Rog