I am sure most of you hippies are active recyclers, maybe even go shop at co-ops, and are able to buy in bulk, saving plastic baggs and packaging.
There is one good news and one bad news about this.
the bad news first:
recycling paper, seperating cans, and plastic might be an utter waste of your time, and might actually pollute more than it helps the environement. On top of it, this pollution cost you and your community, the tax payers, some extra money. Now it does create jobs, but is sorting through shit really the types of jobs we want to create?
Why would recycling be so bad?
Well, for exemple paper. To recycle it, recycling plants use chlorine to get the ink out, a chemical extremely harmfull to the environement.
Also, think about how much gaz was used to get those trucks from each of your houses and apartement complexes to the recycling plants.
You seperate things in your kcthen, yet, it all goes back into one big rotting pile when it gets to the factories!
now, the good news:
buying from bulk at your local co-op IS the best you can do for the environement. It saves on packaging, and it saves people from having crappy jobs designing cereal boxes after toothbrush adds and whatnot.
For more details and information about aspects of recycling which you might be surprised by, check out the excellent Penn & Teller show: Bullshit!.
//http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7734998370503499886&q=penn+and+teller
In the end, the best for the environment is a mindfull consumer, and a non wastefull one. so, think about it twice next time you buy candies that are each individually wrapped, next step is wrapping the air and selling it by the ballon, with a nice clean logo on it that says "save the earth, buy fresh air"
What about you? do you recycle, and would you be ready to stop if you realize it is just a nice and conforting fashionnable trend? What facts do you know about recycling business that might help make up our minds?
what trick do you know that saves resources? such as the sticker on your door that says "no advertisers or i'll shut you"?
//http://www.pennandteller.com/
Scarcely any elemental chlorine is used to bleach paper anymore, thanks to the Cluster Rules that went into effect many years ago. Hydrogen peroxide and chlorine dioxide are used to bleach paper more often now.
As for getting the ink off in the first place, that can done by floatation, as the ink particles stick to bubbles, or by magnetic separation if the ink contains magnetic iron particles that were added to facilitate recycling. But chlorine or any other oxidizer cannot do much to inorganic pigments such as carbon black (please, let's not get into a debate as to whether such is organic or not, carbon black is not an organic dye like indigo, which can be bleached.).
Paper bleaching is used to get rid of the brown color from lignin when paper is first made.
I don't know. It seems to be a debated issue.
My brother doesn't recycle anything, believing the arguments that it cost more and pollutes more to recycle something than to make it new. Also, he believes waste management is often controlled by organized crime. Sure, it's not all controlled by organized crime, but there have been major scandels for sure involving recycling.
It seems like recycling aluminum cans is very profitable and must save on the enviornment, energy consumption etc., or they wouldn't pay so much for scrap aluminum?
Steel is easy as it removes with a magnet.
Paper, plastics, glass, seem to take alot of sorting, making them less economical to recycle. But who likes all that stuff in landfills? Landfill owners I guess?
Me, I don't have any trash removal so recycling is sort of a necessity. Sure sometimes, I sneek a bag or two in my neighbors dumpster, but this is what I try to do:
-I try to limit what trash I bring home. (biggest step)
-Garbage gets burned or composted, small amounts can go down the drain where it goes to a septic tank. (I can't put it outside due to bears anyway)
-Burn or recycle paper, cardboard, etc. - If sorted, the local store will take it.
-recycle glass and steel cans at the local store - they will take it for free.
-recycle aluminum at the volunteer firehouse - they take it to raise money for new equipment, etc.
Bulk buying with used bags and bottles for packaging is sure the way to go. I don't buy much; well, as little as possible. I do recycle everything which amounts to a few papers and some plastic milk bottles. As well as long term contamination of the environment we are trying to reduce the need for land-fills to dump our trash in so there is some 'oportunity profit' in that as well.
I never finished the Penn and Teller on Recycling. I got to watching the one on the War on Drugs.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 6815352489 (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3653114296815352489)
"The new prohibition was launch in 1971 by this crazy mother-fucker"
The idea that it would be better to put all my aluminum cans into a landfill is quite silly to me. But they used to think the world is flat. Maybe they still do. Carry on...
-TM
I think that you are confusing several problems to come to a faulty conclusion. The fact that our transportation system relies on fossil fuels and depletes natural resources does not mean we should stop transporting recyclables within that system. It just means we should also pursue research into new sustainable, environmentally friendly fuel sources.
In the meantime, we still ought to recycle every bloody thing we can to prevent the further destruction of our children's planet. It would seem to take just as much fuel to transport garbage to a landfill as recycleables to a processing plant. And if not, then we need to devote more resources to recycling plants and less to destroying old growth forests.
And, if people truly recycled everything that was recycleable, the garbage men would all be out of work, and the recycling plant would be bursting with materials for re-use. I recycle ALL paper, plastic, aluminum, glass, etc. that comes into my home and compost the organic matter, and honestly, at the end each month, I have maybe 1/2 a trash bag of non-recycleable matter to take out to the curb. Most people just don't think about it, or are too lazy to break down all the product packaging and put it in the appropriate pile. Personal apathy probably contributes more to the problem than organized crime, lack of infrastructure, and all other problems combined that would preclude the effective re-use of these maerials.
- If you want to cut down on your junk mail, go to http://opt-out.cdt.org/ (http://opt-out.cdt.org/) and write yourself off the mailing lists.
- Buy, find or make a set of reusable shopping bags to avoid wasting plastic and paper. I got mine at www.ecobags.com (http://www.ecobags.com). Most stores give you a few cents per-bag discount for your effort.
- Join a co-op in your area or find out about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) opportunities at Local Harvest - http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ (http://www.localharvest.org/csa/). Buy your produce from a farmers market or try the 100 mile diet on for size - http://100milediet.org/ (http://100milediet.org/)
- We compost in a spare closet using red worms to both recycle scrap paper and turn all my fruit/vegetable leftovers into high quality potting soil for my plants. Learn more about vermiculture at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost) or get a system like these: http://www.abundantearth.com/store/comp ... rrels.html (http://www.abundantearth.com/store/compostersrainbarrels.html)
- Most major energy utilities now offer "green power" for a per-kW-hour surcharge of about 6-8 cents. Although this increases your energy expenditure, you can sleep with a clear conscience knowing that your power came from hydro, solar or wind sources.
- Offset your carbon! Try going carbon neutral by buying credits for carbon intensive activities like airplane travel.
- Use compact fluorescent light bulbs in your household lamps. They are lower wattage and lower maintenance, last up to 5 times as long and will save you money on your utility bills as well.
- Visit sites like http://www.treehugger.com (http://www.treehugger.com) and http://www.worldchanging.org/ (http://www.worldchanging.org/) to keep up to date on how you help save the planet.
Even if the recycling industry has its problems, we can't throw in the towel and doom future generations because of a few obstacles.
Keep the ideas rolling.
peace,
atreyu
Quote from: "winder"Paper bleaching is used to get rid of the brown color from lignin when paper is first made.
That's always the first thing I think of when confronted with "recycling is a myth" arguments. Although I don't know it for fact, it just seems logical that some sort of bleaching process would have to be used to make new paper (the white kind, anyway.)