Some of the things you've always heard about recycling may have been true at one time, but times change. Other things may be partially true, but you'll get the whole explanation at Popular Mechanics, in the post Recycling Myths: PM Debunks 5 Half Truths about Recycling. Altogether, recycling is becoming easier and more cost-effective every year! http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4290631.html -Thanks, Geekazoid!
ah plenty of time to enjoy the good life now
Reduce and Reuse are vastly superior options compared to Recycle.
The first choice is to reduce out use of disposable materials. For example, using low-volume flush toilets.
The second choice is to reuse disposable materials with little or no processing. Such as using untreated waste water for irrigation.
The last priority is to recycle our waste. This is what water treatment plants do.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15241
Reusing or recycling?
At home we recycle as much as possible.
Also, pay attention to how much plastic you go through in a day- sandwich bags, plastic windows on mail, grocery store bags, the friggin' packaging on toys these days, etc. Keep in mind it will take centuries for this plastic to "go away" in a landfill. It is an eye opener.
"Recycling" can have a broad or narrow definition. The broad one means not throwing the scrap in a landfill and thus includes reuse. The more narrow one means to reprocess the waste, often at low efficiency and a LOT of energy (gas/oil/electric) expense.
As for the Omnivore's Dilemma: I've heard the author speak in interviews (NPR maybe for one...) and he's rather unrealistic in many spots. He would have a WHOLE lot more credulity if he were actually a farmer or had some experience in the subject. He doesn't and it shows. Some of the things he pushes makes sense, but a lot of it if adopted on a wide scale would result in hugely dramatic drops in agrcultural efficiency. Establishing self-sufficiency in lots of little farms as he suggests eliminates a lot of huge efficiency benefits that come from having Farmer A plant a lot of corn, Farmer B concentrate on apples, Farmer C on dairy, &c. Distributing the crops enables each farm to operate at MUCH higher levels of efficiency than they would if each grew a little of everything and had to buy less pecialized equipment to handle the gamut. His method has some idealistic benefits, but the current method (while not flawless) enables a LOT more food to be produced for the whole world on less land and with less energy input. For an individual *subsistence* farmer, his ideas have merit to keep the family fed. To feed a nation or the world, no.
Straight Talk from Sid.
Yeah, recycling Alumin(i)um is a no brainer it saves a ton of energy. The other materials get more questionable. The PM article (I read the print version) is pretty good.
@Miss Cellania - that's some great reuse
@Kev - "lukewarm about plastic recycling" fits me pretty well too.
I refuse to buy anything that is recycled. They always sell recycled stuff at about the same price as virgin, but their cost is only 10% of total price. I see that as a 90% markup to take advance of people.
Stop smoking pot and let your brain clear.
which goes to show there is cash in recycling, by the way I stick a lot of my stuff in the worm bin this cuts out a lot of the problems...
Many thanks - have a great day!