Recycle
 

A look at recycling.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2...ors_picks=true

Very interesting. The contrasts between creative art and desperate survival scavenging are striking. No. 3 could be an IotD.

Some of those are more about reusing or repurposing rather than strictly recycling. These are actually better. Recycling often takes a lot of energy.

Then again, maybe "recycling" has linguistically stretched to include these other forms.

We teach the children that the proper order is reduce, reuse, recycle.
Teaching them to turn off taps and turn out lights is important. Sadly, we don't teach them to turn down or turn off the heating :(

We have a very inefficient heating system in school which means uneven distribution.
I currently work in one of the hottest classrooms.

Sweaty.

We use this one:

Tis good.
There's not enough De La Soul in the world today.

Our area has introduced recycling very slowly. When we moved here, about 15 years ago, they had a central area you could take some limited recyclables to and drop them off. A local reporter happened to follow the truck taking the recyclable along the road and watched them dump the whole thing into the landfill. After that all recycling in the area ceased. It was a bummer. Nothing was done for about 12 more years until they started curbside recycling where you put EVERYTHING into the the same bin. Now it is completely easy. Our recycle bin fills up a twice the rate of our old trash bin. We have not been able to get a second bin and really need one as the pick up is only every other week. Anyway I feel a lot better about the whole thing as when we had guests they would always ask, "Do you recycle?", as the went to throw the can or bottle in the trash. I no longer have to make excuses.

All of this goes into the bin:

All paper products
All forms of plastic
All glass
All metal
Batteries
Anything you don't want in a landfill.

This is one of my pet peeves. Spending limited money on limited resources with terrible results. Considering the resources put into construction, poor building design is inexcusable. If I could start my work-life all over again, I think livable building design would be a great path.

It's not too late.

All of our trash go to the incinerator to make electricity.

That's a great list. I've never heard of one that takes batteries before.

There's probably still a materials recycle facility at the front end, to take out any valuable materials.

Maybe. I don't have any faith in the companies who run incinerators.

Detroit just ratified changes to the city charter, which included a mandate to start a recycling program.

I'm not sure what you mean.

The operating company will do what ever makes them the most money. You can't really burn metals and glass, so those have to be removed from the waste stream before putting the combustibles into the burner or gasifier. If they're worth anything, they'll be recycled.

Rocks, dirt, broken concrete, etc. are taken out and used for road base or daily cover.

If the paper, cardboard, plastic, etc. materials are worth anything, they'll be recycled. If not, they'll be burned.

I'm older than I act... but you're right, maybe next stage.

I hope so.

Even when I lived in London (where all recycling went into the same bin) batteries were not accepted.
BUT many shops have their own battery recycling points now.
Off the top of my head, I've walked past them in Tesco, Sainsbury's, WHSmith, Boots.
I assume there is some value in it.

What I respect more is that the above named stores also recycle Christmas cards. I don't expect there is any real profit in that, but it's better than going into landfill.

Bit of thread drift - anyone read the new James Bond by Jeffery Deaver?
Carte Blanche.

You're probably right about hard fill and scrap metal. But, my understanding of how it works here is that they don't really care. What seems to make them money is a combination of questionable contracts with the city and high volume. They call it all "green" and get EPA grants on the ground that a small amount of the energy involved is converted into hot steam and/or electricity.

I'm only familiar with the incinerator situation in Detroit, and I'm projecting that skepticism fairly broadly, I admit. But, the profit margins on recycling are pretty slim. It seems easier to me to just say, 'fuck it, burn it all' and sell whatever is left as hard fill.

Detroit is special.

Not sure if everyone will think this is relevant but I do. If you have never watched this it is really quite good.

I was raking my leaves tonight, after a day of doing everyone else's. We have huge wheelie bins for compost. THEY NEED TO HAVE CUPHOLDERS. (for my beer) That is all.