As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling • Hacker News Board

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#191

Post by abrowne » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 2:56 AM UTC

ineedasername wrote: post #164

JulianMorrison wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was an illusion. Specifically, it was an illusion that allowed capitalism as normal to largely continue, with a bit of greenwashing here and there. Things you can actually recycle: Aluminium, iron/steel scrap, and to a lesser extent glass. Plastic was never recyclable in the sense of "circular economy indefinitely". Recycling was never an effective way to save resources, compared to its ugly stepsisters "reuse" an…

Paper must be recyclable, or else all of these "made from 100% recycled paper product" things wouldn't be possible, nor the many actual plants the recycle paper.

Some are things like the scraps from the factory when they trim the edges of the sheets of paper. But some things are labeled as having some "post-consumer" recycled paper content.

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#192

Post by ip26 » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 2:57 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #18

It makes me wonder if we were ever really recycling, or if "recycling" was a marketing buzzword for "cheaply dumping your trash in China". I seem to remember a lot of controversy over recycling in the 80s and early 90s, with my local town government insisting it was too expensive. Suddenly everything changed in the late 90s, right around the time that globalization took off, and recycle bins took off everywhere. By t…

Single-stream recycling may well have been an illusion. Certain types of plastics, too. But clean streams of many types of recyclables are even today still plenty profitable.

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#193

Post by BrandonMarc » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 2:59 AM UTC

skriticos2 wrote: post #158

sverhagen wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume there's a lot of things cheaper to recycle than to create new, but the problem is how to extract/separate it out of an overwhelming stream of unrelated materials, is it not?

Person from Germany here where we have 4 different bins per household - paper, recyclables (metal, plastic), compostables and dump (+ glass by color, batteries and electronics at dedicated sites). We get to a recycling rate of about 20-30% (effective at plant) with really wanting to and having it ingrained into our culture. Recycling is hard at the best of times. Unless packaging gets much better at identifying as re…

Consider also: recycled black plastic is often made from electronic waste, which isn't done very carefully, and so black plastic often has heavy metals from computer components. Problem is, this recycled black plastic is often used for food containers.

What could possibly go wrong?

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#194

Post by BearsAreCool » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:00 AM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #152

username3 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IP addresses change.

You only need an IP address overlap one time to link two accounts. It's pretty much guaranteed to happen if you aren't actively avoiding it. But let's revisit the fact that remote servers cannot see a MAC address.

If I remember correctly IE used to have a way to view mac addresses through javascript.

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#195

Post by mirimir » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:01 AM UTC

ip26 wrote: post #192

nostrademons wrote: post #18

It makes me wonder if we were ever really recycling, or if "recycling" was a marketing buzzword for "cheaply dumping your trash in China". I seem to remember a lot of controversy over recycling in the 80s and early 90s, with my local town government insisting it was too expensive. Suddenly everything changed in the late 90s, right around the time that globalization took off, and recycle bins took off everywhere. By t…

Single-stream recycling may well have been an illusion. Certain types of plastics, too. But clean streams of many types of recyclables are even today still plenty profitable.

Copper and brass, for example. Maybe too profitable.

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#196

Post by cladari » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:03 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #178

joe_the_user wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" What was profitable for 1990s China would not have been profitable for the US. " And may not be "profitable" for China. Indeed, one might argue China got a leg up in development by trading environmental destruction for capital - but now they have the capital and the destruction is haunting them. And that's the thing. Recycling everything might be affordable but when skimming the best and tossing the rest is more pr…

> recycle all the CRTs I'm really glad to be done with those. Ugh. Back around 1970 my dad said the world was waiting for two great inventions: 1. A TV you could hang on the wall like a picture 2. A typewriter that you could back up and correct mistakes on. (Few people likely remember Whiteout. Glad to be done with that, too!) And great inventions they turned out to be :-)

If he said that in 1970 he only had 3 years wait for item 2. The IBM Selectric II Correcting was introduced in '73.

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#197

Post by BrandonMarc » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:04 AM UTC

selimthegrim wrote: post #114

rdtsc wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I called it a "a dystopian win-win" :-)

Recyclables, Please! Steam greenlight that stat. I’d buy it. Maybe the plot twist is you’re homeless all along!

Or the recyclables are made out of people.

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#198

Post by ciceryadam » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:04 AM UTC

aviv wrote: post #25

glial wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a narrow perspective - the root case is the broader expectations about packaging, from both producers and consumers. Lots of food comes wrapped in single-use plastic, too. It's one way to keep food shelf-stable. We need alternative packaging (or package re-use), since can't stop buying food.

I would argue most of what you are referring to as "food" is not and should not be considered food for humans though.

Isn't single-use plastic what's rice/pasta/legumes packaged in, most of the time?

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#199

Post by foxhop » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:09 AM UTC

I have a family of 5 (three young children). We don't bother trying to recycle paper or cardboard anymore. We compost it or use it in the garden as sheet mulch.

Still our recycling bin fills faster than our "trash" due to packaging.

I also make eco bricks out of any plastic bags or plastic wrappers.

Re: As Costs Skyrocket, More U.S. Cities Stop Recycling

#200

Post by millstone » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:12 AM UTC

foxhop wrote: post #199

I have a family of 5 (three young children). We don't bother trying to recycle paper or cardboard anymore. We compost it or use it in the garden as sheet mulch. Still our recycling bin fills faster than our "trash" due to packaging. I also make eco bricks out of any plastic bags or plastic wrappers.

Please share more about your eco bricks, this is the first I've heard of them. Is it as simple as filling a 2L plastic bottle with other plastics? Do you donate them, what are they used for?