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

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

#201

Post by xvilka » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:15 AM UTC

deepGem wrote: post #182

49para wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or perhaps we could just stop creating it in the first place. Is there really a need for all of the one use plastics or the excessive packaging ?

My city Bangalore effectively enforced a plastic ban. So some grocery stores now only have paper bags even to pack veggies. I think it's doable. The government enforced the ban as there was no alternative, we don't have enough space for landfills. A city like Singapore however uses a lot of plastic and thermocol. I wonder where they find space for their landfills. Probably they are doing the same, exporting all the t…

China still accepts rare-earth/metal trash, but also properly sorted trash too. For example, recently mainland declined to accept Hong Kong trash until they implement sorting. On these conditions, they can continue sending their garbage to the mainland China.

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

#202

Post by HenryBemis » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:16 AM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #150

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…

What if all the "progress" was just an illusion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants#Plot_summa... "Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking that the quality of life is improved by all the products placed on the market."

I recently have 'converted' to minimalism, after having watched a few documentaries (Minimalism, True Cost, etc.) it made perfect sense to me that since using MORE and recycling MORE is not the solution (especially when 'recycling' it not actual recycling) and now I feel and I do better for me, and the planet's future.

I also came across this nice video: The History of Stuff [1] that describes ncely the current production - consumption model and why it is not sustainable.

It is 20mins long but I found a great educating value to it.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

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

#203

Post by WalterBright » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:24 AM UTC

cladari wrote: post #196

WalterBright wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Correcting by stamping white ink over a letter was indeed a marvelous improvement, but nothing like what came later with a word processor. Later word processors, like the Wang in the late 70's, destroyed Selectrics, and obsoleted the job of "secretary".

I remember my Mom typing his thesis over and over on the Royal typewriter. What a boring, dehumanizing task that was.

My dad abandoned his typewriter when he bought a Trash-80. I abandoned my typewriter when I discovered the printer in the computer center at Caltech around 1975. I'd use runoff, a marvelous program that is a precursor to HTML.

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

#204

Post by jogjayr » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:35 AM UTC

jiaweihli wrote: post #27

How do compostable products compare to recyclable ones? How much better/worse are they and how much impact do they have?

A lot of people don't know that "compostable", "biodegradable" or "corn/plant-based" plastics ONLY break down in commercial composting facilities where temperatures are maintained at 60˚C for a month or two.[1] You can't just toss them into a landfill or backyard compost heap and expect earthworms or microbes to do the rest.

The green symbols on the plastic and the eco-friendly marketing fools a lot of people. I don't know how many people in cities lacking curbside compost pickup programs happily buy this stuff guilt-free and think they're doing their bit for the environment.

1. https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-scienc...

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

#205

Post by jogjayr » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:37 AM UTC

pfranz wrote: post #58

jiaweihli wrote: post #27

How do compostable products compare to recyclable ones? How much better/worse are they and how much impact do they have?

Just my opinion, but compostable doesn't make that great of a product in a lot of places they're being pushed. I've seen a bunch of places switch to compostable silverware and cups. The silverware is a lot less durable than plastic (which is already a low bar) and coffee lids don't fit properly. One place I frequent uses them and I constantly hear others complain and discover this for themselves. I sound like an old…

They're also only compostable in commercial composting facilities. And most people live in cities where there isn't any curbside composting program to send these materials to commercial composting facilities. See my other comment in this same thread for more details.

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

#206

Post by dajohnson89 » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 3:54 AM UTC

czps wrote: post #98

dang wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . HN is a community. Users needn't use their real name, but should have some identity for others to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. There are legit use…

Generally when I reach a certain number of points I destroy the account by changing the password to something that I can’t remember and I don’t use an email address with my accounts. There is no delete option that I’m aware of. I’ve been on the site for a long time. Since the beginning. I didn’t know you guys kept track of MAC addresses or however else you track this stuff. I won’t do it again. This is the push I’ve…

Why didn't you just use a single account?

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

#207

Post by schrectacular » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 4:32 AM UTC

berbec wrote: post #125

mikewilliams wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recycling will never be profitable, but we can't just keep burying trash and forgetting about it, or maybe we can, I don't know.

I don't know about never. The price of a product is related to its scarcity. At a certain point, there will be recyclable materials we are almost out of. At that point, I can see recycling becoming very profitable. I can see a time when we mine garbage dumps for materials.

I think about this a lot too. Plastic is extremely energy-dense. The landfills of today could easily be the fuel mines if the future. And yes, it will be full of contaminants, but coal is tainted with heavy metals and radioactive materials.

Anyway, recycling has always been a resource drain to make people feel good. It's definitely better to recapture and contain as much waste as possible, but people don't think about things like how much water is wasted by rinsing all those bottles out.

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

#208

Post by buttcoinslol » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 4:42 AM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #124

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…

I assure you that anything metal gets recycled. It's much cheaper to recycle than dig more ore out of the ground. tosses brake rotors in city recycling pickup bucket

In my neighborhood, you can leave metal objects on the curb and they're gone within hours, loaded into a pickup or trailer and taken to the scrap metal recyclers for cash. That came in handy when I was doing rental property maintenance, but unfortunately used mattresses have 0 scrap value.

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

#209

Post by dang » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 4:57 AM UTC

aviv wrote: post #173

barbecue_sauce wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poverty? Marketing?

What? It's often helpful to form a full sentence if you want others to engage in a discussion with you.

Since we asked you repeatedly not to do flamewars like this, I've banned this account.

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

#210

Post by anonymous5133 » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 5:11 AM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #2

The packaging industry is going to fight tooth and nail so it can continue to spew out single use plastics for every single sales transaction that occurs. There's big money involved. Imagine the costs to the packaging industry if it was no longer allowed to create infinite garbage. I do find it strange that there seems to be zero noticeable social pressure on bottled drink companies to stop using single use plastic b…

I think there will eventually be a public outcry since now based on the research, it appears that plastic has made a full loop into the human food chain. Plastic fibers are being found in human sewage...which basically means we have plastic in our diets.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/news-...