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Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

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Re: Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

#281

Post by learc83 »

Tharkun wrote: post #176
learc83 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dry composting toilets are not remotely practical for high density areas like NYC.

Hmm, that's probably a good point. NYC residents likely have little use for compost. And having to wheel bales (?) of dried poop out of your flat could get a bit annoying. Then again, presumably they already take out their trash, so maybe it's not totally unfeasible?

It's difficult to fully sterilize the compost, and it's very easy to end up with compost that is full of pathogens and parasites. With millions of people in a small area, I think that alone makes this idea infeasible.

The toilets also don't produce bales of dried poop, the composting only partially completes in the toilet itself--it has to be completed outside in a compost heap.

Also dry composting toilets tend to produce more odors than the average person wants to deal with in their small living space.

Re: Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

#282

Post by lstodd »

smileysteve wrote: post #110
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That study only looked at resource usage, and not the consequences of carelessly discarded shopping bags clogging up rivers and beaches. The best shopping bag to use is still an upcycled bag made from otherwise discarded material, as you are not creating demand for the production of new bags. Sail cloth is a good sturdy fabric, and a bag made from it will literally last you a lifetime.

Brag, I've been reusing the same backpack from high school for over a decade. It carries about 30l or 16lbs of fluids, I've had the zippers repaired once, and I probably use it at least one a week.

This. I shop with a 10 year old Deuter, and although it looks worn, I expect it to last at least another 10 years.

It is also healthier for your spine than an equivalent bunch of bags, and keeps hands free. What's not to like?

Re: Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

#283

Post by C4stor »

barrkel wrote: post #259
coldtea wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my experience, products advertising "made using recycled materials" tend to be more expensive than without That's not necessarily because of their higher cost to produce. It's often because they target higher end "environmentally conscious" customers, and use the "made with recycled materials" as a price differentiation / market segmentation strategy (working class Joe? get our $1 notebook. Latte-sipping hipster…

You'd still expect recycled material to be used in preference to virgin materials for cheap products, if recycled material is actually more efficient.

This doesn't forbid using recycled materials for cheaps products, you just don't advertise it.

Re: Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

#284

Post by skybrian »

MisterTea wrote: post #275
dwild wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My mother-in-law would run the cans and bottles through the dishwasher before putting them in the rcycle bin. That seems to be the issue, not the recycling program. > Just driving the truck around the neighborhood to pick up the bins is a cost in diesel, human resources (which translate to carbon at some level). The same truck would still drive arround though if you didn't have recycling program, it will just be a b…

> The same truck would still drive arround though if you didn't have recycling program, it will just be a black truck instead of a green one. It might not depending on the system in place. Many recycling programs require two truck routes to separately collect the trash and recycling. This doubles the amount of trucks and human labor but the trash load produced by each property stays the same. In NYC there are separat…

For us, the recycling only gets picked up every two weeks, so that will be 50% more driving, not double.

Also, if the garbage trucks fill up slower, there should be some reduction in trips to empty them.

Re: Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

#285

Post by NickM »

Scoundreller wrote: post #260
NickM wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but some landfills capture that methane and pump it back into the natural gas grid. I don't know the details of how efficient or widespread this type of capturing scheme is, but it seems to me like this is probably actually more sustainable than using natural gas from drilling and fracking.

Usually they just burn it on-site through generators in containers. It’s too dirty to put in the natural gas grid.

Ah, thanks for the correction, I didn't realize that. Still seems like it's not a bad way to generate electricity though.

Re: Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

#286

Post by contactlight11 »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #186
contactlight11 wrote: post #154

How about this information from CT's DEEP which quotes the EPA for the majority of it's information? Compared to virgin materials, using recycled materials more efficient by: - 40% for paper - 60-74% for steel and tin cans - 33% for plastics - 30% for glass - 5% for aluminum cans These numbers appear to be referencing the generation of new products using recycled vs new materials, but do they fail to take in to accou…

> first step realize that happiness is not automatically linked to consumption I’ve always thought that framing the issue like this is both smug and dishonest. Smug because you’re essentially saying that people are wrong about the things they believe bring them satisfaction and comfort. Dishonest because reduce in this context will always mean a reduction in quality of life. Aside from being an ineffective way to con…

I agree, I think a lot of the "reduce consumption or you are wasting your time/money/harming the environment" propaganda takes it too far.

I stated it the way I did to point out that happiness is not linked to consumption in the sense that more consumption does not always equate to more happiness. On the flip side, I was also not referring to a reduction of consumption to the point that it influences one's quality of life. Personally, over the last few months I've noticed some purchases I made in the past that I didn't need or didn't use enough to make it worth it, or where I could have used something I already had on-hand. I use that as a learning opportunity, to adjust my mindset into the future by creating a couple of simple guidelines before making semi-major purchases (did I sleep on it, did I do adequate research into pros/cons/alternatives without going crazy, etc).

Quite to the contrary of what you are saying, I find a reduction of purchases in this way will positively contribute to my quality of life, both in the present and in the future with increased savings rate and decreased clutter. I'd much rather live in a place where I wasn't looking at stuff I don't use and feeling bad about it. I think you falsely equated my statement and this idea about reduction with the millennial's definition of minimalism. That carries a smug connotation, I'm just talking about mindfulness that fits seamlessly into place with your current lifestyle. I even tried not to take a stance on the issue, and only stated that consumption is both the products you buy and the ways you go about doing things, not that anyone who consumes above X amount is evil.

Re: Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

#287

Post by adwww »

MisterTea wrote: post #275
dwild wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My mother-in-law would run the cans and bottles through the dishwasher before putting them in the rcycle bin. That seems to be the issue, not the recycling program. > Just driving the truck around the neighborhood to pick up the bins is a cost in diesel, human resources (which translate to carbon at some level). The same truck would still drive arround though if you didn't have recycling program, it will just be a b…

> The same truck would still drive arround though if you didn't have recycling program, it will just be a black truck instead of a green one. It might not depending on the system in place. Many recycling programs require two truck routes to separately collect the trash and recycling. This doubles the amount of trucks and human labor but the trash load produced by each property stays the same. In NYC there are separat…

In most of the UK now, recycling is collected more frequently than non-recycling. For us, non-recycling is only collected every 2 weeks, and the bin issued for it is half the size of the recycling bin.

Food waste is still collected weekly, and is sent to an anaerobic digestion plant.

Re: Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated

#289

Post by greedo »

mikepurvis wrote: post #241
Liron wrote: post #30

We really shot ourselves in the foot with this whole pointless "recycling paper and plastic" thing huh? The convenience of throwing something away is a triumph of modern civilization and one of life's little pleasures, and we had to ruin it by acting like it's wrong when it's actually not. When I walk up to some wastebins holding a papery-plasticky object with a bit of food stuck to it, my heart sinks. Now I have to…

It boggles my mind that modern fast food restaurants don't have a clear board above the multi-receptacle trash area telling you which bin each single-use item they serve goes into. I mean, maybe that's partly because it doesn't matter and in the end they're just combining it all and sending everything to landfill regardless. But still; they got the bins, how much harder can it be to put up a sign?

Aren't most of the things sold by fast food restaurants contaminated and thus un-recyclable?
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