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What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

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Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#21

Post by yndoendo »

Proper recycling improves national security and the well-being of their citizens.

Good example is South Korea. They were devastated after continual war in the 1950s. So they implemented mandatory recycling. Food waste goings into bin A, metals into bin B, plastics into bin C, ... This allows for reducing the cost of recycling by presorting items. It helped them rebuild and become stronger. To this day they still properly separate their garbage to ease recycling.

Recycling food waste and scraps means creating a nutrient rich fertilize resource. Tossing them into a land fill removes nutrients from the food chain. USA food has less nutrients than years past because of the push for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#22

Post by rendang »

hansvm wrote: post #14
swinnipeg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would wager the median number of uses per cotton bag is way below 173 store visits.

I bet you're right. Why though? I've gotten thousands of uses out of mine. Even if you shop infrequently that just means they'll wear out more slowly, so surely that's viable for everyone else, maybe with a 7yr break-even point for an every-2-week shopper?

Because I remember to take mine maybe 25% of the time

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#24

Post by prmoustache »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #7
swinnipeg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would wager the median number of uses per cotton bag is way below 173 store visits.

Based on my own usage patterns i'd get really roughly that number before they fell apart. The trader joes "burlap" style bag I like would get me about 1 trip a week for about 3 years. It is, notably, plastic lined though.

"fell appart", really?

Or do they sometimes have a part of the stitching failing that takes 2 minutes to repair with a needle and a cotton thread?

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#25

Post by jayknight »

leonixyz wrote: post #3

The authors think reusing a cotton bag for 173 times is difficult - that's all we need to say about this article. When recommendation for landfilling comes from this kind of sources, I think we can safely assume we are doing absolutely great with our demands to reuse, repair and recycle!

I bought 4 quite large heavy duty canvas bags in like 2005 and have been grocery shopping with them since then. I almost never buy more than will fit in those (actually, most trips I just take two of them).

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#26

Post by lokar »

RattlesnakeJake wrote: post #11
leonixyz wrote: post #3

The authors think reusing a cotton bag for 173 times is difficult - that's all we need to say about this article. When recommendation for landfilling comes from this kind of sources, I think we can safely assume we are doing absolutely great with our demands to reuse, repair and recycle!

If I bought one cotton bag and used it for my whole life, the argument would seem silly. In reality, a household can easily gain 5-10 new tote bags a year as businesses hand them out as swag or with legitimate collections of items or paperwork. There's no way to use them all enough to justify their manufacturing. The point the article is making is that the "use fewer plastic bags" thing was well-intended, but it ince…

If you have enough bags, you don’t need to keep accepting new ones. We have used the same collection of bags for over 15 years.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#27

Post by beej71 »

I don't want another landfill. Ours is almost full and they're talking about converting a beautiful valley into the next one. And it's way father out of town. Shipping trash ain't free.

There's a balance between safety, cost, and energy use that should be struck. "Just landfill" doesn't seem to be chasing that balance.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#28

Post by prmoustache »

leonixyz wrote: post #3

The authors think reusing a cotton bag for 173 times is difficult - that's all we need to say about this article. When recommendation for landfilling comes from this kind of sources, I think we can safely assume we are doing absolutely great with our demands to reuse, repair and recycle!

Also the best way to manage waste is to not generate it in the first place.

I visited some places that package nearly all their vegetables and fruits in 1 use plastic containers, this is bonkers.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#29

Post by nancyminusone »

That's fine if said trash actually ends up in the landfill. When it ends up ont the grass next to the parking lot is when you start to get the idea that we're all living in each others filth.

Also I disagree that energy should be the item to minimize. It makes sense if you are burning stuff for it, but we've known how to get free energy from the sky for quite a while.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#30

Post by mingus88 »

prmoustache wrote: post #28
leonixyz wrote: post #3

The authors think reusing a cotton bag for 173 times is difficult - that's all we need to say about this article. When recommendation for landfilling comes from this kind of sources, I think we can safely assume we are doing absolutely great with our demands to reuse, repair and recycle!

Also the best way to manage waste is to not generate it in the first place. I visited some places that package nearly all their vegetables and fruits in 1 use plastic containers, this is bonkers.

Right, if we have a limited resource of something valuable, should we just use it up once and throw out the product entirely?

If plastic is so efficient, why wouldn’t we make reusable bags out of it instead of cotton? Why is the argument to waste it?

We aren’t getting more oil.

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