Recycling is a waste

[Richard Cranium]

 

[Dipstick]

From a homeowner's standpoint it does make sense, put all plastic in the recycle can to save space in your trash can. Let the re-cycler decide what is and what isn't recyclable.

 

[toolmanmike]

Talk about trash

 

[kiwigtx]

Talk about trash

View attachment 1773240

Rejected by the recycle bin.

 

[kiwigtx]

I actually do work for a company here who has been experimenting with different ways to use recovered plastics and food waste.

They have success with food waste - as it can be turned into useful and cheap animal feed for sheep, cattle etc. They get loads of wasted food from supermarkets, growers and auction houses, then combine it in various quantities of 'human food' like potato chips, milk, breads etc. Combinations are the key to avoid over-dosing animals with the wrong type of foods and potentially causing bloat or other issues with cows for example.

When it comes to plastics, the machinery I set up was to start with grinding the plastic waste, then after sieving it, run it though an extrusion process and into usable pellets. The process has become refined more over the past two years, and the resulting pellets have been mixed with concrete and asphalt to see what sort of useful end products could benefit most. If used in the likes of cycleways it means less of the raw products involved in asphalt are required for a similar end product.

Concrete is more difficult, although the science behind the blending is solid. It is determining at what level of strength and structure the end product is best suited to.

Having said all of that, there is a good cause for recycling, but even as environmentally conscious as my client is, they admit to only being able to use a small fraction of the waste encountered. It is really only a box-ticking exercise to a certain degree at this time.

 

[torredcuda]

From a homeowner's standpoint it does make sense, put all plastic in the recycle can to save space in your trash can. Let the re-cycler decide what is and what isn't recyclable.

Having to buy special trash bags for my town at $2/piece the more I can put in the recycle bin the less it costs me, it`s nice to think it also helps the environment by using less energy and putting less in the landfill.

 

[Skytrooper]

I used crushed concrete on my driveway. It is cheaper than gravel or asphalt milling, and after a couple rains, sets up very hard…like concrete. I am going to get 20 tons in the spring of finer crushed to top coat my driveway and in the dog kennel.

 

[Photon440]

Outside my work area, we have lots of dumpsters, both for regular garbage and separate ones for cardboard only.

I've seen the truck driver come and empty trash bins, then empty the cardboard bins right into the same truck.

 

[Photon440]

I used crushed concrete on my driveway. It is cheaper than gravel or asphalt milling, and after a couple rains, sets up very hard…like concrete. I am going to get 20 tons in the spring of finer crushed to top coat my driveway and in the dog kennel.

I've used crushed concrete as well, not only for walkways but also as aggregate when mixing new concrete.

 

[Don selleck]

some of documentaries I've seen show stockpiles of recyclable plastics shipped to other countries and just stockpiled, recycling must cost more to recycle than making it new.

 

[Don selleck]

I've used crushed concrete also costs $2 less a yard which adds up if your buying enough, only issue here is I find metal in it. just have to walk it over a few times and keep an eye out for it

 

[Rishi]

Some things can indeed be recycled and put to good use. I'm all for the conservation of energy and natural resources. But plastics, well, that's been a deceptive ruse as bad as the "synthetic opioids aren't addictive" propaganda the big pharma pushed on us, decades ago.

Big Oil wants us to buy in to the plastics recycling idea to deepen their pockets and help keep plastic in demand. And by California mandate, (currently) 75% of solid waste must be recycled, but the recycling industry has struggled to meet each of the stepped requirements since enacted back in 2014. They've fallen considerably short at every milestone.

That 75% number is significant, because studies show about 75% of the solid waste in landfills originates from commercial sources. Yet, it's the residents that are asked to sort, even wash! containers, and help the process along. There are even fines for not doing so, though I've never heard of this being enforced. And the recycling companies struggle to figure out what to do with it. It's an encumbrance to them, and they seem to just want to sweep the material under the rug.

You can pass a law, but it doesn't mean it will be obeyed.

In some cases, recycling consumes more energy to reuse, than making a new material. Recycling can, in some cases, cost the consumer more than a non-recyclable equivalent. But what can you do? We gotta do something.

We cannot just keep pulling material (crude oil) out of the ground, that we cannot renew as fast as we consume it. Matter we reintroduce back into our ecosystem, expecting that ecosystem to absorb additional carbon (and other material) that was taking out, millions of years ago, to produce the balanced and healthy ecosystem our species was able to flourish in.

Its becoming pretty clear that balanced system is now in jeopardy (by global warming) as it struggles to adapt.

It's spooky, crazy stuff to get your head around. But I agree we have to do something. I feel bad for those 5-10 generations from now, and what they will have to deal with.

 

[RemCharger]

Outside my work area, we have lots of dumpsters, both for regular garbage and separate ones for cardboard only.

I've seen the truck driver come and empty trash bins, then empty the cardboard bins right into the same truck.

But look at the fuel saved...
Just can't win..

 

[Kern Dog]

There is NO global warming, Rishi.

 

[kiwigtx]

I used crushed concrete on my driveway. It is cheaper than gravel or asphalt milling, and after a couple rains, sets up very hard…like concrete. I am going to get 20 tons in the spring of finer crushed to top coat my driveway and in the dog kennel.

Our local Steel Mill sells crushed slag for various projects. Friend of mine did his driveway with it ....that stuff grades out nice (flat and stays put) - and actually does not move much even when turning on it Looks very tidy and has good colour to it. It is also very cheap.

 

[68BabyBlue]

I dealt with recycling first hand, hauling furnace dust laced with toxic heavy metals. The economics of the process fluctuated considerably. Nickel was my go to metal that kept the lights on. When the market was strong, a 22 ton load of nickel saturated dust was like black gold. Even when prices were soft, I could still price my hauling rates high enough to keep the lights on, cheap compared to the market value of my cargo. Zinc and and cadmium were wild cards. Zinc was marginally profitable for the recycler, but cadmium, a major waste stream from recycled batteries, was a loser. The shipper I hauled for, when under smart management, ran it through a smelter for reclamation at a loss, to avoid compliance issues with the EPA. The later ownership bypassed the process, and loaded it straight into my trailer. They got busted, and went bankrupt in the process.

 

[torredcuda]

I don`t get how in some areas residents are pretty much forced to recycle but for the most part small and big companies don`t. Plastics may not be cost effective to recycle but what is the alternative, we already have over 8 million tons of it in our oceans! The climate change people all seem to be focused on ICE vehicles thinking that if we all buy EVs we will save the planet but there are so many other ways we pollute that could be stopped, ironically including digging for minerals to make batteries and plastics for EVs. A Guide to Plastic in the Ocean

 

[33 IMP]

Recycling in california is a money-thieving scam, by the state of California!
They charge up to a dime for each large soda bottle. A nickel per 12 Oz. can. When you take them back to the recycle yard, if you get a penny, you did great!
I'd be willing to bet that california rakes in millions of dollars a day. Where does it go?
Let's not even mention the ten cents per grocery bag tax,, that the consumer can't get any of back!

 

[Hey-O]

I've seen the truck driver come and empty trash bins, then empty the cardboard bins right into the same truck.

We stop doing recycling because of that very issue. I don't have the patience to play a game they don't take seriously themselves. I gave them back their recycling dumpster, it was taking up to much space in this little a** garage of mine. I have one bag of trash a week, usually, and the girls next door use mine for their overflow.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Outside my work area, we have lots of dumpsters, both for regular garbage and separate ones for cardboard only.

I've seen the truck driver come and empty trash bins, then empty the cardboard bins right into the same truck.

The town we previously lived in, didn't have trash pickup, rather they had a town dump with recycling dumpsters for everything you can imagine.
There was separate dumpsters for paper, shredded paper, cardboard, corrugated cardboard, aluminum cans, tin cans and the worst of it was separating plastic bottles and jugs by the recycle number on the bottom of each item.

I'm so glad that were are gone from that nanny-state town.

Where we live now, we have trash pickup weekly & recycle pickup every other week. All of our paper, cardboard, plastic, glass & metal go into one barrel.