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[phanatic]

This story from Wisconsin demonstrates what a joke recycling programs are:

For April Little, village administrator in Belleville, the potential loss of $18,482 to help run the village's $46,155 recycling program means dramatic cuts will likely be necessary--less material recycled and more waste into landfills

Comments

[evilegg]

Uh... yeah. We don't recycle. We refuse bags and reuse boxes but recycling is for the birds.
Oh- but at work they save all the tiny bits of aluminum from the ends of sticks of molding and pay for all sorts of stuff for the employees, like YUMMY SNACKS of pizza and fresh pretzels.

[ernunnos]

Recycling means the garbage truck comes twice a week. I'm paying for it anyway, so the boxes and cans and bottles go out when I get the opportunity.

And isn't glass actually a net-positive when recycling? It still takes energy to re-melt it, but not as much as going all the way from sand. And apparently some of the uses (eg. additives for concrete) don't require melting, just crushing.

[phanatic]

It still takes energy to re-melt it, but not as much as going all the way from sand. And apparently some of the uses (eg. additives for concrete) don't require melting, just crushing.

If it was more economical, then someone would be willing to pay you for your empty six-packs, just like they are with aluminum cans. I haven't seen anyone offering.

[ernunnos]

I think this may be one of those things where the government-mandated recycling is displacing private business. I remember taking glass to the dump with my relatives in Maryland back in the '80s for money. They were separating it out by color right there, and it was going into grinders, so there was definitely some recycling going on. It wasn't just bottles, either.

[seawasp]

Not at all. Economy of scale dominates here. The government already has to send trucks around to gather stuff from individual domiciles and can arrange to do so much more easily, AND can provide direct convincing/incentives to make people bring the stuff to the curb.

A private enterprise that might be making, oh, $100/ton on your boxes is not going to find it economical to pick up your 10 pounds of cardboard by driving out there to get them. They WILL make money picking up the 4 tons of cardboard from your local supermarket every week.

If re-melting and so on to make glass is more efficient, it's still not necessarily efficient enough to make it worthwhile for a private enterprise to run a door-to-door salvage operation. Might be worthwhile to run the dump's recycling center, however, if the government's already done the collection for you.

I know nothing about this stuff. so:

[evelynne]

When the price of oil starts to skyrocket, since we've apparently already hit peak oil, will it become cheaper to recycle plastic? And if so, will all the plastic people have separated out be easier to get at for recycling than it would if we'd dumped it all with other stuff in the landfill?

Re: I know nothing about this stuff. so:

[seawasp]

No, it'll just become economical to start making oil from shale, coal, etc. instead of drilling for it.

And if we get off our butts and build enough nuclear plants, it'll be more economical to *MAKE* the oil from air and water. Which would then make it a carbon-neutral energy carrier since you'd make it from CO2 and water, and it would burn to produce CO2 and water...

Re: I know nothing about this stuff. so:

[evelynne]

What do you think it'll take to get us to start building nuclear plants?

Also, what about the waste aspect? Isn't it just kind of gross to be piling up plastic in landfills if it CAN be re-used? I suppose if it actually gets to be a problem, the price of throwing things in the landfill will become more than the price of recycling and everyone will switch. Hm.

Re: I know nothing about this stuff. so:

[seawasp]

$10/gallon gasoline ought to do the trick. You'll have people ready to burn baby seals in their gas tanks at that point.

Honestly, the best way to manage the waste problem is fire. Very intense fire. Fire hot enough to turn anything in it to pure elemental materials, and then run the exhaust through a separating condenser that takes out the heavy metals (you can then take those and re-use them). The result is water, gases that you can control the ratio of, and a very small amount of solids, mostly re-usable. It's not energy-efficient, but it's very SPACE efficient and as that becomes more of a driver, things like that will become more desirable.

[torin3]

My wife works at a local school. The principal pushed hard for the school to participate in recyling. They've got bins everywhere and a special recycle dumpster.

About 5am every week when the garbage truck pulls up to the dumpsters, it tosses the contents of the recycle dumpster into the truck with the rest of the garbage.

[arthur_sc_king]

Indeed, recycling can be bollocks

[achinhibitor]

Well, here in the eastern US, the cost of operating landfills is well-accounted-for because they're privately owned, and municipalities have to pay quite a bit to put stuff in them.

I do see a few newspaper recycling bins around here that are privately operated. So under some circumstances, newspaper recycling can be self-supporting. (I assume that they aren't receiving any government subsidies.)

But the whole situation is unfortunate, as it shows the degree to which programs are or are not supported by governments based on their emotional appeal (in this case, apparent greenness) instead of their actual value (net economic cost, net environmental benefit).