I signed up for recycling with my trash hauler the other day, and they just delivered my bin.
Up until now I have been collecting large amounts of recycling and hauling it all to the center myself.
At the recycling center they take almost any recyclable....
plastics 1-6,
all glass, any color but no window glass.
metals (not scrap, though) Tin, steel, aluminum, any normal household metal cans....
All papers and cardboard and paperboard, mixed and flattened, or shredded....
plus you can also drop off your yard wastes if you need to.
They even sell bagged compost.
{at one point, they also had a little Goodwill donation shed, which was GREAT!!! but it has been moved out now, unfortunately.}
So what is irritating? Well, I am such a procrastinator when it comes to leaving my house and it seems like eons before I haul away my collection of trash...to the dismay of my parents, in laws and friends... In fact, I think I effectively put off recycling for 3 or 4 months this winter...and paid for it, too when I had to haul that amount of garbage to the center!!!
OK, so why is signing up irritating??
Well, the service is $5 more a month, which takes my quarterly trash bill from $45 to $60 bucks...
Here's the problem: My trash hauler ONLY accepts:
Plastic #1-2
Newspaper (and I mean ONLY NEWSPAPER)
Glass that is clear, brown or green.
Tin and aluminum.
You have to personally sort your trash in paper bags (wasteful) and there is a large number of things that I will have to save until I FINALLY make the trip to the center.....
Mostly I am upset that they don't do cardboard or paperboard...NO MAGAZINES, or junk mail.
I am still going to have to haul all sorts of paper to the recycling center all the time. The whole point of signing up was to save the gas and the guilt of storing the trash, for a little piece of mind...but when I read about the newspaper I almost cried (seriously) because I feel like they are taking advantage of people.
I feel like they should be looking at the environment and not their BOTTOM LINE!!!
At my house, and I bet your own house, we end up with a TON of plastic from milk jugs (generally #1) to soda bottles (also #1), to yogurt cups (probably #5 with a #4 lid) or take out drink lids (generally #6-#8, but could be anything depending on where you are).....
But we also end up with more than soda cans (which I would rather keep the $ for, personally), veggie tins and cat food cans (which are generally aluminum, not tin, but also not the same as soda cans, which are lined). We don't subscribe to the newspaper, so the fact that they WILL accept that is absolutely useless, if I can't throw in some junk mail and my kids spelling tests each day! In my opinion it is not even worth trying to squeeze an extra grocery bag into the bin for paper, when I can just take it myself. We usually end up with several paper bags of paper board...my family LOVES cereal and blue box mac n cheese....so we have tons of it to go out....
So, yes, it is VERY irritating to me because, although I don't know much about their business, I would be willing to bet that every last thing they offer to recycle is for personal gain. I know in California they get a deposit for plastic as well as glass. There are a lot of homeless people feeding their vices from the deposit money they get from the serious bottled water addiction going on out there. There have been articles about the amount of bottled water waste that has to be recycled each year being an epidemic in and of itself. {there is always 2 sides to the coin, people}.
There are many efforts being made by eco-friendly people to remove the soda bottles and such from the municipal trash and recycling stream and give them yet another life...I believe it was a worm composting business (vermiculture) that used this trash to bottle their product. Each and every bottle was different soda brands, etc. It was a great idea and probably cut costs for that company, as well as wasting energy melting the trash down and reforming it.
The point is, My trash hauler, as much as I appreciate the service they provide me, is benfitting somehow from what they offer and that is why they don't offer to do more....it doesn't benefit them.
This is the reason why MOST PEOPLE don't recycle.....and if they do, only aluminum (you know who you are!) because they get money from it. They have no desire to do good for the planet, or make less impact, and the only resource they intend to conserve is MONEY. Which is not what being green is about...(not that it has no place in my life, by any means, but I found that there are more important things in life, believe it or not!)
The Burroughs:
I recently visited a little town in New Jersey.
In this town all the neighbors are always outside. They work in their yard, jog, walk the dog, walk the babies....they are friendly and active. In this town, recycling is mandatory, but it is also provided. I don't think that they accept that many things as far as types of each material, I honestly don't know EXACTLY what got recycled...but I was tickled pink that every last house in the neighborhood had a bin....everyone made it a part of their daily lives to recycle. And because it was LEGALLY expected of them they easily adapt to it, like putting on a seat belt. It becomes an easy habit.
Another thing I noticed while I was there was that yard waste was most generally put in very large, thick PAPER bags. {my inlaws actually gave me a purchase package of these from Best Choice....and I am currently using it for all that paperboard the trash co. won't take!}. Instead of seeing bag after black lawn and leaf bag on the curbs and side yards of the neighbors, you see four foot tall brown, recycled paper lawn and leaf bags, full to the top and set neatly near the trash. I am not sure if they had a related pick up with the trash and recyclables, but I bet that is exactly what it was.
For as glad as I am to be able to recycle pretty much everything but styrofoam and blue jeans, (well, almost)...I thought, "these guys really have a good thing going"......
I don't know if the people of that township feel all warm and fuzzy inside when they put their Evian bottles in the bin, or rake their leaves into a container that biodegrades easily without much worry about contamination. But for me, it was like that thing you dream about "a perfect world" and it made me wonder if we will ALL pitch in to get there someday. I hope so.
I guess that is it for now, I just had to get that off my chest because it bothers me so much!
Showing posts with label Recycling ranting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recycling ranting. Show all posts
Monday, April 13, 2009
Friday, June 6, 2008
I wonder
After reading other environmental blogs, I wonder what difference can be made at all.
If they say by 2030 what has been done cannot be undone, then how can hybrids and compact florescence help at all? Recycling may cause more CO2 emissions and all our hopes crash.
Exactly what are we to change that will actually help? In what ways does the individual matter in such a global issue?
SO I recycle, I compost, I drive rarely (although I can't afford a hybrid), I bought the reusable grocery bags and intend to recycle the old plastic ones, I turn off the water when I brush my teeth and the light when I don't need them....I should have a very small carbon footprint. But in the bigger picture, I still consume over packaged goods, I still have a natural gas heat system, I still have to use the modern conveniences as we all do. What more can be done? What will it take for ALL people to make the small changes, then ALL people decide what the larger changes to be made are?
We need more direction and adaptability. We have to continue to do what we can, as little as that is and continue to try to figure out what more can be done. What is the final solution? I don't think anyone can say...no statistics cover the "everything will be just fine if we all walked to work and recycled" scenario....probably because that won't happen.
Maybe we will never change. Maybe we will all fry in greenhouse gases by 2030.
As a parent, I certainly hope that isn't true. As an environmentally minded person, i hope for the sake of hope that we get our act together and work on a plan to improve. But how can we tell if it helps? I think that it really doesn't help at all. But that is not going to stop me from feebly trying to do my own part to not leave my mark as a consumer driven by my own wastefulness.
What more can I say?
If they say by 2030 what has been done cannot be undone, then how can hybrids and compact florescence help at all? Recycling may cause more CO2 emissions and all our hopes crash.
Exactly what are we to change that will actually help? In what ways does the individual matter in such a global issue?
SO I recycle, I compost, I drive rarely (although I can't afford a hybrid), I bought the reusable grocery bags and intend to recycle the old plastic ones, I turn off the water when I brush my teeth and the light when I don't need them....I should have a very small carbon footprint. But in the bigger picture, I still consume over packaged goods, I still have a natural gas heat system, I still have to use the modern conveniences as we all do. What more can be done? What will it take for ALL people to make the small changes, then ALL people decide what the larger changes to be made are?
We need more direction and adaptability. We have to continue to do what we can, as little as that is and continue to try to figure out what more can be done. What is the final solution? I don't think anyone can say...no statistics cover the "everything will be just fine if we all walked to work and recycled" scenario....probably because that won't happen.
Maybe we will never change. Maybe we will all fry in greenhouse gases by 2030.
As a parent, I certainly hope that isn't true. As an environmentally minded person, i hope for the sake of hope that we get our act together and work on a plan to improve. But how can we tell if it helps? I think that it really doesn't help at all. But that is not going to stop me from feebly trying to do my own part to not leave my mark as a consumer driven by my own wastefulness.
What more can I say?
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Recycling Rant
I have a lot of opinions relating to waste and recycling. I really don't feel like everyone is willing to do their part. I have been trying to convince my friends and family that it isn't that hard to recycle and reduce their waste, but it seems that my attempts are futile. Even my mother, who taught me the importance of caring for the planet, still has a hard time driving up to drop off her wastes, because it is just so much easier to just let the haulers take it away each Thursday, and shove it into the dump with their front end loaders.
There has got to be a point where everyone realizes the impact that just one household can make on landfills, pollution and just wastefulness in general. I sometimes wonder what people are thinking in a consumer oriented world, where everything is disposable. We have a hard time looking past our what is just our laziness stopping us from taking cans to recycle. And most people that do recycle only recycle what will give them money in return. It is funny that they don't feel responsible to recycle glass and plastic when there is no return deposit.
It also dismays me that most trash haulers, (here in Missouri they are required to) offer recycling curbside, but only allow certain recyclables, even though many are very easy to auto sort. In my locale, they allow only plastics #1 and #2. two colors of glass, which they did not specify the colors, and paper products. Specifically newspaper and corrugated cardboard. No mixed textiles, no paper board.
So I haul my own items to recycle, so that more of my waste is able to be reused, and I avoid Styrofoam, which cannot be recycled at all, outside of the UPS store will allow you to bring in packing peanuts. It is rather ridiculous. You would think that the income that recycling produces for refuse companies that they might want to allow more items to be taken curbside and avoid the landfill for a while longer. It is a disgusting proposition that humans have resorted to bury their trash. Who thought that up? And since DuPont and whomever else turns such a lovely profit, plastic and non bio-degradable materials are more common in packaging than anything organic, or earth friendly. Everything is for our laziness and it is all buried for future generations to uncover how unsafe and unsanitary it is to live life in such lazy ways.
A while back I stopped to think about plastics, and what they really mean to me. If I were to give up using plastic altogether, how would that affect my life? Well, for one, I wouldn't be writing this now, because the majority of my laptop is made of plastic. (thanks HP!) My gallon of milk in the fridge, my tub of butter, my bottle of shampoo...everything I use daily is contained in plastic. So for me, the only option is to recycle every bit of it that comes through my house, because living without it does not seem possible in today's world. But what about the rest of my community? When I visit the recycling center, I usually see only older people. People who probably are too old to use a computer, and read this blog. Too old fashioned to realize that the rest of the world quit caring about "saving" and not wasting long ago. But I would be willing to bet that they are likely a product of the Great Depression and it is ingrained in them to be frugal. Waste not, Want not. Where is my generation and my parent's generation. Shouldn't all those Baby Boomers feel the pressure to be green?
Here is what I think...you tell me how you feel if you like. I think that Recycling should be law. I think that it should be free, and accessible. I think that the county should recycle anything that is marked for recycling and the trash haulers should have to pick it all up, not just the easiest and most useful types for their industry. I think that all packaging should be recyclable, and marked as such, and the law should mandate that. I think that all schools, and businesses should have to recycle, because they contribute to the waste stream in huge amounts. ( I know SPS recycles paper and cardboard and possibly aluminum). But I think that we should take the initiative and EVERYONE IN THE US SHOULD BE REQUIRED BY LAW TO REDUCE THEIR WASTE AND RECYCLE!!!!!
There has got to be a point where everyone realizes the impact that just one household can make on landfills, pollution and just wastefulness in general. I sometimes wonder what people are thinking in a consumer oriented world, where everything is disposable. We have a hard time looking past our what is just our laziness stopping us from taking cans to recycle. And most people that do recycle only recycle what will give them money in return. It is funny that they don't feel responsible to recycle glass and plastic when there is no return deposit.
It also dismays me that most trash haulers, (here in Missouri they are required to) offer recycling curbside, but only allow certain recyclables, even though many are very easy to auto sort. In my locale, they allow only plastics #1 and #2. two colors of glass, which they did not specify the colors, and paper products. Specifically newspaper and corrugated cardboard. No mixed textiles, no paper board.
So I haul my own items to recycle, so that more of my waste is able to be reused, and I avoid Styrofoam, which cannot be recycled at all, outside of the UPS store will allow you to bring in packing peanuts. It is rather ridiculous. You would think that the income that recycling produces for refuse companies that they might want to allow more items to be taken curbside and avoid the landfill for a while longer. It is a disgusting proposition that humans have resorted to bury their trash. Who thought that up? And since DuPont and whomever else turns such a lovely profit, plastic and non bio-degradable materials are more common in packaging than anything organic, or earth friendly. Everything is for our laziness and it is all buried for future generations to uncover how unsafe and unsanitary it is to live life in such lazy ways.
A while back I stopped to think about plastics, and what they really mean to me. If I were to give up using plastic altogether, how would that affect my life? Well, for one, I wouldn't be writing this now, because the majority of my laptop is made of plastic. (thanks HP!) My gallon of milk in the fridge, my tub of butter, my bottle of shampoo...everything I use daily is contained in plastic. So for me, the only option is to recycle every bit of it that comes through my house, because living without it does not seem possible in today's world. But what about the rest of my community? When I visit the recycling center, I usually see only older people. People who probably are too old to use a computer, and read this blog. Too old fashioned to realize that the rest of the world quit caring about "saving" and not wasting long ago. But I would be willing to bet that they are likely a product of the Great Depression and it is ingrained in them to be frugal. Waste not, Want not. Where is my generation and my parent's generation. Shouldn't all those Baby Boomers feel the pressure to be green?
Here is what I think...you tell me how you feel if you like. I think that Recycling should be law. I think that it should be free, and accessible. I think that the county should recycle anything that is marked for recycling and the trash haulers should have to pick it all up, not just the easiest and most useful types for their industry. I think that all packaging should be recyclable, and marked as such, and the law should mandate that. I think that all schools, and businesses should have to recycle, because they contribute to the waste stream in huge amounts. ( I know SPS recycles paper and cardboard and possibly aluminum). But I think that we should take the initiative and EVERYONE IN THE US SHOULD BE REQUIRED BY LAW TO REDUCE THEIR WASTE AND RECYCLE!!!!!
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