Recycling

[Flysmallie]

20 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

I only recycle aluminum, and in my business I generate a bunch of it.  Nothing else is worth the bother IMO.

Here's what I don't understand...   Every day I carry out a stuffed full trash bag of garbage, but we don't haul in 7 stuffed trash bags worth of anything into our house every week, not even close.

So how is my house not getting emptied out ?    More goes out than comes in.  

You only take one out a day?!?!  That would be awesome. Women are trash producers.

The girls that live next door have a recycle bin. They put it out there by their trash and it sits there for days and days and days. Then the trash truck guy comes by and dumps it all in with the rest of their trash. I understand the sorting someplace else but then why have the bin. Just to feel warm and fuzzy about it?

[fishinwrench]

I wait until I have a 1/2 truck load then I take it in.  Usually get about 70.00 per trip and I spend it on tackle.  

[Mitch f]

I had 7-8 old car and trolling motor batteries stacked up in my garage, I got about $68 bucks from Didion Orf recycling in St. Peters

[joeD]

I just can't decide who the best recycler is. The one who gets the heartiest and most earth friendly pat on the Patagonia garbed back. Tough decision. All entries are worthy and command respect in a natural child birth in a tub kind of way. 

Obviously, we all win. Especially our own Earth. Thanks for participating in "You stupid humans are ruining the Earth with your selfishness!"  

(Gas $1.77! Gotta go now!  Picking up daughter at college dontcha know).

[Old plug]

i do not know if this is considered recycling but I will be getting rid of my two big trolling motor batteries sometime this winter.

i buy a lot of stuff a Mennards. When they have those 10% rebates. I think we got about $300 this year in rebates right now. So my big 105 amp deep cycle batteries run about $80 each. So I will wait till the 10% sale going on and then take my batteries get the trade in and pay what's left out of my rebates. Then will have about $16 in new rebates. I love that place.

 

I seen gas in Springfield today for $1.67 

[mjk86]

Well since gas=plastic and we just burn it all into the sky...Eventually, when there can be no more plastics made we will be digging it all back out of landfills. So rest assured It will all be recycled one day no matter what.  It all came from oil which we will run out of.  Fortunately since plastic doesn't degrade quickly it will just be waiting for us underneath miles of dirty diapers. Same goes for rare earth metals.  They will be dug up and extracted from waste when rich ores are exhausted. Fortunately in st Louis city and in south county it's all single steam and I just throw everything in one bucket.  That's the key to recycling imo if recycling is as easy as throwing something away people will do it.  If not they they won't.

[Smalliebigs]

My wife and I have been recycling since 1992.....everything we can.....Where I live in Jerkwood,MO they gave us recycling bins about two years ago so now tons of people recycle. Back in the day we used to have to haul it the Recycling center which was task in itself and a journey as well. I miss the interaction with the surley city worker who manned the center.....his screaming at soccer moms who put cardboard in the paper bin and picking fights with the Patagonia clothed and prohibition hair cut young men for putting tin in the aluminum bin.....it was some good entertainment.

Now all I do is put it in a bin and they come by and take it away for me.....we send all out plastic lids, the #5 plastic to my daughter's school and there is a teacher there that owns a company that makes benches out of them......her school has made 369 benches to date and donated them all over the place.

 

 I guess if you guys are saying recycling is bad now??? it wouldn't surprise me......it's just something we have been doing for awhile now.....so I guess I need to do some research and see if I can quit??? 

[Al Agnew]

Humans are funny.  We are always at war with ourselves, a war of convenience against frugality when it comes to trash.  We love the convenience of being able to put something in the trash can and let the city garbage truck take it away, but we also love the idea that we are making sure things don't go to waste.  Those of us who recycle just can't understand why others do not.  Those who do not can't understand why we bother.

Yes, I've heard all the arguments against recycling, and I realize that it might not be profitable and may in some cases end up using more energy than just tossing it all in the landfill.  But IF it really does get re-used, I'm all for it even if it isn't a net gain.  

We recycle everything we can.  In Missouri, we have to sort it by paper, plastic, cardboard, glass, steel, and aluminum, and then take it in to the recycling center, which we do about once a month when we're going into town anyway, since it's a 15 mile drive.  We built our house, and actually planned for recycling with a space for three different trash cans in the pantry, one for plastic, one for steel and aluminum, and one for glass (the paper and cardboard go out in the garage, and we sort the steel from the aluminum at the recycling center.)  All our waste food goes out the back door for the coons and possums (and once in a while a gray fox).  our metal, aluminum foil, broken glass, light bulbs--stuff that won't recycle and won't burn--goes in another bin under the counter and eventually gets taken to the landfill, but it might be 6 months or more before we fill up that bin.  Garbage that won't recycle but will burn gets burnt out behind the house (nice living in a rural area with no zoning).  So we end up only putting about two trash cans worth of stuff in the landfill per year.

In Montana we do much the same except we don't burn anything (in that dry country they look a little askance at burning trash).  Non-recyclable trash gets taken to a county trash bin, which is in the same place as the city recycling center, and the city accepts recycling from county residents as well.  It's on the way into town about 2 miles from the house, so it's plenty convenient.  The trash collection points are interesting--people often dump stuff that still works but which they don't have a use for, sitting it beside the dumpsters.  Somebody else always comes along and grabs it.

[fishinwrench]

I'm all for the recycling thing as long as shoddy 4th generation material doesn't show up in places where it shouldn't.    There is a HUGE difference in the quality of material used in aluminum boats between the 70's and now.  Old aluminum was awesome, a little heavier but tough as hell. This crap nowadays crumbles in comparison. 

[bfishn]

" In 2013, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash and recycled and composted about 87 million tons of this material, equivalent to a 34.3 percent recycling rate. On average, we recycled and composted 1.51 pounds of our individual waste generation of 4.40 pounds per person per day." (EPA) 

That's 87 million tons that didn't go to US landfills in one year. That's significant.

Now we just need some modern day Edison to figure out a profitable way to turn the other 65.8 per cent into a viable product without throwing out the baby in the process. I'd give ten fresh Trumps for one good Edison about now. :-)