Pampers (and etc. in that liquid gelator category), empty spray cans (like insect sprays), cat/ dog/ etc poop in plastic bags, those big mattresses, pure (or etc.) water filters.
Thank you for doing this, I was curious. But no, I won’t call.
Yes! Exactly what actually gets recycled can vary by state, region, or city, but there is a strong market for recyclable materials like plastics and aluminum cans, so the waste hauler EARNS money on recyclables. It’s in their best interest to sort and recycle.
Are you including the findings of archaeologist Carolyn White and her colleagues, who investigate the trash left every year after Burning Man (or the lack thereof), and its implications for analysis of ancient cultures?
Depends on the waste hauler. Generally plastics and aluminum cans will get sorted out and recycled. But if you’re throwing non-recyclable material into the mixed recycling bin, it will get filtered out and end up in landfill.
I heard of a town in Japan that has like zero garbage. Everything is recycled, reused or composted. Seems like we can learn something here. Microplastics are horrendous
Aluminium cans are 100% recyclable, but what’s the real cost? Energy? Water? How does it compare with extraction of raw materials and first manufacturing?
Has anyone ever done a study on the economics of “landfill mining” or the WALL·E thing. It may be most economical now to landfill, knowing that with future technologies, err robots/image recognition etc. we can more economically recover our pollution than our current haphazard way.
Actually depends on your local waste hauler. Some have technology to recycle a lot more materials than others, and recycled material commodity markets vary across the country. So what gets recycled in say, CA may not get recycled in FL. Look up the waste hauler that services your city!
Yup manufacturing isn't environmentally friendly at all. Where I live there's very few places that recycle it. I try not to buy it at all but I can't imagine styrofoam being any better than plastic in terms of recycling
How much of our food waste can and should go back into our soil? Urban composting programs are simple and low-barrier, but I don't know if that will be enough to help regenerate the soil
Is it really a problem to bury plastic trash? Isn't that basically carbon capture? We pull oil out of the ground, make it into plastic, use it for something, than bury it back in the ground. So long as it is prevented from contaminating the water table, is this a bad outcome?
Plastic is not only or always made of carbon. Also, carbon capture is actually carbon dioxide sequestration, which removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Plastic as a material doesn’t emit much carbon dioxide in landfills.
How much (what percentage of) waste comes from rural areas where there are few to no recycling programs or benefits for doing so? What is the comparison to urban areas?
As waste, garbage must be dealt with. But how much energy is being used to collect and process that waste? Including the manufacturing of plastic bags, garbage cans, collection truck emissions, and actual landfill trucks/processing facilities involved.
This varies by city, but you can look up who your waste hauler is (like Waste Management or Republic Services) for your area and see what their mixed recycling facility can or can’t recycle.
Largely this happens because many people don’t know what is or isn’t recyclable and throw everything in the landfill. Most waste haulers won’t sort landfill waste to pick out the recyclables.
It does depend on your local waste hauler. Commodity markets vary widely by state and even county, and the technology to process different plastics is not ubiquitous. Not saying plastic is great, just that in certain cases, it can be better than paper/fiber IF your hauler can handle it
Why are we not melting down used plastics for building material (blocks/bricks)? Is there a way to weave plastic bags in a matrix to build small homeless shelters?
I created a "tarp" of sorts maybe 15 years ago out of woven plastic bags. 10ft x 10ft.
It wasn't perfect, but if woven tightly enough, it kept the rain and wind off. I tested it while backpacking for a weekend. Not sure they would make great homeless shelters. Would could just house people.
Banks are sitting on a lot of inventory. Another solution is to repurpose old medical suites. They are easier to convert. Often wondered if strip malls hold housing potential. And small bank branches that have closed
But I feel like as long as we are allowing corporations and the wealthy to continue polluting the Earth at the rate they are, no amount of individual consumer choices will ever make any difference. I don't want paper straws. I want to eliminate private jets.
Maybe pull the veil off the BS about recycling and how much of the plastic and glass, etc put in the recycling bin actually gets reused and how much goes to the landfill or gets burned.
I like to litter in public because then when people get upset — and littering is pretty much the only thing that people get universally upset about nowadays — I get to turn around and lecture them on how everything they consume means littering in one way or another. It's fun.
Twice a day I wash and throw out the metal cat food cans. I clean them well and I wonder if they are actually recyclable and the metals in the cans are reused?
They are recyclable. Some waste haulers can accept recyclables with residue on them - you can look up what your particular hauler accepts and potentially save the time spent cleaning them
Is it at all worthwhile to look for compostable products even if you don’t have a backyard or city compost program? As in- if you dispose of them with regular garbage, will they still compost? Or is it useless if they’re trapped in a landfill and surrounded by non-compostables?
If you can’t compost, don’t get compostables. In a landfill setting they will actually emit more gasses like methane. It’s better to use recyclable plastic that you know your city can recycle (check their website).
Waste to energy is usually the last strategy employed after reduction, reuse, and recycling - basically when there are materials that can’t go anywhere other than landfill, they may go to a waste to energy facility. These are controversial due to other environmental impacts though
Thanks for your insights. I worked at Disney in the late 80s/early 90s & could hear the trash rumbling thru pipes in the basement headed toward the plant. I don’t recall hearing much about recycling (I was a clueless kid), but I did think getting energy from trash was amazing.
Just how long has the plastics industry been aware of the inherent harm their products cause? Can they be held accountable just as the tobacco industry once was?
Why is it my city, Atlanta, can recycle greasy paper products. But can not take glass to recycle? Also shout out to CHARM Atlanta who recycle many hard to recycle products.
I really want to know more about where the trash goes. Like are we running out of landfill space?? Are there any efforts to make stuff in landfills biodegrade faster, or do they just bury it all in a random pile? What's up with those venting pipes??
Comments
Thank you for doing this, I was curious. But no, I won’t call.
And...
Why are businesses charged separately to recycle? Usually, Mom & Pops will just throw recyclables in the regular trash to avoid fees.
Send it into space
That’s the mentality, right?
NO RECYCLING NEEDED
THE END !
Thanks!
Main thing with recycling is if it's metal? Yes. Paper? Yes. Glass? Yes. Plastic? Rarely. I haven't explicitly looked into all of recycling, but this is why paper straws are better.
Let them suffer legal and financial consequences for improper disposal and see how fast things change for the ecological better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Now!_The_Shopping_Conspiracy
It wasn't perfect, but if woven tightly enough, it kept the rain and wind off. I tested it while backpacking for a weekend. Not sure they would make great homeless shelters. Would could just house people.
They're an issue.
But I feel like as long as we are allowing corporations and the wealthy to continue polluting the Earth at the rate they are, no amount of individual consumer choices will ever make any difference. I don't want paper straws. I want to eliminate private jets.
Most "recycling" is in fact, a scam. How do I know this? Apple air tag.
Try it.
Oh - a different kind of trash?
What's the best practices?
Are we getting anywhere near what we should be doing?