I can’t help but feel a bit awkward about this… It’s something that’s been drilled into us from the tv, that you have to cut up those little soda rings or else sea turtles and birds choke. But, what do we do with them afterwards? Toss them of course! And so they end up in a poisonous landfill anyways… or worse yet, just dumped out in sea (ok, I don’t think anyone intentionally does this, but trash barges have spillovers all the time). Good thing here in Tampa we just burn our trash for power. That’s… better… right?
I guess you could just recycle it, but ya know…
Well recycling them is waste of energy and resources… doing so uses up more fuel and crude oil fractions than making new ones. (Generaly same thing goes up for everything)
And they do not “poison” anything… one general beauty of carbon polymers is that they are nearly undestructible… it´s generaly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and sometimes nitrogen and fluorine… (using anything else would be expensive so noone bothers)
And it breaks up… well one atom per year in natural enviroment… granted piles of waste are unesthetic but there is little real harm done if it does not physicaly impede anything. (hence the cutting) And well if small piece is actualy swallowed… it will survive trip through unless it gets physicaly stuck.
Hell it is not even worth recycle nuclear waste yet… and if thorium reactors get in line it won´t be worth it for next 1000 years.
yeah, some really is. it all depends on how much the thing that’s being recycled is worth. right now, plastics are in pretty high demand (cause of the oil prices), so they are worth it for pickers. however, other things that aren’t plastic or copper are pretty much trash now. I have little sympathy for paper though, since it’s renewable and biodegradable… and I’m surrounded by paper farms so I’m not worried about the rainforests. >)
well, yes and no. a lot of things are made of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen… doesn’t make it any less dangerous such as, oh say, phthalates, which are basically made up of those 3. but they are crazy bad for you. and these are also called “plasticizers”, used in (you guessed it) plastics! granted, probably not most consumer plastics since the CPSIA, but still. “plastic” while generally safe, does sometimes have additives which are not so wholesome. and depending on the source and lack of regulation, you can have a problem.
also, upon further review, those soda can ring things are a special kind of plastic! seems the good folks at the EPA have them regulated to “photo-biodegrade” or something like that… long story short, they turn into a bunch of nothing after 90 days or so exposed to the elements. fun fact of the day! who knew?!
bah, don’t get me started on nuke plants…
I only recycle what the city government requires be recycled under threat of legal sanctions. It kind of blows my mind that people voted for that law to be created.
you’d be surprised what people vote for… >)
I haven’t recycled in 12years, prior to that my blue box was well sorted with everything washed and mixed material objects where taken apart.
So what changed? I moved.
The recycling truck drive wont pick up my blue box, it started of a notices in my box telling me it wont be picked up until its sorted. (baffled me as it was sorted) I watched him one day 5+mins per box on my street, in every case the boxes where not sorted nor where the items clean. He was constantly picking through them before moving to the next slot on his truck (often needing to revisit the odd one) and stuff was falling out of cans/bottles.
I figured he must get paid by the hour, so the next week I just tossed everything in, box not taken no notice left -_-
Sure calling the depot always resulted some poor guy in a pickup coming around to grab the items, but so far I’ve called every week and was sick of it.
Its not all that bad, even with the recyclables included, my family of four rarely fill a trash can each week.
“Good thing here in Tampa we just burn our trash for power. That’s… better… right?”
From what I’ve heard as long as the temperature is high enough the burn is very clean, and little waste is left.
Well if the temperature is sufficiently high you are right.
Most of the trash gets burned anyway. And don´t worry… plants will sort the atoms… you know if you are not trying to combust plutonium you are fine.
(whatever the “green” jerks bable)
yeah, what’s up with that? they started making us separate the stuff AND they don’t take all kinds of plastic and glass either! something like, clear glass only and #2 plastics (don’t quote me on that), the clear kind, so the plastic bottles they will take, but not the caps…
yes well, that all sounds great on paper, but there’s still a beautiful orange/brown halo of filth that you can see sitting on our horizon… ie, visible signs of pollution. can’t say it’s 100% from the power plant, but the same color of grossness is coming out of their smokestacks, so… put 2 and 2 together.
still, it’s a step up from shoving all that trash into a landfill I suppose. and being in FL, there isn’t really any place to put it since our water table is less than a foot under ground. >\
There is a floating island of plastic in the south pacific that last I heard is nearly 2 miles across. It accumulates from all the intersecting currents. It is slowly becoming a new ecosystem as it is providing anchor points for plants and hiding places for fish and crustaceans. So keep tossing those soda bottles into the ocean, you’ll save a fish!
I claim it in the name of New Shawnland!