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Thread: Texas flood......where does all the trash go now?

  1. #1
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    Texas flood......where does all the trash go now?

    Can you imagine all the trash that this flood will regenerate? Hopefully, much of the cars can be recycled...if only as metal.
    Hopefully, the millions of plastic bottles of water will be recycled. But where does all the other trash go??........machines, wood, carpet, insulation, on and on and on and on...........

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    Senior Member Greg44's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CathyA View Post
    Can you imagine all the trash that this flood will regenerate? Hopefully, much of the cars can be recycled...if only as metal.
    Hopefully, the millions of plastic bottles of water will be recycled. But where does all the other trash go??........machines, wood, carpet, insulation, on and on and on and on...........
    Funny I thought the same thing! I remember after Katrina - it seemed like acres and acres of refrigerators with rotting food. All the molding household items.

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    My friend in Houston has so far spent 2d working in her flooded-now water out, home. This is the list of what is already at the curb and she is not finished.

    I have had a massive fling-but not by choice due to Harvey, Curbside- 2 couches, 2 ottomans, 1 desk, file cabinets, over 35 outside trash bags of household item

    Holy Toledo! Her home is a modest 1300 feet if I had to guess? And she lives on precious little money each year so tossing all this means it was in super bad condition.


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    I doubt the water bottles will be recycled.

    when people are in crisis, concern for the environment is one of the first things set aside. There is just too much and it is just too overwhelming. Most likely everything will be trucked to landfills somewhere.

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    Senior Member Selah's Avatar
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    I was horrified to watch a news report yesterday in which a reporter with some lab techs in a boat collected several samples of flood water from Houston streets. They came back positively riddled with E. Coli and chemical contaminants---seriously, THOUSANDS of times above the EPA's recommended safe levels.

    I wonder if the companies who do the recycling can deal with items that have been soaked in such contaminated water? And what does it mean for the environment if this massive amount of debris enters the landfills all at once? Not to mention the health impact on anyone and everyone who had to wade through that crap even once, not to mention for days on end, in the case of first responders with some form of protection, and just neighbors helping neighbors. Shudder!

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    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    The Houston area is apparently an unregulated (and undisclosed) stew of toxic chemicals, which Harvey further released on the unwitting public. That would be the pollution I'd worry about first.

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    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Selah View Post
    I wonder if the companies who do the recycling can deal with items that have been soaked in such contaminated water?
    A lot of recycling -- metal and plastic for sure -- involves melting the recovered product for use in new products, which would take care of the bacterial issues. I imagine it would be possible to bleach fabric fibers for re-use, which would help clean up upholstered items and some floor coverings. But I have no idea what could happen beyond a landfill for thousands of board feet of wet moldy drywall and laminate flooring and thousands of cubic feet of sewage-damaged toys, mixed-plastic objects, disposables, etc.

    And all of that assumes that a market exists at a competitive price for the recycled raw material or no one will go to the trouble of recycling it.

    Harvey's effects will ripple through our economy for some time to come, in some surprising places, I think.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

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    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    Anyone see pictures of Fire Ant rafts? The miserable creatures intertwine their legs and make a raft to survive. I would not want to run into one of those. Their bites hurt for days. I really hate them and don't venture off a sidewalk without socks and shoes, never in sandals.

    Plus snakes and alligators are swimming around. And who knows what else. All the cars that were swamped I am sure leaked all kinds of fluids. Plus gas stations.

    such an awful tragedy.

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    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by flowerseverywhere View Post
    Anyone see pictures of Fire Ant rafts? The miserable creatures intertwine their legs and make a raft to survive. I would not want to run into one of those. Their bites hurt for days. I really hate them and don't venture off a sidewalk without socks and shoes, never in sandals.

    Plus snakes and alligators are swimming around. And who knows what else.
    Reasons 67, 68, and 69 why I live by a cliff over the Mississippi River in a land with a frostline six feet deep.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

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    I hope that the pictures from Houston make people think about the literal mountains of debris that will have to be processed. Everything we consume meets its end. Some of it much sooner than later. Let us try to consume less and be an example of an alternative. Bicyclist

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