View Full Version : Recycling metal, electronics, etc., etc.
I decided to finally take some stuff to the metal recycling place in a nearby town. One thing was a heavy wood stove that was in the barn and all the pipe that went with that and pipe from the one from in the house that we removed.
An old ironing board, pans, lots of little stuff.....nails, metal connectors, old mower blades, garbage disposal, etc.,etc. Only got $5 for it. But that wasn't the reason for it. It just makes me crazy thinking of all the stuff that gets thrown into the earth.
I'm lucky to have that metal recycling place close by.
I'm having trouble just giving away old DVDs to some place like Goodwill, 'cause those people will probably throw them out when they're tired of them. I'm also lucky to have a place that recycles CDs, DVDs, jewel cases, etc.........so I'll probably take them there.
Sure makes me think twice about everything I buy.
We have a local electronic-tire-Toxaway day at the end of April. I'll pick up the alloted 4 tires out of the dozens that people have thrown on our property and take them there. I also get rid of old wires, tape recorders, computers, and everything else electrical/electronic. Next on my list is getting rid of an old fridge and freezer.......but I can't find anyone to drain the freon. Most people just do it themselves, but that is bad for the environment, right?
But dang..........think of the majority of people in the U.S. (I'm guessing) that would just set this stuff out for trash pickup. :( What a toxic/polluted country we could easily become....if we haven't already.
How does one keep from getting depressed over what's happening to this beautiful planet?
I figure when metals become really valuable, people will mine the landfills.
I find recycling everything extremely tedious, but I do it out of a sense of responsibility to the earth--and lately, because the local disposal company checks to see if you threw a crust of bread or a chicken bone into your garbage can. It distresses me to see hazardous substances like pesticides and antifreeze poured into the earth, but since tons of that kind of thing are used legally every day, all I can do is the best I can. Beyond that, I don't worry about it much.
Miss Cellane
4-1-16, 6:16pm
CathyA, I'm wondering if some of this is a result of where you live.
Around here, there are recycling bins out at every house on trash day. The transfer center is full of people recycling things from yard waste to construction debris to electronics. (Books, however, get put in the book swap hut.) Most places I've worked have at the very least recycled paper and cardboard, as well as bottles and cans.
I'm sure there are people who don't recycle much, but everywhere around me, I see recycling in action. Or reductions in the amount of paper being used, etc.
I do think that in order to get people to recycle, you have to make it easy. In my city, what you can't put out curbside (and you can put a lot of stuff out curbside), you can deal with by going to the transfer station in town. Probably not more than a 20-25 minute drive, no matter where you live, even if you hit all the traffic lights red. You used to have to buy a label for certain things at City Hall, but now you can do that right at the transfer center.
If you have to haul stuff a long way, if it's going to take 3 or 4 hours out of your day, I can see why people don't do it--it simply costs too much, for them, in time and energy and gas. You have to make it "cheap" in terms of time spent, energy used and money it costs to get people to do anything. Recycling is no different.
I live out in the country. The nearby town (10 miles) has a recycling place where I take all cardboard (boxes of all kinds), all plastics with numbers, all glass, food cans. Then nearby there is a school that recycles all paper. I'm always recycling. Yes, it is very tedious, but I feel it's something I need to do for the earth. But.......doing all this reminds me of something I heard awhile back......"Recycling is a way to ease our consciences about using too much." How true that is. I recycle way too much stuff.......which means I'm using too much stuff. On my way to town on trash pick-up day, I can see that almost everyone is throwing out stuff that can be recycled. I think we should have maybe a month or 2 where everyone is required to keep all their trash on their property.......maybe that would be a wake-up call? Probably not......they'd just come dump it on my property.
I know I can only do what I can do........but I can't help feeling awful for the earth.
Miss Cellane
4-2-16, 8:08am
Cathy, if everyone in your area has to haul all their recycling to a center, then it isn't easy to recycle in your area. And that's going to stop a lot of people from recycling. Recycling in my town really took off when the garbage pickup stopped being free. You buy trash bags from the city for everything that you throw out. Curbside recycling is free. So when you see the cost--trash bags are $1.50 for the 13 gallon size and $2.30 for the 30 gallon ones--on a weekly basis, you have a lot more incentive to recycle.
Most people know about recycling. But if it is too hard, too time-consuming, they won't do it. When I lived in a town where you had to clean all the cans, remove the labels, remove both the top and the bottom of the can and then flatten the can before putting it out for recycling, well, lots of people didn't recycle their cans, even though they recycled glass and paper and cardboard. I've heard people complain about having to clean out food cans for recycling.
My city used to make you separate out metal and glass, paper, plastic, and cardboard. Trash day would involve lugging your bagged trash to the curb, plus 3 or 4 other containers (had to be plastic, no larger than 33 gallons), for all the various things you were recycling. When they switched to a single stream model, where you can just toss everything into one bin, the amount that got recycled rose. And that's for people who get free curbside recycling, which is already pretty easy.
Another town I lived in, you had to take recycling to the transfer station. The transfer station was open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 am to 3 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am to noon. If you had a normal, 9-5 job, you had a two hour window on Saturday to get there. And if you had a kid in soccer or something, that window probably coincided with your kid's game. I was part of a group that pushed for more reasonable hours--same number of hours per week, just at different times, like one or two evenings a week, and longer hours on Saturday. The push-back we got from the town was that the transfer station workers didn't want to work evenings and weekends, so the town couldn't change the hours. Really. So the recycling would pile up in people's homes, and then it would get to be too much to lug to the transfer station, and they'd throw it out.
You are motivated by a love for this planet. Other people probably love the planet as well, but in between running around after their kids, work, chores, etc., recycling comes pretty far down on their lists. If your town made it easier for people to recycle, they probably would.
If the infrastructure for recycling isn't there, the average person isn't going to recycle. Sad, I know. Here in the Northeast, I think states and local communities started dealing with trash and recycling seriously in the 1980s, because it was becoming apparent that we were running out of room for landfills, and the cost of dealing with trash was rising steadily. So there was a reason, a need, to start good recycling programs, one that hit the taxpayers where it counts, in their bank accounts.
We have a very good recycling system provided by the township.
And every before it gets to that point, there are a couple of guys who drive around in a pick-up truck and collect metals that they can get money for. When we demo'd my MILs kitchen and dismantled the stove and set it on the curb, it was gone within 6 hours.
It is discouraging to see how much crap we leave behind us--even the most frugal and the most dedicated recyclers. You are right, it makes you remember that the first "R" is "Refuse" (to buy). I've been thinking about my plastic waste recently and perhaps one of the monthly habits I try to take on this year will be a "no (or minimal) plastic" habit.
Last night I went to a pot-luck at my favorite co-op farm, and they always request that we bring our own non-disposable plates and utensils etc, which is not really much of an inconvenience and look at how much garbage 30 of us saved.
Miss Celane. Yeah, I live in a pretty non-progressive area........and state. (Indiana). I began recycling in the 70's. I fortunately lived near a university town, which was more progressive and they had a small recycling area......for glass, cans, newspaper.
After I moved about 38 miles away from there, I would save my stuff and fill my pick-up bed with all this stuff and take it there.
I understand all the reasons you bring up for why people don't recycle, but how busy can a person be, to ignore keeping their life-support system functioning? On a smaller scale, it would be like needing to be on a ventilator, but never cleaning it and letting all sorts of gunk grow in it.
I was just as busy as everyone else earlier in my life, but I made time for it. If we're too busy to take a few minutes a day to keep our life-support system healthy.......then something is very wrong. I realize it's a complex issue.
About 15 years ago, they started up a "curb side" recycling out here in the country. I put my cans/jars out in the special container they provided, along with a bunch of cardboard that I had flattened and tied up. I was working outside (about 1/4 miles from the road), and watched the trash man come. This was the usual "garbage collection" truck. He threw everything together and drove off. I was livid. I ran to my car and raced after him. I pulled him off to the side of the road and got out screaming at him. He hadn't a clue what I was upset about. He didn't know the difference between "recyclables" and garbage. I called the company and ranted. The guy was sorry it had happened. Needless to say, I found an alternative place to take my recycling.
Sorry for the tangent. I'm just so tired of people ignoring their excess and knowing/feeling absolutely nothing about sending all this s**t into the ground.......for their children and grandchildren to deal with later.
It's just inexcusable.
And I'm sure some people would bristle at this, but why can't the government make it mandatory? What's it going to take? No clean drinking water? Toxic air? All the trees dying?
And catherine........you're absolutely right about the first "R" being for "Refuse"..........but what red-blooded American knows how to do that?? Isn't that unpatriotic?
Sorry for the vent. I just worry for this earth. I really don't care if mankind dies off..........but more about what we leave behind and all the scars on the earth.
The next town over just outlawed plastic grocery bags. A Good Thing for the environment. I hope we're next.
I don't worry about the earth itself--it's been around for billions of years (just ask Iris Lily's relative) and barring a direct hit from an asteroid or something, it's probably good for another few billion..And it's reinvented itself with flora and fauna several times. so it will survive. Humans, probably not. Oh well.
Just to let you know how un-progressive this state is, they banned banning plastic bags! Such ignorant, short-sighted fools in our state......the worst of which is our Governor, Mike Pence.
Can you believe this: Here's an article about it.
Bill banning local plastic bag restrictions signed into law
Associated Press, @ap 7:58 a.m. EDT March 24, 2016
INDIANAPOLIS — City and county officials across Indiana won’t be allowed to tax or restrict the use of disposable plastic bags by grocery stores and other retailers under a new state law.
The governor’s office says Gov. Mike Pence signed the bill Wednesday. The measure was approved with mostly Republican support during the legislative session that ended two weeks ago.
Municipalities across the country, as well as the state of California, have banned single-use plastic bags. Others have adopted so-called bag taxes to discourage their use, which can harm the environment.
The measure takes effect immediately and prohibits cities from considering bag restrictions, as Bloomington has.
Bill sponsor Republican Sen. Brent Steele of Bedford said businesses and industry groups oppose regulating bags.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
Jane....have you ever read "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman? He describes how nature would eventually utilize and replace a lot of the damage left by us. I found it very comforting. I sent a copy to a naturalist friend of mine, thinking it would be comforting to her too........but it depressed the heck out of her. :( But it was an interesting read.
I just find it hard to live in that small/minute period of time (my life-span) and see all the damage being done. I suppose a lot depends on where we live. I live out in the country and subdivision after subdivision is marching towards our simple, quiet way of life. They build subdivisions before anyone even wants to live there. It's like they are allergic to woods and fields and any land that isn't used for "growth and development". Okay.......my blood pressure is getting too high I better quit. :~)
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Jane....have you ever read "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman? He describes how nature would eventually utilize and replace a lot of the damage left by us. I found it very comforting. I sent a copy to a naturalist friend of mine, thinking it would be comforting to her too........but it depressed the heck out of her. :( But it was an interesting read.
I just find it hard to live in that small/minute period of time (my life-span) and see all the damage being done. I suppose a lot depends on where we live. I live out in the country and subdivision after subdivision is marching towards our simple, quiet way of life. They build subdivisions before anyone even wants to live there. It's like they are allergic to woods and fields and any land that isn't used for "growth and development". Okay.......my blood pressure is getting too high I better quit. :~)
Yes, we watched that uglification happen in Beaverton--rows of ticky-tacky thrown-up housing, trees mowed down. It is depressing when development isn't done responsibly. I find comfort in the belief that Nature can and will recover. Bacteria will eat plastic, vegetation will grow over the ugly scars we've left. There's a program called Life After People that features computer generated images and educated speculation on a post-human earth. Political pressure for more responsible management of the environment is slowly having an effect. It's an uphill battle, especially in some areas.
I don't even want to know what Pence is thinking. He presided over one of the most restrictive abortion legislation in the country recently--bound to be challenged in court. My beloved has a grandson living in Indiana. There are no ethnic restaurants for miles where he lives, so he loves to visit Oregon and sample the food. I've asked repeatedly why anyone would even consider living in such a backward place, and the answer is "family." (Or maybe inertia.) There's a place for everyone, and I should be glad there aren't even more people moving to the PNW, but I would be such a misfit in some areas of the country that I would have to move.
Yes, I too find consolation in the fact that nature will endure.
Yes, Pence is ridiculous, in every decision he makes. I can't stand to even look at the man. DH has all his extended family and a business here....and would never dream of moving. :(
DS lives in Bloomington, which is somewhat of an oasis in this state......just about the only one.
Oh well.....I could go on forever, but will stop here. Yes, it does give me some comfort to believe that nature will survive, way beyond mankind.
ToomuchStuff
4-2-16, 4:37pm
I am not in a state where they have banned "one use" plastic bags. I do wonder how those are written.
From my grandparents generation, those bags were reused until the broke. If one use plastic bags are outlawed, doesn't that also outlaw trashbags?
If one use plastic bags are outlawed, doesn't that also outlaw trashbags?
The City Council across the river from us just passed such an ordinance. According to the newspaper (http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-council-votes-to-ban-plastic-bags-impose-paper-bag-fee/374301581/) account, the ordinance
exempts bags without handles that are used to pack produce, bulk goods, frozen foods, flowers, baked goods, newspapers, prescription drugs and dry cleaning, among others.
We'll see how it works.
Just to let you know how un-progressive this state is, they banned banning plastic bags! Such ignorant, short-sighted fools in our state......the worst of which is our Governor, Mike Pence.
Can you believe this: Here's an article about it.
Bill banning local plastic bag restrictions signed into law
Associated Press, @ap 7:58 a.m. EDT March 24, 2016
INDIANAPOLIS — City and county officials across Indiana won’t be allowed to tax or restrict the use of disposable plastic bags by grocery stores and other retailers under a new state law.
The governor’s office says Gov. Mike Pence signed the bill Wednesday. The measure was approved with mostly Republican support during the legislative session that ended two weeks ago.
Municipalities across the country, as well as the state of California, have banned single-use plastic bags. Others have adopted so-called bag taxes to discourage their use, which can harm the environment.
The measure takes effect immediately and prohibits cities from considering bag restrictions, as Bloomington has.
Bill sponsor Republican Sen. Brent Steele of Bedford said businesses and industry groups oppose regulating bags.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
That's some serious ass-holery there.
Williamsmith
4-5-16, 11:10am
There is no proof single use bag bans do anything to reduce the harm to the environment. What is the definition of a single use bag? How much does it cost to produce? How much does the thicker so called reusable bag cost to produce? How much are stores going to charge for the reusable bags? How much longer does a reusable bag that is thrown away take to decompose? Who enforces the bag ban? How many thrown away reusable bags does it take to actually make the problem worse? What does it cost to actually investigate and document evidence as to whether or not the ban really makes a difference?
What is the wisdom in doing something with so many unanswered questions? The answer is religion doesn't look for answers, only justification by faith. Environmentalism is more near a religion than it is a science. Why is it not enough for one person to do what they can for the sake of the environment?
Now you may say, what about a littering law. You throw wrapper out on the street, it is unsightly. Yes, you simply make the person pick it up or you make them pay a one time fine, but there are no further complications. Not so with the unintended consequences. I'm not questioning your intentions. Just your inquisitiveness. When you mention single use bags....that is a much deeper subject than appears on the surface.
But yet we are willing to throw away a solution to a problem.....a lightweight cheap method of getting your groceries home, for a less useful and possibly more offensive one, in the name of feeling good and societal acceptance.
We've been using the same 7 or 8 multiuse bags since we got them shortly after moving to California over 7 years ago. Probably 4 bagloads of stuff per week. Mostly the same couple of bags that are always on the top of the stack. None of them show any signs of being worn out. The average lifespan we've experienced is at least 175 uses so far, but probably much higher for some of them since we don't rotate the stack. According to wikipedia it takes approximately 28 times as much energy to make one, and can take as much as 100 uses before being less harmful to the environment than a single use bag. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reusable_shopping_bag
My reusable bags are showing their age, which must be about 15 years old. It's quite possible for well-made bags to outlast the owner. And I don't have to worry about wildlife being strangled or otherwise harmed by my totes. Theoretically, you could make reusable bags from thrifted clothing or fabric, so I'm not sure how Wikipedia figures the energy cost--unless they're considering labor.
Williamsmith
4-5-16, 12:51pm
Both jp1 and Jane v2.0 are good examples of where the multiple use bags make sense in their individual lives. However, there are many individuals who will use the bags once, some twice, others three times....etc. You see how complicated this becomes to determine whether it makes sense for a community. Let's say, you are the only two in your community who will use these bags in this way, then obviously it would be contributing to making matters much worse. The conundrum.....not all humans think alike. Heck, not many have the time to think at all.
Ultralight
4-5-16, 12:54pm
Heck, not many have the time to think at all.
Some don't have the will to think!
The reason we don't just have 3 or 4 is because when the law went into effect outlawing single use plastic bags we didn't always remember to bring them with us, so we bought more. Making that mistake a few times helped us get in the habit of bringing them. If the law hadn't changed we probably would not have modified our behavior. Personally I like the reusable bags. They work much better than single use bags. They can carry much heavier loads without ripping, they can be slung over the shoulder, they are bigger, and they don't allow the groceries to spill all over the trunk of the car on those rare occasions when we drive to the store.
I see a lot of reusable bags already being used here, and businesses in the "ban zone" still sell paper bags, which I reuse for compost/food scraps. Little by little...
ApatheticNoMore
4-5-16, 5:28pm
If your reusable bags are falling apart that often, you really need to consider better quality bags. Granted some of the free reusable bags one gets are pretty bad. The quality of the bags sold at Trader Joe's seems pretty good.
iris lilies
4-5-16, 6:41pm
I love the plastic bags. i use them for cat litter. I use them to pick up dog poop n the yard. Ii will be bummed when they are outlawed here.
Of course laws do keep everyone from hurting the enviroment. Hahahaha. Not.
Yesterday, a beautiful warm day, was perfect for weeding. i went over to my iris garden in the ghetto to work. About 3 pm a big white SUV pulled up on the middle of the street. Girl got out, went to a door and pounded on it. Screeched. More pounding. Then SUV stared honking horn. More pounding and screeching. Then a car pulled up behnd SUV and tried to get past it, inchng along slowly, it succeeded.
More honking, pounding, screeching.
Another car pulled up, was barely able to transverse the street due to the big fat ass SUV in the middle of the street, still honking.
this clown show went on for 15 minutes. Beautiful, peaceful gardening afternoon made untenable. Noise pollution reigned.
Finally the girl got into the house. the big ass driver of the big ass SUV threw out his soft drink in its styrofoam cup as his final assault on my peace of mind, and it landed in my iris bed. OF COURSE IT DID!
I use them to hold the cat pan clean out too. Don't get a newspaper subscription and wont put the stuff in the sewer.
I use them as my garbage bags. So when they are outlawed I'll have to buy plastic garbage bags. Net effect on environment in my world will be zero ...
SO's family in suburban St Louis hangs onto their plastic bags and gives them to us for kitty litter. So for us it's a net plus, but if Missouri ever adopts a no single use bag law we'll have to probably start buying plastic bags just for kitty litter. Or find/make a friend in Indiana...
Jane....have you ever read "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman? He describes how nature would eventually utilize and replace a lot of the damage left by us. I found it very comforting. I sent a copy to a naturalist friend of mine, thinking it would be comforting to her too........but it depressed the heck out of her. :( But it was an interesting read.
I personally really liked that book. It was interesting that even Chernobyl is now plenty populated with wildlife, not at all long after the disaster there. And that one of the worst likely disasters if people suddenly disappeared would be the massive refinery area just outside Houston on the gulf coast. I would, however, love to get my hands on one of the showroom Toyotas from the Cyprus demilitarized zone. How cool would that be to have a brand new 1974 Toyota Corolla! But in all seriousness, like you, I found it comforting to realize that the earth itself will go on just fine once humans are done doing all we can to destroy this planet. We may take down any number of other species of animals with us, but life itself will undoubtedly go on.
I think we've all gotten so used to some of these things, that we think life is impossible without them. How did they pick up dog poop or line their little wastebaskets before plastic bags were invented?
We all have to give up some convenience to keep our life support system healthy.
It's sort of like "climate change". So what, if man isn't the cause.........why can't we live in a way that is just better for the earth? I hear of those huge drifting piles of plastics in the oceans. I see trash along the roads every day. I see people throwing out stuff that won't probably decompose in decades or ever.
We're such a lazy spoiled bunch, we humans.
I use cloth bags for shopping. I bought some of them 28 years ago. Just recently, their straps wore out. I bought some more strapping and sewed them on and they're good as new. Can you imagine how many plastic bags I didn't use? Thousands. Yes, there are consequences of using too much cotton too..........but I'd rather have those consequences than too much plastic.
I leave my bags in the car, so they're always there when I need them.
If people can't even consider giving up plastic bags, then how can anything ever get done towards having a healthier earth? I can only shake my head.
Miss Cellane
4-6-16, 8:44am
I think we've all gotten so used to some of these things, that we think life is impossible without them. How did they pick up dog poop or line their little wastebaskets before plastic bags were invented?
We all have to give up some convenience to keep our life support system healthy.
It's sort of like "climate change". So what, if man isn't the cause.........why can't we live in a way that is just better for the earth? I hear of those huge drifting piles of plastics in the oceans. I see trash along the roads every day. I see people throwing out stuff that won't probably decompose in decades or ever.
We're such a lazy spoiled bunch, we humans.
I use cloth bags for shopping. I bought some of them 28 years ago. Just recently, their straps wore out. I bought some more strapping and sewed them on and they're good as new. Can you imagine how many plastic bags I didn't use? Thousands. Yes, there are consequences of using too much cotton too..........but I'd rather have those consequences than too much plastic.
I leave my bags in the car, so they're always there when I need them.
If people can't even consider giving up plastic bags, then how can anything ever get done towards having a healthier earth? I can only shake my head.
They didn't. Dog poop stayed where it landed. It's only fairly recently, like the last 20 years or so, that picking up dog poop has become routine. I can remember not wanting to play in certain friends' yards as a kid, because there was dog poop everywhere. And trash cans simply weren't lined. You had to wash them out every so often. We've created "needs" for plastic bags that didn't exist 50 years ago.
I bought two reusable heavy cotton canvas bags about 25 years ago. The handles are starting to fray a bit, so eventually I'll have to replace the straps as you did, Cathy. The thing is--those bags are used for more than shopping. They are great tote bags when I just have a bunch of stuff to carry. They are in use far more than my weekly trip to the supermarket. The newer reusable bags that the supermarkets are selling now--they look fragile and I don't think you can run them through the washer the way I can with mine. I won't be getting any of the new ones.
The other reusable bags I have are rip-stop nylon, shaped like the plastic grocery bags. I keep two in the car for random shopping--trips to the drug store or Target or whatever. I like that you can stick one in your pocket or handbag easily.
You're right about needs being created, Miss Cellane! Anything to make money. :(
When I first started using cloth bags, they "had" to be for the store you bought them in. At least that's what I thought. So I have Kroger and Marsh bags.......The Marsh bags are extremely small. But now I take the big ones I got at a craft store everywhere.
I remember the first time I used the Kroger cloth bags at Kroger. I got to talking to the cashier and didn't pay attention to the bagger........who was lining all my cloth bags with plastic ones! For a while the baggers were disgruntled over having to use the cloth, since they didn't stand up well.......but they got used to it.
And they keep trying to put my meat/seafood in plastic, but I stop them. I haven't gotten sick yet.
I never bought those square ones they sell in the stores now (nylon?) because I like cotton better and cotton is washable.
I also use the bags I show in the link below instead of putting produce into those other types of plastic bags. I've never seen anyone else use them.
Here's something like what I use. they work great!! You can't store food in them, so I move them to some plastic bags I reuse for in the fridge.
http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Reusable-Mesh-Produce-Sacks/279266738?goog_pla=1&gpid=18283950120&gpkwd=&goog_pla=1&gclid=CjwKEAjw55K4BRC53L6x9pyDzl4SJAD_21V1IdU1VjGs SyyXW4JbIR2LSqFL2QrLHJGUJOVMg6k-DxoCo9Pw_wcB
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