Recycling

[MickintheHam]

Does anyone believe recycling in the year of our Lord 2021 really works?

Last evening for about the tenth time this year I reported to our city website that this week’s recycling was not picked up at my home. This morning the regular garbage truck made a special trip to come by and empty my can and mix it with their regular garbage. Mixing garbage and recycling happens frequently.

The city recycling will not accept glass, plastic bottles or plastic bags. I can take the bags to Publix and the glass to Target (10 miles away). That’s a gallon of gas round trip. We’ve had at least three recycling plants in the city close in the last three years mostly due to lack of demand for steel, aluminum, or paper.

Now our city has signed a contract for waste services with a new company. We will have garbage service twice a week and no recycling pickup. Instead the 2nd pickup of the week will be hauled over 100 miles to Montgomery where it will be dumped and separated. (Most of the time garbage comes out of Montgomery. This will be a new experience) So if I have anything I want recycled save it for the end of week and throw it in with that day’s trash and garbage. But does anyone believe this massive site will be effective at recycling? Seems to me we have failed at recycling and are sweeping the evidence under the rug.

Does anyone believe the recycling myth? Tell me it is true and that we are really saving the planet.

[PedroDaGr8]

Recycling plastic - mediocre benefit at best. Easier to make than from scratch but everytime you recycle plastics, they become a lower quality grade

Recycling glass - no net benefit.

Recycling aluminum - EXTREMELY high benefit. Far more efficient and cost effective to recycle aluminum

[Catfan73]

Our recycling is picked up every other week in separate trucks but I have no doubts that probably 75% of what they pick up ends up in the landfill anyway. Since China stopped accepting our recycling there’s no market to help pay for what it costs. It still works in some places but it requires a lot more sorting on the part of individuals than what we’re used to putting into it.

[bigsky]

Aluminum works. Car batteries work. Cardboard and plastic don’t. Glass is inert, just sand and it does not pencil to haul around.

Reduce. Reuse, they work.

[PedroDaGr8]

Aluminum works. Car batteries work. Cardboard and plastic don’t. Glass is inert, just sand and it does not pencil to haul around.

Reduce. Reuse, they work.

100% agree with you there. On a related note, over 4th of July my sister came across these. They are like Solo cups but made of thin stamped aluminum instead of plastic. They are a bit more expensive than Solo cups but they can be easily reused, handle sharpie well, and don't break nearly as easily. Furthermore, if/when you don't want to use them anymore they can easily be recycled (unlike plastic). Seems like a FAR more reasonable solution to Solo cups than I have ever seen before.

[KSRBEvans]

I don't think I'm much of a crackpot conspiracy theorist, but 3 things I think are bogus:

1. Removing sodium from your diet

2. Organic food

3. Recycling (with the exception of metals like aluminum--I think they'd get a better response rate if they'd focus on 1 thing like that and let the others go)

[KentuckyWildcat]

I like to recycle what makes sense. I have similar issues as Mick.

We have lots of card board. I'd gladly take it to the dump to recycle when I am near there. I will not make a special trip. However, they no longer take it. Well, I live in the county so I pay for garbage pick up. I am limited on the number of bags...we do lots of Amazon and other delivery services. Guess what happens to the cardboard...I burn it...

[KentuckyWildcat]

100% agree with you there. On a related note, over 4th of July my sister came across these. They are like Solo cups but made of thin stamped aluminum instead of plastic. They are a bit more expensive than Solo cups but they can be easily reused, handle sharpie well, and don't break nearly as easily. Furthermore, if/when you don't want to use them anymore they can easily be recycled (unlike plastic). Seems like a FAR more reasonable solution to Solo cups than I have ever seen before.

I may have to consider those!

[CitizenBBN]

Recycling is one of those great lies people tell themselves to assuage their guilt for being wealthy and/or their wastefulness.

Plastic: Huge lie. Minor googling will show you that most of this plastic that was sorted went to China. They are refusing it now, and it's now polluting Malaysia and other nations, who are trying their best to refuse it b/c they are BURNING this crap. Ever burn plastic? It's toxic as hell. It's not being recycled, it's being converted into either a) toxic air pollution, or b) a giant floating island in the pacific.

Paper: Can actually be reused some, but very limited, and very little is getting processed. Newspaper and others are a dead end, they can't get rid of it.

Metals: Absolutely. I agree with the above, drop the others and focus on this alone. The problem is the plastics and paper industries will lose their minds b/c people will move to metal containers more.


But those are just the obvious. In my business I see all the "recycling", notably the donation and disposition of chattel, household contents.

The biggie? Clothing. People take all this stuff to donation. The only market for it in any quantity is to ship to the third world, like Ghana. The problem? Anywhere from 40%-60% of it isn't consumed once it gets there, it goes straight to trash.

Google "Dead White Man's Clothes", what they are called in Ghana at least. Suffice to say they estimate that 160 tons A DAY of clothing waste lands in Ghana. It employees thousands there, but also creates massive waste. Same problem as plastic in Asia.

Glassware? Plastic stuff? Donation sells a bit of it, most is landfill.

Furniture? Lots of it available, but the "green" millennial kids dont' want "brown furniture" and dated styles so that goes to the trash and they go buy IKEA, which is made mostly with sawdust and resin (i.e. plastic). Of course they also see the furniture as far more disposable. If they bought solid cherry they couldn't sit it on the curb.

So we recycle almost nothing we consume. Not just daily with endless plastic bottle containers but even long term items like clothing and home goods.

It's all just a guilt complex, as is most of this sort of thing.

The fact that it's just not true doesn't matter. What matters is that people don't feel bad when they endlessly buy and consume things instead of reusing and repurposing.

[CitizenBBN]

Oh, and google about wool recycling. Fascinating. Most of it was shreded and sent to a region in India that used it to make cheap blankets, mostly for UN type humanitarian use. The problem is the Chinese can now make those blankets cheaper without using recycled wool, so that market collapsed.

[MickintheHam]

…..

So we recycle almost nothing we consume. Not just daily with endless plastic bottle containers but even long term items like clothing and home goods.

It's all just a guilt complex, as is most of this sort of thing.

The fact that it's just not true doesn't matter. What matters is that people don't feel bad when they endlessly buy and consume things instead of reusing and repurposing.

As we age I believe we learn we buy too many things we don’t need. We need to do a better job of teaching our kids. Recycling is dead. Consume what you need, not what you desire.

[VirginiaCat]

Locally they stopped taking Glass. Only take certain types of plastic and then all paper types now.

Evidently the company that processed Glass raised fees and made it impossible for our little city to recycle Glass.

[Darrell KSR]

As we age I believe we learn we buy too many things we don’t need. We need to do a better job of teaching our kids. Recycling is dead. Consume what you need, not what you desire.

I should have done this a long time ago, but I am looking into a small Class B RV for my wife and I for short trips. As usual, I have been overresearching everything, and watched a video and I was really struck by a lady who lives full-time in her small van talking about how happy she was when she eliminated so many things that she didn't need. I looked around, saw the cluttered room that I was in, and immediately saw the wisdom in those words.

[PedroDaGr8]

I should have done this a long time ago, but I am looking into a small Class B RV for my wife and I for short trips. As usual, I have been overresearching everything, and watched a video and I was really struck by a lady who lives full-time in her small van talking about how happy she was when she eliminated so many things that she didn't need. I looked around, saw the cluttered room that I was in, and immediately saw the wisdom in those words.

When my wife was living in Bangkok, she lived in a 40 sq meter apartment (that's 430 sq freedom units) and she shared it with a roommate. Keep in mind, I am far from a small dude (6' 5" and NOT skinny) but when I went to visit her, I was stunned at how I was still extremely comfortable in that space. It was clear that the architects had taken the time to maximize the usability of the entire space, so it was far more usable than some 800 sq ft apartments I have rented in the past.

The thing that really surprised me though was how quickly you could clean the entire apartment; a top to bottom cleaning took only 30-45 minutes. This made it very easy to keep the living space looking nice which helped make it even more enjoyable to live in. The only downside is you had to be very selective about what physical goods you acquired. After staying with her for a few weeks there, I could easily see myself living in a place like that in a big city.

From her living in that space and from my mutliple cross-country moves. Both the wife and I have developed a system of going through everything we have and purging things we haven't touched in over a year. It is amazing how much better spaces feel when you do that.

[CitizenBBN]

As someone who makes his living on people buying all kinds of stuff for their homes, I'm all for people stuffing them full.

But you can stuff them full of nice quality older things instead of new cheap junk. Dangit.

You couldn't pay me to live in a tiny house, or even an RV, I do have more things I nee than that and frankly just value physical space more than I can get in those enclosures, but I don't accumulate much and what I do I try to have things that will last and be functional a long time.

What I see is definitely a more minimalist mentality, but even among minimalists it is still often a very disposable mentality. They only have a dab of furniture and no art on the walls, etc. but they change it every few years or abuse an wear it out then just buy new. Not everyone or all the time, but more than prior generations.

Some of that makes sense. It's cheaper to buy a new sofa than to re-upholster one. I get that. But I see it with wood things as well, which is unnecessary.

I am thinning some glassware etc. that I never use. I won't live in 600 sf, but I also can't put an addition on the house just to hold dishes.

[Darrell KSR]

But you can stuff them full of nice quality older things instead of new cheap junk. Dangit.
.

My wife's birthday is next week, and as usual, I'm waiting till the last minute to consider her gifts. As usual, also, she tells me she wants nothing. We had a conversation about this thread this morning and we both came to the realization that what we need to do in situations like this is to simply upgrade/replace something we already have, not obtain anything new. An auction house would be an ideal place for that, particularly with good quality older furniture. I may look around the house and see what can be replaced and see if I can find something there.

[kingcat]

My wife collects old teacups , mainly English and European. She has hundreds of sets. The displays consume a lot of space in our home but I’m always considering ways to give her all the room she needs.
She even has me alert to which is the cats meow and what is not.

As for recycling, sounds like too much exercise for me.

[Darrell KSR]

My wife collects old teacups , mainly English and European. She has hundreds of sets. The displays consume a lot of space in our home but I’m always considering ways to give her all the room she needs.
She even has me alert to which is the cats meow and what is not.

As for recycling, sounds like too much exercise for me.

In my view, collecting something like that is completely different. That's a true collection.

[CitizenBBN]

Darrell, I like that idea. My brain is spinning trying to think how to make that a marketing pitch for buyers.

A lot of my regular "auction folk" do actually do that now. We sell a number of nice pieces where we deliver and they send the other one back for us to sell. They're out of room, but they upgraded.

I'm also working on how to market "green" to these kids by having them buy something used instead of new for everything. One problem is reaching them, the other is they want clean lines, very Danish modern and post industrial.

They want Danish designers, Marcel Breuer, Eames Brothers, Mies. The problem is their parents are selling Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, Victorian, Eastlake and Empire. They want clean colors, gray, white, black, chrome, and the furniture is in mahogany, walnut, oak, rosewood, cherry. They often call it "brown", which, to borrow a baseball analogy for my good twin's favorite sport, is like calling Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio or Hank Aaron "a baseball guy". lol

But I'm loving the "upgrade" idea, b/c older buyers actually know mahogany from oak, and still appreciate it. but most are downsizing and moving to Florida.

[Catfan73]

Darrell, I like that idea. My brain is spinning trying to think how to make that a marketing pitch for buyers.

A lot of my regular "auction folk" do actually do that now. We sell a number of nice pieces where we deliver and they send the other one back for us to sell. They're out of room, but they upgraded.

I'm also working on how to market "green" to these kids by having them buy something used instead of new for everything. One problem is reaching them, the other is they want clean lines, very Danish modern and post industrial.

They want Danish designers, Marcel Breuer, Eames Brothers, Mies. The problem is their parents are selling Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, Victorian, Eastlake and Empire. They want clean colors, gray, white, black, chrome, and the furniture is in mahogany, walnut, oak, rosewood, cherry. They often call it "brown", which, to borrow a baseball analogy for my good twin's favorite sport, is like calling Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio or Hank Aaron "a baseball guy". lol

But I'm loving the "upgrade" idea, b/c older buyers actually know mahogany from oak, and still appreciate it. but most are downsizing and moving to Florida.

I have an Eastlake chest that’s probably 140 years old. They don’t make stuff like that anymore.

[CitizenBBN]

I have an Eastlake chest that’s probably 140 years old. They don’t make stuff like that anymore.

Older furniture, generally anything made prior to the 1960s or so, will basically last forever. We handle all kinds of furniture, but clearly pieces made of solid wood with dovetail joints will essentially last indefinitely if treated properly. You will get splits and breaks here and there, but as a general rule you're looking at 100+ years. I have pieces coming up in 2 weeks from the 1700s that are still nice pieces. Maybe a bit more delicate with age but still functional.

The fine reproduction pieces like MacMahan etc. wouldn't break if you threw them off your roof.

Modern import pieces are made with lots of glue and hope. They have butt joints with no nails, just a quick dry glue. There is no structural integrity to drawer fronts, etc. They aren't solid wood so you chip it and it can't be covered easily.

I sell showrooms full of good quality pieces that kids pass on to go get things that won't last 5 years. Beats me.

[kingcat]

Chuck, Donna says to let us know if you run across any old Tea cups, saucers, pots, etc.. Anything the Queen might serve from she says.