Plastic...is it too late?

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by The Watchman

Whether the earth has the capacity to mitigate itself or not, it doesnt mean the pollutants wont have harmful effects in the shorter term. Lead comes from the earth, and is concentrated in humans through our actions, and when we die it goes back to the earth. That doesnt mean its harmless while it's in you.

Plastic may be made from petroleum, but once its changed form, the earth is not going to change it back to oil

The volcano thing is well known among environmental scientists. But the conclusion that we should just throw up our hands and ignore any human impacts is pretty short-sighted. It just proves the world is a hostile place for human life, and we best avoid making it worse.

The problems in my mind are tangents from this plastics issue and others but they underscore the importance of responsibility and planning.

Where our main home is we had a horrible freak flooding incident as now I'm sure many have have seen occur in places. We've also had a whole lot of growth that accentuated transportation and planning issues. Where our other place is and where we now spend more time and might move to, they had different natural disasters and transportation challenges.

Both places handled that stuff much differently. Right after the flood we did a 5 year plan to repair and proactively fix. For rotten roads not getting fixed we did an assess the property owner instead of wheel tax or something slow and unsure. It has really worked over kick the can down the road.

I've posted how we've dealt with the negative effects of CAFOs - the two manure digesters.

It is easy to see areas not being bing responsible like that not doing well when problems repeat.

We all need to be more responsible starting locally. It is not just a matter of responsibility and cost. It risks being not competitive. It doesn't have to violate the rules here. Being a boomer I'm old enough to remember more people getting along to solve problems.

[Gunny]

Sometimes it's hard to have faith in Humanity when you watch someone at a red light roll down their window and throw a fast food bag or a water/soda bottle out the window without a care in the world. There is enough garbage along most roadways to keep people busy all year.

If every person recycled (or better yet, severely limited plastic use) and picked up garbage, it would make a difference.

[Dirk Hofman]

I'm curious how many folks have a service which picks up trash, compost, recycling as separate bins.

Our city provides a bin for each, and picks up all 3 with 3 different trucks during the morning on Friday. Company is Recology.

Our trash bin is by far the smallest. Yard waste and kitchen compost go in compost, and the recycling is often overflowing if we have several packages that week. The whole house of 4 barely fills one trash bag per week.

I would imagine smaller municipalities don't have the same service? No idea. Other states? Curious how pervasive such services are. They make it really easy to recycle and reduce.

[Chipotle]

We have trash, recycling and yard waste (not compost, as no food items are allowed--we do have own own composting bin for that). Right now I have a private hauler, but our whole city will be moving to municipal service with all three in the fall.

I love the yard waste service, since not only are branches and copious leaves a pain to haul off, but it's nice to know they are being composted or mulched elsewhere and not landfilled.

However, I find my recycling bin vastly underutilized. The reason? Very few plastics can be recycled. Most plastic "recycling" is a lie conceived and perpetuated by the industry. Aside from PET bottles, plastics are just more garbage. The amount of aluminum, cardboard and glass we have aren't all that much. Sad, but true.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

We have trash, recycling and yard waste (not compost, as no food items are allowed--we do have own own composting bin for that). Right now I have a private hauler, but our whole city will be moving to municipal service with all three in the fall.

I love the yard waste service, since not only are branches and copious leaves a pain to haul off, but it's nice to know they are being composted or mulched elsewhere and not landfilled.

However, I find my recycling bin vastly underutilized. The reason? Very few plastics can be recycled. Most plastic "recycling" is a lie conceived and perpetuated by the industry. Aside from PET bottles, plastics are just more garbage. The amount of aluminum, cardboard and glass we have aren't all that much. Sad, but true.

Yes! My wife and I have had this conversation, she was of the opinion that everything with the recycling symbol on it was recyclable...as they would have folks believe. She was pretty bummed when I gave her the details on what's actually recyclable.

Mostly we fill that bin with cardboard boxes from Amazon, some plastics, and aluminum cans from sparkling water. We've been a lot more conscious about which plastics we use since that conversation.

[Silurian]

My non recyclable waste is collected every two weeks.

Recyclable is collected weekly: Separate containers for:

1 Plastic/metal
2 Cardboard
3 Paper
4 Glass
5 Food waste.

Garden waste is collected every two weeks between March and November. This is an optional service that incurs a charge of £50 per annum.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Silurian

Garden waste is collected every two weeks between March and November. This is an optional service that incurs a charge of £50 per annum.

In northern California, most of our garden waste is generated from January through April. You know, the growing season! It's when we get rain here, so that's when everything starts to go nuts. I know, it's weird...

[Silurian]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

In northern California, most of our garden waste is generated from January through April. You know, the growing season! It's when we get rain here, so that's when everything starts to go nuts. I know, it's weird...

I live in Wales, our spring months are becoming increasingly wetter and milder. Wales is wet and rainy at the best of times.

This year we've had approx 300% of normal rainfall for this time of year.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by perttime

Landfills are so last century!

In my part of the world, if it doesn't get recycled, it gets incinerated (used as energy source). Most of it does anyway...

You guys up there in Scandoland have so much to teach us!

[tommieboy]

Originally Posted by Silurian

My non recyclable waste is collected every two weeks.

Recyclable is collected weekly: Separate containers for:

1 Plastic/metal
2 Cardboard
3 Paper
4 Glass
5 Food waste.

Garden waste is collected every two weeks between March and November. This is an optional service that incurs a charge of £50 per annum.

The same is true here, except the city has come "clean" and admitted to the council that most recyclables have been sent directly to the landfill for decades. The reason was that the city could not and can not find any company interested in getting involved in the recycling program at that level.

Tommy

[Riverwolf]

Thanks.
I enjoyed reading all the replies.
I wish plastic recycling worked.
But it does not.
Just google it.

[RedJoker]

We had curbside recycling in the 90's until we noticed they dumped trash and recycling in the same truck.

About 10 years later, they went to recycling dumpsters at the township hall. Due to folks dumping trash / furniture / tires / etc, they are now going to remove those too.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Silurian

I live in Wales, our spring months are becoming increasingly wetter and milder. Wales is wet and rainy at the best of times.

This year we've had approx 300% of normal rainfall for this time of year.

Same here in the land of the South Saxons (In the land of the Atrebates) . Haven't even started planting spuds 'n'onions yet!

[Silurian]

Originally Posted by tommieboy

The same is true here, except the city has come "clean" and admitted to the council that most recyclables have been sent directly to the landfill for decades. The reason was that the city could not and can not find any company interested in getting involved in the recycling program at that level.

Tommy

Here the onus is put on the consumer to sort the waste into 5 separate containers. The reasoning is that it encourages the private sector to get involved as separating the waste encurs costs that otherwise make it uneconomical.

Whether there is any truth to that is anyone's guess.

[Talk2Me]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

You guys up there in Scandoland have so much to teach us!

About air pollution?