Why are people still recycling?

I would like links to all the facts that you present. I was under the impression that recycling is essential and will continue to believe this and recycle, for that matter until I will be provided with evidence to the contrary. I can not imagine that it is cheaper to deal with mixed up waste than it is to deal with papers, plastic, and regular waste. I also can not imagine why it wouldn’t be a good idea for many businesses to use recycled materials for their products as they do nowadays. I’ve never done it for jobs in the recycling industry and completely do not agree that ‘we’ (who’s we? america? the world?) have MORE trees than we used to. And finally, last time I checked there was no hysteria going on around recycling – I can hardly convince my family and work place to separate paper out.

Landfills are shit. I hate landfills. The less we have to use landfills, the better. What could possibly be good about filling the earth with our crap that will never go away?

It’s a plot to destroy the world.

@DominicX Agree big time. When I lived in upstate NY we lived several miles away from a landfill in Niagara County. On hot days in the summer the stench was unbearable. The landfill was a good 15–20 miles away.

They need to figure out a way to send all the landfills on Earth to the Sun.

From an article in Popular Mechanics (hardly a shill for Greenpeace):

“Aluminum, for example, requires 96 percent less energy to make from recycled cans than it does to process from bauxite. At the other end of the spectrum, recycled glass uses only about 21 percent less energy—but it still comes out ahead, according to a study by Washington-based environmental consultant Jeffrey Morris. Recycled plastic bottles use 76 percent less energy and newsprint about 45 percent less, he found. Across the board, the key factor is the energy intensity of extracting virgin materials, which is an order of magnitude higher than that of recovering the same material through recycling. “Even if you doubled the emissions from collecting recyclables, it wouldn’t come close,” Morris says. Overall, he found, it takes 10.4 million Btu to manufacture products from a ton of recyclables, compared to 23.3 million Btu for virgin materials. And all of the collecting, hauling and processing of those recyclables adds just 0.9 million Btu.”

@trizznumpet are you at least in favor of using fewer plastic products in the first place because they would fill up the land fills faster, or are you just fine with trash everywhere?

These are some pretty old arguements that have been kicking around for a while against recycling.
First off, let me say, that recycling alone won’t save the world or anything. They say – Reduce, reuse, and recycle, in that order – generally a core environmental tenant and what the three arrows of the recycling symbol represent.

Saves Energy and Money:
“It costs at least three times more to dump trash in landfills than it costs to reuse and recycle.” [Sprint Recycling] In fact the Office of Natural Resource Programs reports that recycling a ton of newspaper costs about $25 all costs included as opposed to disposing of it costing around $100. That’s before we take into account the cots of chemicals leaching into ground water, tree deforestation (http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/biotrends/trends22.JPG) or the loss of wildlife.

We Save Trees and Improve the Environment
Trees, as indicated above are in decline. There are trees that can keep up with the demand, but generally no one buys bamboo paper… We, as indicated above, can recycle it cheaper that pitching it.

We Give People Great Jobs in the Recycling Industry
There are lots of shit jobs out there. I basically think your point is irrelevant, as working in a landfill is probably not so wonderful either.

Saves Landfill Space
Well, this is true, it does save landfill space. Although, as you say, there is plenty of it. But who wants to live near it? And who wants to ship all of it someplace where no one lives? I guess we could just dump in the ocean… but I don’t recommend it (http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/10-the-worlds-largest-dump)

We’re still recycling because the benefits outweigh the costs.

I used to be an avid recycler til I was helping a friend take an old boat to the land fill and watched a recycling truck dumping it’s load in the same landfill.

Are you genuinely asking or are you flogging your own point of view? For which, by the way, you did not source your multiple assertions.

Why recycle?

1. Recycle your waste for a week, and you will be convinced of the value of recycling. Simply to not put ⅔–¾ of the waste you generate into landfills is a huge bonus to our world. Old landfills abound. They were not created with modern amenities like lining to stop leakage. That endangers the water, the air.

You say that we are not running out of land for landfills. I think and many others, most others, agree that we don’t want a giant landfill for a planet.

2. Recycling can be done cost effectively.

“A number of studies have shown the environmental benefits of plastic recycling. For example, a German life-cycle analysis for PET bottles calculated that the use of 100 per cent recycled PET instead of 100 per cent virgin PET would reduce the life-cycle emissions from 446g of CO2 to 327g per bottle – a 27 per cent reduction.” Source

“NAPCOR estimates that 5.5 billion pounds of PET bottles and jars passed over U.S. shelves in 2006. Making this many PET bottles and jars today from virgin plastic would cost $4.5 billion just for the raw materials, without considering the cost of operating bottle production plants.” Source

@trizznumpet I hate trolls.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities I say we recycle them

Sounds like someone just watched an episode of Penn and Teller’s Bull$hit.

@evegrimm aptly named.

@evegrimm…Also acceptable would be Penn and Teller’s Right-Wing, Big Business, Propoganda Show

The guy in that Bull$hit episode spouts “facts” that I have not been able to corroborate anywhere else. I recycle, and I will continue to recycle. It takes trucks to take paper back to the paper mill, true: but it also takes trucks to take it to the landfill, plus more trucks to get new trees to the paper mill, so on the surface it looks like twice the truckage going on to use new materials. Ditto for any other recyclable material.

Recycling is not the answer to everything, and it will not save us. It will just make the end come a little more slowly. But to argue against it is like arguing against getting chemo for cancer, since everyone dies anyway. Personally, if I can help give us some leeway until we figure out real answers, I will have done some good.

The only neat part of the landfill was watching the masher thing like a 4 wheel drive with sheeps foot wheels mash the boat. That was truly kool. I don’t get out much. :-/

Because the more I recycle the less trash I have. Duh.

oh shit i’m not going to even touch this, no way, i suspect a troll. Hubby recycles for a living I could get him on her spouting information right and left to prove this wrong but I will not because I refuse to believe in this level of misinformation

btw see I cursed, lol

In terms of the OP’s original question. Please re-educate yourself. I suspect you are highly misinformed.

I think in addition to recycling, reducing should get a fair share of attention as well. The amount of packaging and the type of packaging for most products we buy in a chain grocery store is well ridiculous! We should boycott those products and stores that sell this sort of merchandise.

I was recently reading about a furnace that can be used at land fills that burn at such heat that there is virtually nothing left. I will hunt for the info. But landfills in general are horrible smelly places and the plastic lasts, you might as well say forever!

@rooeytoo You forgot reusing. :)
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (in that order).

Remember that when you burn stuff, whatever doesn’t become heat-energy or toxic ash is put out for folks to breathe.

@RedPowerLady – yep I did, but I think I do it in practice. I carry cloth bags when I shop and use an aluminum water bottle which I wash every morning. Is that what you mean and what else do you suggest?

I try to be a good little friend of the earth!

@RedPowerLady dude, seriously, my husband crawled out of his hibernation and came back to fluther just to post for this q

we need to build a giant rail gun so we can jettison our trash into the sun.

@laureth Yeah, I was going to ask if the OP just watched Penn and Teller Bullshit. It’s nice that those guys try to debunk conventional wisdom, but the way they do it is biased too. Listening to them without questioning it is just as bad as not questioning conventional wisdom.

If we did “trash” right, we wouldn’t have to jettison it into the sun, or burn it, or landfill it.

Ever notice in nature how nothing, and I mean nothing, is wasted? Everything is fuel or food for something else. Even the rotting nasty bits are food for bacteria, which turns into humus, which is food for plants, which are food for us – who are food, eventually, for bacteria.

If only we could mimic this cycle when we make things! Either things could be biodegradable (food for the rotters) or things are made of easily recyclable-reusable parts (food for industry). It’s the hard-to-reuse or combination things that clog up the system and use precious resources. Every time we burn or bury, we’re wasting something.

Nature doesn’t waste. We shouldn’t either.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir awesomeness! that made me smile

@rooeytoo Ya that is reusing and reducing combined! :) There are lots of ways to reuse. I was just giving you a friendly hard time though, you seem very environmentally friendly.

@RedPowerLady – no worries mate! But I was serious reuse is a bit harder to put into practice so if you have suggestions, I am open!

@rooeytoo Here are some examples hubby thought of off the top of his head, but I did kinda put him on the spot, lol. They are a bit obvious but hey never know they could be useful.

glass containers for storage or gift giving
egg cartons donated to farms or reused if you have chickens
plastic bags you inevitably get as trash bags
ziploc bags and tinfoil can be washed and reused
cardboard boxes in obvious ways
odds and ends for scrapbooking and other crafts, can also be donated to craft-exchanges (this is becoming more and more popular)

Hubby says everytime you throw something away, say for 3 days, you should think to yourself “is this reusable, is there some way I can reuse this?”.

Thanks, I do most of that stuff, except the egg cartons, my dog seriously loves shredding them so they quickly become mulch on the floor and then in the yard when they are swept out the door.

Cheers

@rooeytoo Letting your dogs use them as toys counts too ;)

@RedPowerLady great suggestions. Christmas time and all of the wrapping can get frustrating for me, so much paper. I try to keep it to a minimum (although I am one of those who loves wrapping gifts). I do use the pretty bags which can be reused, I have a stash in my storage closet from gifts give to me. You spoke of glass containers, what specifically do you mean, and where do you get them?

The ‘cradle-to-grave’ model is doomed. Eventually we need ‘cradle-to-cradle’ design, manufacturing and recycling. When 8 out of 9 billion people become middle class, there won’t be enough fossil fuels and other resources.

Have a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_to_Cradle

@JLeslie That is a good note about the upcoming holidays. I’m a bag user myself but that is because I am a horrible present wrapper, lol. Plus the bags can be reused so that is a huge benefit.

Glass containers like we get from spaghetti sauce and olive oil etc… Lots of items we purchase come in glass containers. Oh jelly is another example. You can just take off the wrapper and reuse for whatever purpose. Like the gifts in a jar. I use them to carry around water instead of those aluminum water bottles because I hate the taste of metal, ick.

Thanx.

I keep thinking of this question. Instead of ‘why are people still recycling?’, I keep thinking ‘why are people not yet recycling’?

For wrapping things, I’ve often used cheap-ish things that can be reused for a long time, such as a towel (to wrap a bath-related gift), a pot with lid (for a food or kitchen gift), or… you get the idea. Costs a little more, but adds to the gift.

@laureth that is awesome