Recycling

[sumas]

I enjoy posting and do not generally respond to negative posters. However, Bats, please stay off positive sites. To recycle is earth friendly. I feel sad that I am not more pro-active. I try hard to do the right thing. I even have my Mom who will be 90 soon, engaged in recycling. We all need to understand our lives are finite. Any thinking person wants our children to inherit an earth that is not toxic

[East Detroit]

You are guessing at those numbers, I am not...it just happens to be a matter of fact that recycling is not cost effective and that is why it MUST be subsidized to continue in the form that it currently does [[but should not).

You aren't guessing? Supply a cite for the numbers.

Our city actually shows that Waste Management pays us back for the recycled materials, saving us tax money at the city level. You have an actual cite that demonstrates additional taxes at a higher level which negates this?

[Johnlodge]

How much does it cost to repair said electronics versus a new item?

The proof is in the subsidies...if it were cost effective, there would be no subsidization....it would not be needed.

Batson, until you provide one iota of evidence that my recycling is subsidized and costs taxpayers more than straight garbage pickup and throwing the same materials into a hole in the ground, despite information I've provided to the contrary, you are simply blowing hot air. You can reply as many times as you like and repeat the same sentence, as I know you will, but it doesn't make the statement any more truthful or convincing.

[gazhekwe]

He never provides sources, he just redirects. I think he is blowing smoke.

[ccbatson]

Home based recycling is more tha just subsidized it is 100 percent paid for with tax dollars...[[psst, you don't need a source to know this).

[gazhekwe]

You said you weren't guessing and you had sources. Show them. The above comment sounds like just your opinion to me. Not very useful.

[ccbatson]

Reread the posts as you are drawing the wrong conclusions. I said that subsidized recycling is not cost effective...I did not say anything about sources regarding subsidies.

Just for giggles, I did a quick search...one of hundreds of hits is here:

http://cleantech.com/news/3960/are-g...save-recycling

[sturge]

You obviously looked over the comments section.

How come you don't complain about the garbage being subsidized?

http://environment.about.com/od/recy...it_vs_cost.htm


Cost of Recycling vs. Trash Collection
Environmental groups were quick to dispute Tierney on the benefits of recycling, especially on assertions that recycling was doubling energy consumption and pollution while costing taxpayers more money than disposing of plain old garbage.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense, two of the nation’s most influential environmental organizations, each issued reports detailing the benefits of recycling and showing how municipal recycling programs reduce pollution and the use of virgin resources while decreasing the sheer amount of garbage and the need for landfill space -- all for less, not more, than the cost of regular garbage pick-up and disposal.
Michael Shapiro, director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste, also weighed in on the benefits of recycling:
“A well-run curbside recycling program can cost anywhere from $50 to more than $150 per ton…trash collection and disposal programs, on the other hand, cost anywhere from $70 to more than $200 per ton. This demonstrates that, while there’s still room for improvements, recycling can be cost-effective.”
But in 2002, New York City, an early municipal recycling pioneer, found that its much-lauded recycling program was losing money, so it eliminated glass and plastic recycling. According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the benefits of recycling plastic and glass were outweighed by the price -- recycling cost twice as much as disposal. Meanwhile, low demand for the materials meant that much of it was ending up in landfills anyway, despite best intentions.
Other major cities watched closely to see how New York was faring with its scaled back program [[the city never discontinued paper recycling), ready to perhaps jump on the bandwagon.
But in the meantime, New York City closed its last landfill, and private out-of-state landfills raised prices due to the increased workload of hauling away and disposing of New York’s trash. As a result, the benefits of recycling glass and plastic increased and glass and plastic recycling became economically viable for the city again. New York reinstated the recycling program accordingly, with a more efficient system and with more reputable service providers than it had used previously.

[ccbatson]

Simple answer...garbage removal is a desired service that most would choose to pay for [[or do themselves). Recycling is a boondoggle which no rationally minded person aware of the facts would choose to pay for.

[gazhekwe]

I suppose you have some sources for that nonsense as well? Let's just say you are in the minority. There are plenty of people who want recycling and are happy to include it among the services they pay for. See, Bats, you already pay for it, might as well use it. Otherwise, the city gets a free ride at your expense.

[ccbatson]

But what service does it provide me? It isn't like schools [[even though they are in decline) or Social Security [[even though it is inefficient and going bankrupt) where you get something for the stolen payments...Recycling provides nothing to me whatsoever.

[d.mcc]

But what service does it provide me? It isn't like schools [[even though they are in decline) or Social Security [[even though it is inefficient and going bankrupt) where you get something for the stolen payments...Recycling provides nothing to me whatsoever.

Yeah, if the world is going to end anyways, why make it so we spend our last days using inferior products?

[East Detroit]

It is subsidized with tax dollars and loses money [[a lot of it) for the community.

Reread the posts as you are drawing the wrong conclusions. I said that subsidized recycling is not cost effective...I did not say anything about sources regarding subsidies.

Which is it?

[gazhekwe]

What services does it provide you? Hmmmm, let me think. You spend your days between your office and your computer, so you don't ever have to go out into the countryside and see dozens of large pimple like landfills that have sprung up all around the perimeters of the metro area in the last couple of decades. You don't live near one and never think what if they put one in my backyard. You don't believe in resource depletion, or in supporting local business rather than buying more things from offshore.

Well, I guess that recycling does nothing for you, then. Keep on helping to pay for it though, so the rest of us can use it and hopefully leave a better world for our descendants. Thanks!

[Detroitej72]

God could write on a stone tablet that recycling is beneficial and Bats would refuse, calling him a liberal in the process.

Some people are contrary just as a matter of principle, you can't talk common sense with them.

[jiminnm]

It seems that recycling plastic would be in our national security interest, as plastics are made from petroleum and we are importing petroleum from places that don't look too kindly upon us.

Rb, check out some local weaving guilds for those used jeans. Some around here weave them into rag rugs. My wife buys old wool sweaters from Goodwill and the like and felts them for projects.

[sturge]

But what service does it provide me? It isn't like schools [[even though they are in decline) or Social Security [[even though it is inefficient and going bankrupt) where you get something for the stolen payments...Recycling provides nothing to me whatsoever.

Wow! What a selfish statement.

[Pam]

But what service does it provide me?

Don't you want to keep America beautiful? Why do you hate our country?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH0U2AsyoWU

[ccbatson]

Yeah, keep it beautiful by disposing of the refuse in landfills etc.

[sturge]

yeah, keep it beautiful by disposing of the refuse in landfills etc.

---------rotflmao

[ccbatson]

Check out Penn and Teller's episode of BS on the subject...then you will be laughing for the right reasons [[opposite of what your current misconceptions are leading you to believe).