The wife, Mrs. Mad Hatter (we're working on a name) and I are in a bit of disagreement over whether or not we should be recycling. Now if I thought it was an out and out good thing, then we wouldn't be arguing, but you really can't tell. It's a mixed bag at best, and in some cases worse to recycle than it is to simply throw something away.
Plastic bottles are IMO, a waste of time. Sure they can turn it into a park bench or picnic table but they can't use it as a bottle again. Paper it turns out needs bleaching, something that's not good for the environment at all. The only thing that seems worth it is aluminum cans, but even still, not all that worth it.
Then we have the curb side pick-up side of the equation. The trucks, gas, and man-power needed. That's bad, but to make it even worse if it happens to be a little windy outside on the day of pick-up... Well, there is all kinds of trash, and since I live on the edge of a storm water retention pond, a lot of that ends up in there.
How ironic, people are trying to do a good thing for the environment (supposedly) and all their trash is everywhere. WTF? So yeah, I've got some reservations about recycling. But the wife, ever the positive school teacher thinks it is still worth it, even if it isn't all that great. Do you recycle? And did you consider all of the facts and so forth before you decided one way or the other?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Recycle
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It costs more money to recycle 'the government way', ultimately, than it does to not.
I recycle to an extent. I don't buy new material, I reuse old clothes. I recycle my plastic grocery bags for small-can garbage bags. I am preparing to go to the dump site - what the Bear calls "The Superfund site" on the back 40 and drag up a lot of discarded iron and aluminum to take it to the recycling place in town.For 20 years folks in town have been using my property as an illegal dump site - and since it is on my property, it's now mine to profit from. We have already dragged up old wood and Bear has made some great built-in shelving from it; here it looks 100 years old and fits right in to the rustic look in my house.
I believe in practical recycling. The bins in front of the house, where everyone takes the time to neatly wash and separate (or, not so much) their garbage COSTS them and their government more than it is worth. You are right; tally the tabs for the expenditures of collection and reworking, and weigh them against the 'profits' and it becomes a negative. The only reason governments and waste management people do this is that the Feds give them YOUR tax dollars to encourage it. The only thing that doesn't stink about this phony recycling hype is the washed garbage.
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