quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
It's always been my understanding that recycling- when done correctly- is about conservation of resources; it is not a business incentive. It generally costs more to reprocess something than to make it from scratch. For example, a business will often choose to replace a defective product with a brand new unit, rather than repair the existing one. It's actually cheaper that way. You recycle mainly to limit depletion of natural resources that would go into primary goods production, and of course must look for some way to fund the higher cost.

The problem is not just about the cost. If it costs more to recycle, that is because you are often expending more resources in the process, therefore saving nothing. In fact, you may be depleting more resources in the process, with the only payback being a feel-good pet to one's social conscience.

Ethanol fuel is a good example of this. In most cases, more than a gallon of hydrocarbon fuels (or equivalents) are consumed in making a gallon of ethanol. So for every gallon produced, there is a net loss of resources over just consuming the hydrocarbon fuel directly. In other words, you are creating more pollution by using ethanol. But hey, it makes some people feel good due to slogans like "Why drill for fuel when you can grow it!!"

Intellectually, I know that recycling is a good idea but with all this separating crap and having to haul several containers back and forth to the curb, rather than a single trash can, I feel like I'm working for the guy, who owns the recycling business but I'm not on salary.

we are supposed to wash a 55 gallon tub full of food containers

yeah I am sure thats gonna happen.

Puh leeeze

Didn't I read somewhere more energy is used producing wind turbines than they will ever create?

For what it's worth, here's an article on Mashup about "how recycling works."

(Linky.)

Recycling costs US taxpayers over 8 billion a year... For nothing g.

Never really cared for recycling.
Now that I see it is a scam, it just confirms it.

Some folks do profit from recycling, one night after putting out our recycling I hear a noise I look out the window, there is a pickup truck and two boys on foot, now this is about 12 at night the truck drives tru the neighborhood the boys dump the aluminum cans in the back of the truck. So I guess that the next day they take all the cans that they collected and sell them for cash.
One morning early I went to the local public range to do some shooting before it got too hot, when I got there a guy and two kids were there with a portable generator and two shop vacs sucking up all the spent brass that they could see the guy said that he took it all to a metal recycling place, there they separated the steel with a magnet then they paid him for the steel and the brass, he said that they made about $50 each trip for about 10 minutes work.

The world needs clean drinking water and we use clean water to rinse containers so they can be recycled.

quote:

Originally posted by dwright1951:

One morning early I went to the local public range to do some shooting before it got too hot, when I got there a guy and two kids were there with a portable generator and two shop vacs sucking up all the spent brass that they could see the guy said that he took it all to a metal recycling place, there they separated the steel with a magnet then they paid him for the steel and the brass, he said that they made about $50 each trip for about 10 minutes work.

We had an asshole try that WHILE we were shooting one morning, he was STEALING our brass as we shot.

45cal didn't take a shine to some asshole stealing his 460Rowlan brass and damn near whipped his ass on the spot when he smarted off to 45cal about if it hit the ground it was his now. He made him dump all his brass and sent him on his way.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:

quote:

Originally posted by dwright1951:

One morning early I went to the local public range to do some shooting before it got too hot, when I got there a guy and two kids were there with a portable generator and two shop vacs sucking up all the spent brass that they could see the guy said that he took it all to a metal recycling place, there they separated the steel with a magnet then they paid him for the steel and the brass, he said that they made about $50 each trip for about 10 minutes work.

We had an asshole try that WHILE we were shooting one morning, he was STEALING our brass as we shot.

45cal didn't take a shine to some asshole stealing his 460Rowlan brass and damn near whipped his ass on the spot when he smarted off to 45cal about if it hit the ground it was his now. He made him dump all his brass and sent him on his way.

We had a guy come and yell cease fire while shooting after a match at my club. We set down our guns slide locked back, and asked him what's up? Said he wanted to pick up brass, we laughed at him and resumed shooting. Brass junkies annoy me. I'd be double pissed if I knew he was taking it to a scrap yard.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:

We had an asshole try that WHILE we were shooting one morning, he was STEALING our brass as we shot.

Stealing from somebody who is shooting is a bad idea. Stealing from 45 Cal or Marzy is a bad idea. Stealing from 45 Cal and Marzy while they are shooting is a REALLY bad idea!

Re picking up brass at a range -- Martin and I had been shooting for a couple of hours. It was getting on toward closing time at our club, so we packed up and then started using our roller-thingys (that's a technical term, if you didn't recognize it) to pick up brass in the pistol area where we had been shooting. The RO drove by in his golf cart and asked if we reloaded 9mm.

Martin and I both load 9mm, so we answered "yes."

The RO told us that a group of shooters had left pistol area # 5, and there was a ton of shiny 9mm brass on the ground.

Martin and I went and harvested it.

We were not stealing brass -- the club encourages to clean it up when we are finished shooting. Not everybody does, but I usually leave with more brass than I arrived with.

check out this video
http://www.kwqc.com/content/ne...back--491901631.html

Our local recycle dilemma:
Folks in Marquette had been paying for glass containers to be recycled.
Turns out... The glass went straight to the dump. No one would recycle it.
Now they have found a couple of facilities or companies that will recycle glass.
Problem: They are in Milwaukee or Chicago. Which will add transport costs.
Other option: Build a local recycling center and do the glass. But that will require funding that the city does not have and will have seek elsewhere. State or Feds, maybe.
Big success, the whole recycling thing!
Pretty good example of unintended consequences.

We don't pay for recycling. It all goes in one can. Every year the towns sends out a flyer that states how much it cost, what the costs are for. In the end the bottom line with the cost of trucks crew, fuel, the township only gets a few thousand dollars. BUT, we save as the landfill charges for that same material would cost a small fortune it tipping fees (that is what they call paying for each truck going to the landfill).

I worked my first real job out of HS at a Paper manufacturing plant, Riegel Paper Corp. They made all sorts of paper products.

ALL of our paper scrap went into laundry carts, the little canvas carts with 4 wheels on the bottom. ONLY paper went in there, NO cans, or other garbage.

It all eventually went to a hydropulper machine, that added water, beat it all up and turned it into raw pulp. They analyzed it, added what ever was needed and turned it into the roll wrap, used to wrap the rolls we shipped to other facilities. I always thought that was a cool deal...actually RECYCLING garbage and turning it into a useful product.

Taking into account the energy required to manufacture aluminum cans, glass, etc. It's a shame we can't more easily recycle them.

We have to haul our own garbage to a dumpster that's a 20+ mile round trip from the house. We can drop off about anything but DO pay a small fee annually.

It amazed me how much garbage we used to accumulate.

I stopped taking my groceries in a box, let the store throw them out. Same with Cost-Co...I'll throw my stuff in the cart or bring in a few bags. Get rid of your own boxes.

Also started looking at how ridiculous many items are packaged. WAY too much cardboard or plastic for usually small items. Stuff I then have to throw away. Especially bad are many of the items we get from REI, Amazon, etc. HUGE boxes and all sorts of packing material, for small items.