Recycling is largely BS - totally profit driven not enviornmentally driven

So with the new tariffs and with China clamping down on the types of recyclable waste they accept (they want cleaner recyclables now), the cost of recycling has gone up a little bit and now our regional trash collectors no longer take about 50% of what they used to because those things now don't bring as much of a profit. Things like a ton of newspaper or cardboard dropped by about 10% or about $2/ton and now all that goes to a landfill instead of being sold for recycling.

Now if this whole recycling industry was to "save the environment", this $2 wouldn't be an issue and it would be absorbed in some manner, as the saving of the environment for a ton of paper is worth more than $2, but obviously it is not.

Now every year the rules and requirements are getting more stringent for recycling. The collectors want people to wash out their plastics (clean their trash) before throwing it out. The amount of time and energy that each household has to spend cleaning their trash before putting it in the recycle bin only benefits the company collecting the recyclables so they can make a profit.

On top of it costing time and money to the individual to clean their trash, consumers are saddled with sub-par goods made from recycled materials that would otherwise not be on the market, and a superior product would be in it's place for the same price, but because there has to be an outlet for this trash, they make products that are "good enough" but b/c they are "recycled" people think they are saving the environment and buy a sub-par product.

If $2/ton for paper is enough to make the company stop collecting the product for recycling, then that is a major sign that this is ALL about profit and not about saving the environment. People need to wake up and realize they have been swindled and bamboozled by the left's propaganda into being their free workers in cleaning their trash. I doubt one household makes 1 ton of newspaper, office paper or cardboard per year, that means it would cost less than $2/year per household to recycle this waste IF it was about saving the environment, but it certainly isn't.

The only good recycling is seems to be metals, which are extremely expensive to mine and recycling them makes sense to all parties as they all benefit. That is why this has been a profit model since before WWII and recycling household waste only came about in the 1970's when it was forced upon people by legislation and other political strongarming.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Some of us have known this for years but the green movement makes people feel better.
I have no issue with keeping our environment as clean as possible but we need to stop being so gullible to all the lies.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Some of us have known this for years but the green movement makes people feel better.
I have no issue with keeping our environment as clean as possible but we need to stop being so gullible to all the lies.

What makes me mad is when they impose fines and such for people who throw the wrong thing away, like plastics in their garbage. If it was something where everything was recycled 100% and it wasn't there to make $$ for another entity/corp, then I would be more on board with doing it but as it stands now, it seems like only a very small few are profiting from this.

I wonder if this was the brain child of Waste Management (we all know the association of the Waste Management company from the 1970's to 1990's being "Mob" related, basically a scheme to make them some easy $$).

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Now every year the rules and requirements are getting more stringent for recycling. The collectors want people to wash out their plastics (clean their trash) before throwing it out. The amount of time and energy that each household has to spend cleaning their trash before putting it in the recycle bin only benefits the company collecting the recyclables so they can make a profit.

I saw this scam for what it was when recycling began. I watched the recycling truck throw all of the separated recyclables (with the exception of the HDPE and aluminum) into the same bin, mixing them all together. I asked the guy what the deal was, and he said it was going to the landfill.
I have never washed out a jar that was going to end up in a landfill.
Think of all the energy required (heating water) to wash out the peanut butter jars generated every day in the US....

a reply to: DigginFoTroof
Great OP. I keep wondering why Waste Management which is the largest garbage company in the US doesn't make their own recycling facility if it is so important. Why ship all the way to China? The answer is because it's not profitable enough.

Thanks for reminding me, I need to call my garbage co. and see what they are doing with the recyclables , as I pay extra for the privilege.

I miss the days where one could just burn their trash in a barrel and make less trips to the dump.

originally posted by: DigginFoTroof
I wonder if this was the brain child of Waste Management (we all know the association of the Waste Management company from the 1970's to 1990's being "Mob" related, basically a scheme to make them some easy $$).

Wrong group. Try your local government. The Waste companies pay the local governments for the right to be the sole provider of their service. If you look on your bill you should see a thing called "Franchise Fee". The municipality is also supposed to get a cut of the profits from the recycled items.

a reply to: butcherguy

I have always said...if society and the lawmakers want me to recycle so bad,why do I get a ton of junkmail every year for me to recycle in the first place??
Seems to me,I am not the one creating the garbage that I am ordered to recycle.
Business comes first so all the advertisements and flyers will never go away unless we start being honest with ourselves.

I also find it hard to take when people are buying water in plastic bottles,while bitching about the environment and the price of gas....then they throw the bottle on the ground or in the garbage and it goes on and on.
(water and gas are similar in price)

Its business.

This is why I am a big fan of "leave me the hell aloneism"
Its hard to make sense out of.

originally posted by: neo96
I miss the days where one could just burn their trash in a barrel and make less trips to the dump.

That's why I like living in the country.
Food gets thrown in the field.
Paper gets burned.
Plastic and metal get recycled.

No garbage collection bill...

Recycling only makes sense. If someone is going to make a profit off it, fine.

a reply to: Bluntone22

A friend of mine owns her own business. She's single and lives by herself. For years she would take the bag out of her trash can, tie it off and toss it in the dumpster at work. A few months ago the City changed companies for trash pick up and she got a bill in the mail. She called the trash company and told them that she didn't put any trash out so she wasn't paying the bill. A few days later she got a registered letter from the City telling her that she was required by law to have residential trash pick up and if she didn't pay the bill she would be fined.

a reply to: DrumsRfun

Very true what you said about the junk mail.

A couple years ago I collected all the junk mail that came through my letterbox over a 6 month period or so, then what I did was dump it all back into the mailbox down tghe street! I thought that was pretty funny and I'm guessing the postman who collected the post from that mailbox later that say also found it funny!

You should do it too. I tell you since I did that, the junk mail has got a lot less.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: Bluntone22

A friend of mine owns her own business. She's single and lives by herself. For years she would take the bag out of her trash can, tie it off and toss it in the dumpster at work. A few months ago the City changed companies for trash pick up and she got a bill in the mail. She called the trash company and told them that she didn't put any trash out so she wasn't paying the bill. A few days later she got a registered letter from the City telling her that she was required by law to have residential trash pick up and if she didn't pay the bill she would be fined.

It's almost like the government wants you to generate trash.

a reply to: JIMC5499

That's how it works.
A disposal company signs a contract with the city and every household pays their share.
Might as well use it.

And on a side note, she is probably breaking the law by using her company dumpster for her personal garbage.

originally posted by: intrepid
Recycling only makes sense. If someone is going to make a profit off it, fine.

Agreed that recycling makes great sense.

Having a conscientious grandma wasting time and hot water by washing out peanut butter and mayonnaise jars that will end up in a landfill makes no sense.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Recycling's a great idea. Turning it into a business was a poor one. It's used as some feel good bull# to make companies look good or people feel better about themselves. Every time I read how something is made from 5-25% recycled material because X company cares it just seems so ridiculous. It's all done so pointlessly. Recycling and reclaiming material from used products is a great idea. The way it's done is so half assed it's worse than nothing.

Building #ty products out of partly recycled # designed to be disposed then partly recycled and turned into more partly recycled # is idiotic.

a reply to: dug88

Nothing happens without someone making a profit.

Companies have to sell their products to make that profit.
Remember "angus" beef?
Anybody that knows anything about cows knows that the only way to tell them apart by taste is to control what they eat.
Angus, holstein,,,, fricken beef.

Same applies with recycling.
As long as the public buys the propaganda, they buy the product.

originally posted by: Bluntone22

originally posted by: neo96
I miss the days where one could just burn their trash in a barrel and make less trips to the dump.

That's why I like living in the country.
Food gets thrown in the field.
Paper gets burned.
Plastic and metal get recycled.

No garbage collection bill...

Worms eat paper really fast if you compost you get soil.
Plastic is poison and we should never have had plastic in the first place. Babies suck on it from birth and all the water we drink and soda and plastic wrapped crap food is toxic.

Recycling is, intrinsically a good thing but people need to actually think the logic of the process through. A while ago my employer made a big song and dance about switching to 100% recycled paper for our printers and copiers. The paper they bought was made in India, several thousand miles away. Duh!

Recycled paper all needs transporting, processing and then re-manufacturing back into paper - the environmental gains are minimal compared with a well managed forest planted specifically for the purpose. By far the bigger benefit is to use less, not the same amount of a different source.

Likewise 'green' energy sources. I have yet to see (though it doesn't mean they figures don't exist) someone calculate the environmental and energy cost of manufacturing and installing eg wind turbines and solar panels versus when that cost is repaid. Is the energy input of production ever repaid during the lifespan of the product?

I don't see it as a conspiracy, just a lack of informed decision making and thought. People assume recycling and green eneryg are good but this isn't necessarily the case. The key is to use less.