Is Recycling Worth It?

[jitspoe]

The apartment complex I live in has no means to recycle anything. If I want to recycle something, I have to take a 30 minute trek out into the middle of nowhere to drop it off, and the place is only open on certain days, so I have yet to actually make it there when it's open. What's my motivation to recycle used bottles, cardboard, etc. instead of just throwing them in the dumpster at the complex?

 

[Eli]

In that situation, I wouldn't do it either.

 

[E equals MC2]

your contribution is probably worthless compared to the scale of recycling done throughout US.

If it's that much of hassle, just throw it away guilt-free.

 

[JDrake]

U.S. consumers discard enough glass to fill the 1,350 foot twin towers of New York's World Trade Center every two weeks.

Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water!
Americans use more than 67 million tons of paper per year, or about 580 pounds per person.

Paper products make up the largest part (approximately 40 percent) of our trash.

Making recycled paper instead of new paper uses 64 percent less energy and uses 58 percent less water.

Every day American businesses generate enough paper to circle the earth 20 times !

Every day Americans recover more than 2 million pounds of paper! That's about 40 percent of the paper we use.

Paper products use up at least 35 percent of the world's annual commercial wood harvest.


The highest point in Ohio is said to be "Mount Rumpke," which is a "mountain" made up of trash -- at a sanitary landfill! Rumpke is one of the nation's largest waste and recycling companies.

One tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year.

Each year, Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups.

In Britain, over 9 million "nappies" or disposable diapers, are used every day.

More than 1/3 of all fiber used to make paper comes from recycled paper.

Every Sunday, Americans waste 90 percent of recyclable newspapers. This wastes 500,000 trees!

A new landfill generally costs more than an old one that has filled up. This is because it typically costs more to comply with new environmental regulations, to buy the land, to construct the landfill and to transport waste because new landfills generally are farther away than older ones.

Every year more than 900 million trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.

Only 1 percent of the world's water supply is usable; 97 percent is in the ocean and 2 percent is frozen.

[*]Reycling conserves our valuable natural resources.
[*]Recycling saves energy.
[*]Recycling saves clean air and clean water.
[*]Recycling saves landfill space.
[*]Recycling can save money and create jobs.

 

[LookingGlass]

Yeah we know the benefits of recycling, they sure don't make it easy sometimes for the consumer to participate in recycling. Unless you are lucky enough to live in a area that offers that option.

 

[Ornery]

I quit years ago. Straw that broke the camel's back was when the recycling truck left a note on my still full recycling bin, saying they wouldn't take it because it was "mixed". I had put my old newspapers inside a plastic grocery bag, and that was a no-no. :roll:

I dumped my recycling bin in my dumpster that same day, and never looked back.

 

[mwtgg]

Originally posted by: joedrake
[*]Reycling conserves our valuable natural resources.
[*]Recycling saves energy.
[*]Recycling saves clean air and clean water.
[*]Recycling saves landfill space.
[*]Recycling can save money and create jobs.

Sounds like propaganda to me.

No, recylcing is not worth it. Not in any case, except for I believe aluminum. Otherwise, it's cheaper and more effective to make it all from scratch.

 

[LookingGlass]

Originally posted by: Ornery
I quit years ago. Straw that broke the camel's back was when the recycling truck left a note on my still full recycling bin, saying they wouldn't take it because it was "mixed". I had put my old newspapers inside a plastic grocery bag, and that was a no-no. :roll:

I dumped my recycling bin in my dumpster that same day, and never looked back.

You got Ornery, about it huh. 😛 😉

 

[jitspoe]

Originally posted by: mwtgg
No, recylcing is not worth it. Not in any case, except for I believe aluminum. Otherwise, it's cheaper and more effective to make it all from scratch.

Somebody else told me that. That would explain why recycling isn't always made very convenient.

 

[dullard]

Anytime recycling is worth it, you are paid for it. And that doesn't happen very often.

Think of the waste of fuel/resources to get you 30 minutes away to that recycling center.

I'm all for recycling, but I'm not for wasting so many resources just to recycle.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Originally posted by: jitspoe

Originally posted by: mwtgg
No, recylcing is not worth it. Not in any case, except for I believe aluminum. Otherwise, it's cheaper and more effective to make it all from scratch.

Somebody else told me that. That would explain why recycling isn't always made very convenient.

Penn and Teller did a show on it also.

 

[EyeMWing]

Traditional paper/plastic recyling is prettymuch a failure because of situations like this. That, and they're asking you to recycle things that you really can't recycle efficiently, and prettymuch letting you throw away things that eat MASSIVE amounts of landfill space and can be recycled efficiently at the drop of a hat.

Electronics, in particular, are a veritable GOLD MINE of recycleables, and are pretty damned nasty to the environment.

Most CRTs can be repaired and then reused - if not, they can be recycled at a small loss (easily made up for by the refurbishment process). Most LCDs can be reworked in the same manner. Older CPUs? Gold. Lots of it. Pentium Pro? There's more gold in there than in most "gold" jewelery. Newer CPUs? Various exotic materials. The cases are steel. Steel recycling is very simple. Same with aluminum. Same with copper. A raw motherboard has at least $1 in recoverable raw materials and precious metals on it.

Plastics that are used in manufacturing are much easier to recycle and rework than say, soft drink bottles... But that's what they tell you to recycle. Consumer recycling is just something politicians do to try to look good. But on the whole, recycling is a good thing, is profitable, and leads to a net decrease in energy consumption.