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It's like saying recycling is useless because no one recycles. You have to start somewhere
by alex_duf 9y ago
It's like saying recycling is useless because no one recycles. You have to start somewhere
- donatj 9y agoRecycling is useless because the process takes more energy than mining new except for a few select materials. It’s a feel good exercise in wastefulness.
- eastendguy 9y agoStrong statement - any data to back it up?
- kogepathic 9y ago> Recycling is useless because the process takes more energy than mining new except for a few select materials. It’s a feel good exercise in wastefulness. I would disagree. There is a benefit to keeping these materials out of a landfill. Saying we should just throw everything into a landfill because that uses the least energy is not considering the other benefits of diverting waste from the landfill.
- pzone 9y agoThe damaging effects of modern landfills are so low as to be effectively negligible.
- thinkMOAR 9y agoBut nonetheless, depletion of that resource or resources will slow down? Energy could be harvested from renewable energy for recycling? Bottom line for me sounds better for our world then mining new till we run out of something?
- pmoleri 9y agoYeah, it's not like waste is going to end up in landfills or oceans anyway.
- pzone 9y agoAlways recycle aluminum though!
- nerdponx 9y agoAs mined materials start to get more scarce, their prices will rise, and mining companies will have increased power over markets. You can see recycling as a kind of "intertemporal power smoothing", depriving mining companies of future economic power by reducing the rate at which materials are mined. Economic concentration of power imposes tremendous externalities, most of which are felt by ordinary people in the form of price increases and political disenfranchisement due to lobbying and outright corruption. I am willing to pay an energy premium today in order to avoid that human rights premium in the future. You may not be so willing, but I would urge you to consider that position.
- felipeko 9y agoAs price rises, recycling will be more advantageous and will compete with mined materials reducing their future economic power by the same amount as it would if you recycle now. The maximum effect of your policy will be to delay the moment when recycling becomes economic advantageous, and waste money/energy until then.
- nerdponx 9y agoGood point. I guess we have solar as an example of that, but solar was also heavily subsidized by the US gov't.
- nine_k 9y agoAs traditional mining becomes more expensive, recycling certain metals becomes the new mining. Also, certain plastics are very easy to recycle, so it's already profitable, I suppose. Otherwise, you can see landfills as future mining sites, when technology improves.
- twostoned 9y agoI don't disagree in principle, "Be the change you want to see in the world" and all that, but climate change from an individual level to me seems silly, or perhaps overwhelming. I have stopped really worrying about it in the Dr. Strangelove sense because it's out of control. We're supposed to sort our plastics and papers and yet all of our options available for purchase have been shipped, at least in part, from across the Pacific Ocean? There's airplanes littering the skies yet I'm supposed to worry about putting my banana peels into a compost bin? I actually don't understand. I feel like a lot of business decisions are made that we, as peons, have no say in that affect the overall biosphere a lot and then we're made to feel bad about it. "Ride your bike!" "Recycle!" "Don't forget to turn your lights off when you're not in the room!" Meanwhile: Fracking. ookay... On topic: I have little doubt there's a strong link between climate change in general and the production and consumption of livestock.
- hycaria 9y agoIt makes you think about it and sensibilize to it. Which probably failed by you considering : >On topic: I have little doubt there's a strong link between climate change in general and the production and consumption of livestock. The most common cow diet at the moment is 50kg of corn + 3 kg of soy + maybe 10kg (dry) of hay. Everyday. Do you think this grows out of the blue or uses arable land ? Also Europe imports soy (from southamerica mostly) to feed cattle. Add the transport costs & pollution and what have you and you might get a glimpse of how eating 100g of beef is producing way more GHG than 100g of beans.
- emodendroket 9y agoI don't get what you mean. It doesn't seem like you actually disagree with the snippet you're quoting, yet it seems like you're trying to refute it.
- hycaria 9y agoI can't read, sorry :p
- 9y ago
- peg_leg 9y agoIf policy dictated through incentives or exise taxes on not recycling then people will recycle.
- alex_duf 9y agoIf people were recycling and asking for change then the policies would be implemented. I guess it's a matter of taking our own responsibilities or not