3 ms·

I am totally on board with the idea of recycling. But the reality is murky. Where does the stuff go, and does it get recycled? A couple of years ago, it was co

I am totally on board with the idea of recycling. But the reality is murky. Where does the stuff go, and does it get recycled? A couple of years ago, it was common practice to simply ship garbage to a third-world country (!) and have them deal with it - I'm totally 100% sure they scrupulously recycled every ounce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada–Philippines_waste_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada–Philippines_waste_dispu...

gosub100 3y ago
why do they need a second truck that guzzles about the same amount of diesel to transport them? I thought recycling was "good" for the env? at least the homeless people who collected them used public transport/green energy to transport them back to the recycler.
- mulmen 3y ago
  Efficiency? The garbage truck and the recycling truck both get full on their routes and probably have different destinations. They’re both going to cover some middle ground to reach their service areas, which could overlap but don’t have to be the same. In my neighborhood we have three different trucks. Garbage, recycling, and compost. The garbage and compost come weekly but recycling is every other week.
userbinator 3y ago
With the exception of what left the earth and made it into space, everything we made will be recycled sooner or later, by nature or by humans.
- FredPret 3y ago
  I wonder - when the Sun goes supernova, will the man-made exotic nuclear elements on Earth change it’s spectrum in a detectable way? Someone on here once suggested shooting nuclear waste into the sun, but apparently aliens would immediately be able to tell we did that from the absorbtion lines, in addition to the impractical delta-V involved.
davkan 3y ago
I lived in a rural town of 10k that informed us where everything went. Mattresses were bought by a mattress company, bottles went to coors, plastics went to Salt Lake City for detergent bottles. They did not accept plastics over #2 as a buyer couldn’t be sourced. I felt pretty confident that anything i put in my bin that followed their guidelines would get recycled, and I was more diligent in recycling when I lived there. Of course this was a municipal service in a town with a focus on environmentalism. Who knows where less scrupulous providers send their lower value recycles.

gosub100 3y ago

why do they need a second truck that guzzles about the same amount of diesel to transport them? I thought recycling was "good" for the env? at least the homeless people who collected them used public transport/green energy to transport them back to the recycler.

mulmen 3y ago
Efficiency? The garbage truck and the recycling truck both get full on their routes and probably have different destinations. They’re both going to cover some middle ground to reach their service areas, which could overlap but don’t have to be the same. In my neighborhood we have three different trucks. Garbage, recycling, and compost. The garbage and compost come weekly but recycling is every other week.

userbinator 3y ago

With the exception of what left the earth and made it into space, everything we made will be recycled sooner or later, by nature or by humans.

FredPret 3y ago
I wonder - when the Sun goes supernova, will the man-made exotic nuclear elements on Earth change it’s spectrum in a detectable way? Someone on here once suggested shooting nuclear waste into the sun, but apparently aliens would immediately be able to tell we did that from the absorbtion lines, in addition to the impractical delta-V involved.

davkan 3y ago

I lived in a rural town of 10k that informed us where everything went. Mattresses were bought by a mattress company, bottles went to coors, plastics went to Salt Lake City for detergent bottles. They did not accept plastics over #2 as a buyer couldn’t be sourced. I felt pretty confident that anything i put in my bin that followed their guidelines would get recycled, and I was more diligent in recycling when I lived there. Of course this was a municipal service in a town with a focus on environmentalism. Who knows where less scrupulous providers send their lower value recycles.