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Aaron C. Davis writes in the Washington Post that recycling, "once a profitable business for cities and private employers alike," has become a "money-sucking enterprise." Almost every recycling facility in the country is running in the red and recyclers say that more than 2,000 municipalities are paying to dispose of their recyclables instead of the other way around. "If people feel that recycling is important — and I think they do, increasingly — then we are talking about a nationwide crisis," says David Steiner, chief executive of Waste Management, the nation's largest recycler.
The problem with recycling is that a storm of falling oil prices, a strong dollar and a weakened economy in China have sent prices for American recyclables plummeting worldwide. Trying to encourage conservation, progressive lawmakers and environmentalists have made matters worse. By pushing to increase recycling rates with bigger and bigger bins — while demanding almost no sorting by consumers — the recycling stream has become increasingly polluted and less valuable, imperilling the economics of the whole system. "We kind of got everyone thinking that recycling was free," says Bill Moore. "It's never really been free, and in fact, it's getting more expensive."
One big problem is that China doesn't want to buy our garbage any more. In the past China had sent so many consumer goods to the United States that all the shipping containers were coming back empty. So US companies began stuffing the return-trip containers with recycled cardboard boxes, waste paper and other scrap. China could, in turn, harvest the raw materials. Everyone won. But China has launched "Operation Green Fence" — a policy to prohibit the import of unwashed post-consumer plastics and other "contaminated" waste shipments. In China, containerboard, a common packaging product from recycled American paper, is trading at just over $400 a metric ton, down from nearly $1,000 in 2010. China also needs less recycled newsprint; the last paper mill in Shanghai closed this year. "If the materials we are exporting are so contaminated that they are being rejected by those we sell to," says Valerie Androutsopoulos, "maybe it's time to take another look at dual stream recycling."
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday June 23 2015, @12:30PM
There use to be more re-useability of containers but that seems to have gone away. Even glass containers that while they use standard size mouths do not use the standard mason jar threads. It use to be that almost any glass food container would accept either a standard or wide mouth mason jar lid and ring and even if they weren't thick enough for pressure canning would work great for hot water bath canning (tomatoes, pickles, jams), keeping honey in, or storing dry goods with an air tight seal. Even if someone didn't reuse the container those glass containers recycle wonderfully.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 23 2015, @03:08PM
I dunno, I keep glass containers from salsa, pickles, and the like around as a kind of game to see how I can reuse them. My wife wanted a salt scrub so I made one from kosher salt, olive oil, rosemary from our plant in the window, and lemon zest grated from the lemons she likes with Coronas and put the whole thing in an old jar for maraschino cherries. Having a variety of shapes and sizes helps as a visual mnemonic so keep re-uses separate; salsa jars are for chemistry applications like ferric chloride I make for brass/bronze/copper etching, smaller unusual shapes are for ointments or toiletries like the aforementioned salt scrub or the baking soda, salt, and mint extract-infused powder I use to brush my teeth.
If you do want to use jars for canning, you're right that standard, stackable forms are best.
I have conquered our paper waste stream entirely, too. It all goes into the shredder which turns into bedding for the guinea pigs which goes into the compost box which goes into the garden which goes into the vegetables which return to the table. I've looked into compressing newsprint, circulars, etc into logs for the fireplace, but...we don't have a fireplace and it seems like a process itself. Recycling it into hand-made paper for crafts is another re-use, but, I'd rather teach the kids how to do that from wild plants they gather themselves. Nevertheless it feels good to transform all the avalanche of paper that never does seem to stop piling on my doorstep from a burden into a source of raw material.
My next project is to build a backyard smelter to use the waste metals and caste them into new, useful objects. The high heats required is a bit intimidating, but it will be fun to conquer that waste stream, too.
I did think the plastics waste stream would take care of itself earlier, what with 3D printers becoming mainstream. But no one seems to have come up with a "RecycleBot" for that, yet. The plastic-eating microbes from the article yesterday could be one answer, but I'd rather re-use the stuff than just have it eaten.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday June 23 2015, @04:50PM
Melting most non ferrous metals is fairly simple which would likely be most of what you would be dealing with. For steel and Iron you are going to need something more than waste paper/wood products. If you are interested in this topic here is a page [backyardmetalcasting.com] I found a while ago when I was trying to find out how to build a charcoal furnace for making steel ingots (I don't want to do smelting or casting but blacksmithing) that should provide more info for you.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 23 2015, @05:49PM
Wow, thanks for the link!
Washington DC delenda est.