We Need A 'Waste Stream Tax.'

[PostmodernProphet]

sounds like something Damo could use to make money off lib'rul posters......

[PoliTalker]

It is a crying shame how we as a society are performing on recycling.

We need incredibly stiff penalties for throwing the wrong stuff in the recycle bin.

That renders the whole effort useless.

The best case would be a quality recycling effort. Pre-sorted good material, ready to be reused. That's the goal.

Here's the paper. There's the clear glass, the brown, there's all the different types of plastic, the metals, etc. All ready to reuse in manufacturing.

Because we have such irresponsibility and misunderstanding, we just assume that people are going to mess up, and that everything will have to be sorted.

If you ever saw a video of people sorting the recycling stream it would become crystal clear what needs to be done.

Don't even bother putting small stuff in there. Just remove all the caps and thrown them away. Unless they are the same color and material as the container. Rinse and dry everything.

What happens at the sorting house is a huge conveyor runs the stream past people standing by the side of it. Each person is looking for like items which they deftly reach over and pluck out of the stream to be gathered in to quality bins of usable material. The stream is going by quickly. They look for the largest items that are the easiest to pluck.

What doesn't get plucked out simply goes into the landfill.

So there is no point in putting small stuff in there.

And glass is no good if it has metal or plastic caps on it. The glass needs to be just glass, ideally. That's gonna be melted down. Anything else in there like paper and plastic labels, or bottlecaps is going to become slag that needs to be skimmed out of the molten glass and thrown away.

They don't want plastic bags or styrofoam.

Where there are individual bins for each house, there is no need to put that out every week. Wait until the bin is full. There is no point in making the truck stop, empty it, and then have to use energy to get going again unless the bin is full. Ideally, all the stuff you put in the bin is rinsed and dried. It's not going to stink. Animals are not going to get into it.

Making the trucks stop and get going too often only raises the bill for everyone and hurts the environment by wasting energy.

Learn how to compost. Use that for your gardening. Kitchen scraps can be recycled and grow good things to eat. Then you don't need a garbage disposal, or the water or the power to run that. And the nutrients come right back to you, reducing greenhouse gases in so many ways.

Don't throw anything away that might have another use someday. Let's preserve the planet for future humans. Some of them might even be our own grandchildren and theirs as well.

[Yakuda]

It is a crying shame how we as a society are performing on recycling.

We need incredibly stiff penalties for throwing the wrong stuff in the recycle bin.

That renders the whole effort useless.

The best case would be a quality recycling effort. Pre-sorted good material, ready to be reused. That's the goal.

Here's the paper. There's the clear glass, the brown, there's all the different types of plastic, the metals, etc. All ready to reuse in manufacturing.

Because we have such irresponsibility and misunderstanding, we just assume that people are going to mess up, and that everything will have to be sorted.

If you ever saw a video of people sorting the recycling stream it would become crystal clear what needs to be done.

Don't even bother putting small stuff in there. Just remove all the caps and thrown them away. Unless they are the same color and material as the container. Rinse and dry everything.

What happens at the sorting house is a huge conveyor runs the stream past people standing by the side of it. Each person is looking for like items which they deftly reach over and pluck out of the stream to be gathered in to quality bins of usable material. The stream is going by quickly. They look for the largest items that are the easiest to pluck.

What doesn't get plucked out simply goes into the landfill.

So there is no point in putting small stuff in there.

And glass is no good if it has metal or plastic caps on it. The glass needs to be just glass, ideally. That's gonna be melted down. Anything else in there like paper and plastic labels, or bottlecaps is going to become slag that needs to be skimmed out of the molten glass and thrown away.

They don't want plastic bags or styrofoam.

Where there are individual bins for each house, there is no need to put that out every week. Wait until the bin is full. There is no point in making the truck stop, empty it, and then have to use energy to get going again unless the bin is full. Ideally, all the stuff you put in the bin is rinsed and dried. It's not going to stink. Animals are not going to get into it.

Making the trucks stop and get going too often only raises the bill for everyone and hurts the environment by wasting energy.

Learn how to compost. Use that for your gardening. Kitchen scraps can be recycled and grow good things to eat. Then you don't need a garbage disposal, or the water or the power to run that. And the nutrients come right back to you, reducing greenhouse gases in so many ways.

Don't throw anything away that might have another use someday. Let's preserve the planet for future humans. Some of them might even be our own grandchildren and theirs as well.

You make such sense in some places but you sound completely nuts in others. Who is going to assess your recycling habits so people who do t do it right geta "stuff penalty"? Do you think about this stuff before you post?

[PoliTalker]

Proper recycling saves us all money.

Less energy is being consumed to transport and sort single-stream bins when we learn and follow the best principles for recycling habits.

Making America an efficient user of natural resources make America a greater country.

Recycling can be creative and fun. Taking an old product and repurposing it into something new and arty or useful in another way is a very rewarding way to recycle. Many craft shows feature artists who present all sorts of "Upcycled" items.

5 Ways to Improve Your Recycling Habits