I just learned recycling is just another bull**** lie propagated by government!

[Jludo]

I can't say that I have done any great amount of research on the matter, but I can say that paper must be more cost effective than plastic given that a recycler will pay you for paper (at least a significant amount of it) and will not pay for plastic.

A recycler will pay for plain, standard paper? I didn't think anyone would without some sort of subsidy.
That being said, I think the point is that govt. wastes money and resources sending a truck to every house for their recyclables and that if it were at all feasible to get/save more energy out of the process than you put in, a private company would be doing it for a profit.

 

[poisonspyder]

I think it's great you've found a segment of the market to exploit and I don't mean that in any derogatory way. I'm all for consumer choice. Customers should be free to spend extra money or alternately spend less on more cost effective alternatives for whatever reason they choose. People choosing to spend less money on competing alternatives is not a new phenomena. It is natural for people to act in their own economic best interest...always has been.

Actually my bags in a fundraiser sell for almost the same price as Walmart sells name brand and mine are thicker plus recycled. The group then makes 40 to 60 percent of that sale depending on services selected. I am just willing to make a little less and sell more. I would prefer to have 20 cents each on a million units then 50 cents each on a 1000 units.

 

[Smokepole]

This seems appropriate even if it is long.

Checking out at Wal-Mart, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologised and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”

The assistant responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soft drink bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs because we didn’t have an elevator or escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocers and didn’t climb into a 200-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 2000 watts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back then. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV or radio in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief not a screen the size of Texas. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the post, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.

When we were thirsty we drank from a tap instead of drinking from a plastic bottle of water shipped from the other side of the world. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor when the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical socket in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest fish and chip shop.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

ROFL!! I have seen this before and it is hilarious, accurate and poignant.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Actually my bags in a fundraiser sell for almost the same price as Walmart sells name brand and mine are thicker plus recycled. The group then makes 40 to 60 percent of that sale depending on services selected. I am just willing to make a little less and sell more. I would prefer to have 20 cents each on a million units then 50 cents each on a 1000 units.

I think I've got some of your bags out in the garage. My wife buys things from the kids like that whenever she can.

In fact I used one of them a couple of weekends ago. I got sick and tired of all the McDonald's sacks, beer cans, Mountain Dew bottles, etc. that the trashy people around me just can't seem to get home with and leave along side of the road around us. I filled one of them completely up with that sort of litter in about 1/4 mile of road frontage along and adjacent to my place.

 

[Bunnykid68]

I think I've got some of your bags out in the garage. My wife buys things from the kids like that whenever she can.

In fact I used one of them a couple of weekends ago. I got sick and tired of all the McDonald's sacks, beer cans, Mountain Dew bottles, etc. that the trashy people around me just can't seem to get home with and leave along side of the road around us. I filled one of them completely up with that sort of litter in about 1/4 mile of road frontage along and adjacent to my place.

Admit it, McD's bags, beer cans, mountain dew bottles came out of the floor board of your vehicle

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Admit it, McD's bags, beer cans, mountain dew bottles came out of the floor board of your vehicle

OK...you're on to me...

But in my defense, it's my wife's and the law's fault. I'm supposed to be on a diet and if my wife finds out I'm drinking MD's and eating at McD's, I get read the riot act. And that's not a pretty site.

Then, about those beer cans: Since they outlawed open containers in cars, well I want to obey the law to the best of my ability

 

[CarmelHP]

I was living in Bloomington when they enacted their recycling program. Among the other things they used to sell/foist this upon the residents was that the land fill was about to fill up. It wasn't too long after the program began when the solid waste folks were seeking permission to receive garbage from new customers because their revenue had fallen too much.

Also Bloomington spent loads to build a glass recycling facility, except no one wants recycled glass. It costs more to recycle than to manufacture new. They landfill it now.

 

[KevinJ]

I don't know about papers and plastic, but metal is definitely worth peoples' time recycling. Think, when it is originally formed they have to spend the energy mining, refining, and forming the metal. Well when it's recycled you skip mining and most of the refining and go right to melting it down and reforming it. Saves plenty of money, and that's why they're willing to pay good money for scrap metal.

I agree with BogWalker. If metals weren't profitable to recycle we would no have all those 'Darwin in action' stories about some yahoos pickin up a cheap bolt cutter at some hardware store and frying themselves on a 440 line.

 

[Waveraider]

The Penn & Teller video hits the nail on the head. I sell plastics and sell my scrap to recyclers, but the volume they require, plus wanting clean and free of paper/glue makes it hard to work with them.

Look along the inner city streets with trash and you will not see any metal/aluminum cans, but a lot of paper and plastic. If the tree huggers want to do their part on recycling, start cleaning up the streets in the inner city of Indianapolis. OK Getting off my soapbox now.

 

[SSGSAD]

The kicker is I'm paying monthly for this bull****! I can't say I'm too surprised seeing as the government got it all started. Turns out it costs more in energy and resources to recycle than it saves and we're not running out of landfills. Landfills are even producing clean energy! I'll be writing some letters for sure. The real motto should be "reduce, reuse, don't recycle". If you live in greenwood you're probably getting the same shaft as me.

RUSH L., reported this on his radio show, several years ago. The amount of gas, or diesel, used, and the pollution produced, far outweighs, any recycled amount of anything.....

 

[actaeon277]

When Recycling Is Bad for the Environment | DiscoverMagazine.com