Global Climate Change Science News

[Sean Hayden]

Is recycling mostly government clowns dumping in the landfill anyway?

--obviously not, just look at something in front of you already!

frackin' hell

[Cunt]

I can appreciate the cynicism that comes from learning about our good deeds being wasted by corruptible officials. However, the tendency of the right is to take an example of corruption and attempt to discredit the whole effort.

Every time I look, it's stupid. EVERYWHERE.

Glass in the north - you bring it to the depot (government contracted) and they give you a dime. Then you drive home, and they smash the bottle, and put the pieces in the dump.

Yet STILL the lefties insist that it is worth 'changing hearts and minds' or 'creating good habits' instead of just abandoning wasteful practices.

The hilarity of people screeching for the manufacture of paper and steel straws, while wearing disposable clothing that sheds plastic every time it goes through a wash...well, it's just not giving me confidence in those who's 'heart is in the right place'.

Doesn't take many bullshit experiences to start recognizing huge swaths of it elsewhere. Here is a hint about recycling - if the government gets involved, it's probably shit.

If it is worth doing (in a 'real value' kind of way) then people will do it, and make a decent living. Take silver. It's worthwhile enough that folks will send trucks around recycling film.

The plastic from your returned drink-bottles? Not so much.

[Sean Hayden]

Just pick up a product in front of you already dude. Is it made from recycled materials? Can you find anything in your home or daily life that is consistently made from recycled materials?

I sure can.

It's everywhere.

You really don't have a counter to that. You've only got your being upset by the corruption and wasteful practices you've seen. But those can't compare to the shear volume of products containing recycled materials.

[Cunt]

Just pick up a product in front of you already dude. Is it made from recycled materials? Can you find anything in your home or daily life that is consistently made from recycled materials?

I sure can.

It's everywhere.
c
You really don't have a counter to that. You've only got your being upset by the corruption and wasteful practices you've seen. But those can't compare to the shear volume of products containing recycled materials.

I worked at Polymont Plastics in Red Deer. There, we would recycle everything from a fresh traincar of 'slightly wrong' fresh pellets from Nova Chemical (in Joffre) to giant pieces of used PVC pipe.

I know what happens at that end, from coming in, to being pelletized and going out.

Can we agree on one thing? I think it's important for you to bear in mind, if you really want to value fairly those plastic products.

Every time it is recycled, it is a bit shittier.

At a certain point, it isn't worth grinding down, cleaning and repelletizing. Plastic is an asshole, no matter how much you link arms and sing, or collect them in blue bins.

[Sean Hayden]

It looks like we may have a problem with recycling after all: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ ... sh/584131/

The city is still collecting recycling here.

According to the EPA:

Over time, recycling rates have increased from just over 6 percent of MSW generated in 1960 to about 10 percent in 1980, to 16 percent in 1990, to about 29 percent in 2000, and to over 34 percent in 2015.

However, that only goes to 2015 and the first article linked claims we lost our market then or shortly after.

BTW Cunt, it's not necessary to continue with the goofy insults. Can you imagine me holding hands and singing around a recycling bin?

--my disguise has been too effective!

[Cunt]

BTW Cunt, it's not necessary to continue with the goofy insults. Can you imagine me holding hands and singing around a recycling bin?

--my disguise has been too effective!

I don't mean to be insulting, or at least not only to you.

I will have been in that sickeningly-sweet fucking song-circle too. I've wasted a LOT of effort pursuing this GARBAGE system.

Honestly, the energy would have been better spent hating myself every time I used a disposable product of any kind.

But maybe that kind of accountability isn't as tasty for everyone.

[Seabass]

Conservative problem solving: recycling isn't perfect, so just give up and destroy the planet!

[Seabass]

Conservatives impede progress, then they cite the lack of progress as evidence that progress is not possible. It's maddening.

[Cunt]

Conservative problem solving: recycling isn't perfect, so just give up and destroy the planet!

Every time you recycle plastic, a unicorn is killed by Ben Shapiro.

[JimC]

Using less and less disposable materials is the best option; take your own shopping bags, don't buy water in disposable bottles...

Re-using or re-purposing is a close second.

Recycling is third - some materials can be recycled perfectly (e.g. aluminium cans), others for a few times but not indefinitely; for such plastics, when they are unsuitable for producing perfect feedstock for new bottles etc., they can be turned into road building materials, or plastic park benches etc. Glass and paper work well.

A similar but different process for plastics is thermal degrading, which, when carried out correctly, produces a material akin to crude oil, which can serve as chemical feedstock for a number of end uses.

Another use for plastics is high temperature incineration, producing electricity via the usual steam turbines. Of course, it is the equivalent of burning a fossil fuel, producing CO2, so is lower on the list (modern scrubbing techniques can remove the other toxic gases effectively)

Then we come to landfill, the second worse alternative. As an aside, reducing landfill can be also achieved by reducing the obscene levels of food waste, and individuals composting every scrap of organic matter they can.

The worst alternative of all for plastic waste is littering; a high proportion of plastic litter ends up the the world's oceans, with potentially disastrous consequences. Land-fill at least prevents this.

The fact that some people, governments or organisations are hypocritical or incompetent does not change any of the above.

[Cunt]

The worst alternative of all for plastic waste is littering; a high proportion of plastic litter ends up the the world's oceans, with potentially disastrous consequences. Land-fill at least prevents this.

The fact that some people, governments or organisations are hypocritical or incompetent does not change any of the above.

Are turtles more important than whales?

Are tiny critters less important than turtles?

Our plastic clothing (which makes sense environmentally) are TERRIBLE because as they come apart, their teeny bits of plastic rinse out with our laundry water, into the oceans.

Our plastic EVERYTHING ends up there.

Recycling is what everyone does to feel better, but my point is that it shouldn't make ANYONE feel better. It's a shit answer to a shittier problem.

As to the original topic, as the Finns pointed out, it's a scam, so at least I can get on with enjoying the world again. I was starting to worry that the sky actually WAS falling, forgetting how old a scam it is.

[JimC]

Just because some things are not as good as they might be, or that people miss some of the things they could do, doesn't mean giving up doing the things you can do...

As for synthetic microfibres from washing clothes, there are at least 2 solutions. One can buy specially designed filters which plug into the outlet pipe of washing machines, or better still, wherever you can, use natural fibre clothes.

And recycling is not just done to make people feel better. It may have imperfections, but done correctly, it is a perfectly sensible strategy, as part of a rational response to real environmental issues.

And your contention that global warming is a scam is based on your own scientific illiteracy.

[Cunt]

And your contention that global warming is a scam is based on your own scientific illiteracy.

When will the sky fall?

Oh, right, the end of the world is imminent, and I should convert, but there is no clear date, just panicky Chicken Little being as convincing as ever.

I don't think recycling is good, because it is a giant waste of time with government funding confounding the facts of the matter.

Some plastic makes sense to recycle, but most doesn't make the cut.

Most paper won't be recycled. Trees are cheaper.

The City here will keep asking citizens to sort their trash, then drive it down to the blue bins, feel like a good person, then the city buries it.

Much more effective would be honest information about what is and is not worth doing. How much diesel has to be burnt in pursuit of a 'good habit' of recycling?

[JimC]

Again, where is your scientific argument to dismiss global warming? You've got nothing, because you have no idea whatsoever of the actual data, and the physics behind the analysis...

[Cunt]

Again, where is your scientific argument to dismiss global warming? You've got nothing, because you have no idea whatsoever of the actual data, and the physics behind the analysis...

I don't need it. Science can keep digging into causes, might even find some.

What I have to do is decide what is important, and who to vote for.

At the moment, the climate change gang sounds as crazed as the gender rights gang.

If you think of both as sane and sensible, you shouldn't mind the comparison at all.

But I'm not convinced of the value of either opinion. Mostly because of the way people push their politics on this issue.