Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

Hi My Friend,

From my opinion, Machines cannot create or kill jobs, neither technological advances.
If we observed the history of Industrial Revolution, human being created many many new jobs by technological advances.
What could you make your life during the middle ages? A farmer, a hunter, a teacher, a black smith, a clergy, a knight or a king; it was very limited variety! But because of the machine application development, our society needs more numbers of miner, more people working in the machine shop to build machines, and more numbers of worker to operate the machines. Even after the product consumption, society needs more people to work on the recycle or garbage treatment. Under these development process, human being create many new jobs.

Technological advances are reshaping the social structure, since industrial revolution, we see the significant growth of employment, a hard push to the people to learn more new techniques. Its growing likes the growing of a baby. The first two or three years growing is very vigorous; then the growth rate will slow down. You cannot say the baby has any health issue or he/she is dying because of the growth rate slowdown!
You simply can say the jobs creating rate has been slowdown or saturated since 80’s.

Just like what you’ve observed, people have changed their focus from actual shopping, banking or acquiring their needs by visiting the stores or bank. They can complete them and getting all done from internet.
It means the social structure is changing. People changed their work site from the field to the factory, but with the help of factory automation, people change their work site from the factory to the computer support industry (They can work as the IT programmer, network service support, or even network hardware installer, etc… All of those jobs are new)
Don’t forget there are many new factory products.Simply using TV/computer monitor as an example, there was no TV set two decades ago, then CRT TV set came out from the factory, following by the Plasma flat screen TV, then LCD, LED, LED backlit TV, etc… It implies the number of jobs is growing.

You are right, the new bleed of machine can have a higher production rate, it may not need that many people to support itself. But it is not equal to cutting down the number of jobs. As the number of factories increases, the number of jobs is increasing.

Look at the blooming China, four decades ago, many people are living in a small village, no refrigerator, no TV set, many of them used bicycle to commute. Especially the families were living in the village, their works were farming. Even they had extra money, they could not buy extra meat, or any luxury goods. Of course, television set was not popular in the small village.
But as their government opens the economy market, let the foreigners brought China the new technologies, with the automated factories, more people move out from village. Similar to the SIM CITY, with the help of technologies, a small village changes to a town, from a town, it changes to a city, from a small city it changes to a metropolitan.
I can’t believe I witness a small village has been growing to a metropolitan with airport and subway network.

It is the fact.

Actually, if we experience the growth rate is slowing down, we need to think how to keep it grow and don’t let it running into its old age.

The CONS of Advanced Technology(ies) is not cutting down the numbers of job, the CONS side is advanced technology may be dangerous to our environment. It pushes people to enjoy the luxury life but forgot about their health and spiritual concerns.

I remember the date of the East side of North American black out, it rings the bell to make us alert the importance of electricity (part of technology). It also made us to alert about our insufficiency if withdraw us from the high tech. I can’t cook my own meal, if there is no electricity, and I lost everything in the fridge and freezer. All of my wireless phones, no matter the land line phone or my cell didn’t work, etc… It was a nightmare!

Think about the Japanese nuclear plant issue. Before we step out to explore a new technology, we have to consider the consequence.

Think about this!!!!

The Expert answers:

If you’re healthy, donate plasma

Participate in any paid research studies at your college (in the psychology department). Larger universities with more money are more likely to have paid ones. I go to a small college and they only occasionally have them.

Sell your old textbooks

Sell stuff (any old stuff that you don’t want anymore- craigslist, ebay, or in person). Or you can sign up with a company to sell their products (I sold Avon for a while.. It’s only $10 to start up, and it really does sell itself.) You have to sell a lot to make a profit, but it’s fun. You can sell it to girls on campus, and if you can walk off campus once in a while to sell to other people in the town, you can make even more.

Babysit (for occasional date-nights or while moms are in class for a couple hours each day)

Tutor. If you take good notes, you can sell your notes for a class. If you can write good notes/papers, people will pay for that stuff. Usually only undergrad students will though- they’re taking gen. Ed. Classes that they don’t care learning about, and they may not have mastered college-level skills yet.

Collect bottles, cans, etc. To recycle

Sell a skill- if you can sing, write, do artwork, photography, etc…then advertise that

The Expert answers:

I work as a recycling coordinator and educator for a garbage company, and I have a degree in Environmental Studies.

Environmental Pros:
-Recycling saves natural resources. Natural resources (like trees, minerals, oil) are used to create EVERYTHING we use. If a material is made from a recycling material, then the virgin materials did not have to be extracted from the earth. Example: if you are making carpet, it is better to used post-consumer PET bottles than to drill oil out of the ground.
-Recycling reduces green house gases (which attribute to climate change). All the mining, logging, drilling, etc. Require LOTS of energy/transportation/etc. To get the materials; all of which produce CO2.
-Recycling saves energy. To create glass from raw materials, the silica and assorted materials have to be heated to a temperature of 2700 (i could be off by a few hundred…) degrees and held at that temperature for 45 minutes. To create new glass from old glass, the old glass needs to be melted to a temperature of 1800 (once again, don’t have the exact number…all my documents are at work) degrees and is ready to pour immediately.

Other Pros:
Recycling creates jobs. In California, the recycling industry has around a $4 billion dollar payroll.

One recycling deterrent-
It is an extra step for the consumer, and lots of people are lazy and think its not there problem. These people are idiots and don’t realize we all share the earth.

One method of recycling-
You can take your recyclables to a buy back center, a drop-off center, or your city offers a curbside collection program. Depending on your area (I’m in CA), you have to recycling, as its law.

Good luck on your project! Hope this helped!

The Expert answers:

We new government inspectors to study and protect the environment and check on people who are polluting, not recycling, and wasting energy!!!! Get efficient America NOW!!!!!!!!

The Expert answers:

That is good question! They make it nearly impossible to contact them…With the way technology is these days, your request can be dumped in the trash or the “recycle bin” and I wonder if we’re even heard at all! Government has gotten too big…close to implosion and we’ll be the ones to take the hit since they rely on us!
*By the way don’t fall for the “email petitions” that is a tracking device*…
Start with your state rep and work your way up…their jobs are on the line for the next year or two and 1 letter represents a majority of the thoughts of the people. More of us need to think like you and bombard them with letters, (emails are easily deleted/or tracked), calls to voice your opinion- that is your right, just be somewhat polite but let them know your mad and remind them they work for us or you will be labeled as a “loon” and your opinion will be dismissed…sorry but that’s how we are to them, cattle that pull the plows for a giant gov that has taken what they have not earned…
Go USA, American Made All The Way!

The Expert answers:

Many city landfills will accept items such as batteries, lightbulbs, paints and cleaners at no charge if you are a citezen of the city, and can show your most recent water bill.

I would suggest calling your local waste management/landfills to see what services they offer in their hazordous waste department

Here are some local Chicago landfills:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=landfills&near=Chicago,+IL&fb=1&view=text&sa=X&oi=local_group&resnum=1&ct=more-results&cd=1

Good luck,

The Expert answers:

Good luck with your report.

Please consider the people here on Y!A, though. You’re asking total strangers to spend what could amount to hours doing research for you. How many people do you know who have that kind of time to spend on a total stranger, with no reward at all for *themselves?*

What’s the standard minimum wage where you live?

Do you realize that doing research for others is a paying job — a respected career, in fact — for many people?

Do you go into a bakery and ask them to give you a large decorated cake for free? To you, a total stranger?

What answer would you get if you went in to a health club and asked for a couple-few hours on their exercise machines, at no charge?

It’s the same with answers on Y!A. If someone wants to do this work purely for *your* benefit, well, good for them.

But if you get no useful replies, then the whole Y!A community is telling you to do your own homework. Grow up, and get real, please.

The Expert answers:

It depends on your job. At my work one of my co-workers wrote an assay about how they could cut some of the paper work because it was useless and at the same time they would be saving money on paper. The corporation liked it and passed it. You can talk about that kind of stuff as well how to cut down on certain things which is even better than recycling if you dont have to use it in the first place.

The Expert answers:

Sure, do this:
-Make sure you put recycling bins in every dormitory on every floor. Make sure they’re right next to the garbage.
-Make sure recycling bins are placed around campus, on walkways, in busy hallways in buildings.
-Make sure people know what can be recycled. You’ll have to do a posted flyer blitz, that’s for sure. Better yet…
-Get the campus administration (probably student government is best) to send out a mass email to students saying what’s going on, why they should recycle, and WHAT IS RECYCLABLE. (Caps mean it’s important! 😉 )
-Keep a count, if possible, of what was recycled. How many pounds of this, that, or the other thing. Have that email go out a few weeks after the first, praising the students for their great job recycling and how much recyclable material was collected.
-In the second email, repeat what’s recyclable and what’s not.

Lather, rinse, repeat.