Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

The most important thing perhaps is open and honest discussion – without the agendas of scientists budgets etc being allowed to cloud the picture.

I know your question is about environmental problems in general BUT to give an example, the global warming myth (that co2 cause temp rise when in fact is IS the opposite way around) has been allowed to run until now because any scientist wanting funding can easily obtain it – IF they are going to do more work on the problem. Once it turned out that the problem has NOTHING to do with CO2 emission, funding will start to dry up.

Too many jobs are involved in perpetuating myths. For example, although refilling of milkbottles is environmentally friendly, other glass recycling uses more energy to collect / sort / crush / melt / reform than simply making a new one from scratch – and sand is not something we have a great shortage of.

Waste paper recyling does more harm than good, paper quickly mulches down and is recyled naturally. Yet the bleaches, sorintg, collecting and re-pressing of waste paper makes a third-rate product with more energy being used than using virgin wood. AND……as the trees are grown ONLY for making paper and are 100% sustained, there is ZERO benefit from a forestry point of view.

So first of, you need to dispense with some of the myths – and there are a LOT of them around.

Next off, I guess is making it easier for people to be more environmentally aware – there is almost an attitude that greener has to be “harder/less good” and it IS usually more expensive.

Let’s see…. A ream of bright white virgin paper at £3 or a ream of greyish paper that has ben used before, the re-pulkped, bleached a bit and then sold for £5 – though it does have a nice picture of a tree on the front.

See my point.

We need to stop with the pointless and expensive and focus on things that would REALLY make a difference.

Encourage better home insulation, penalise companies that use excess packaging – (sealed plastic bag inside a metal foil dish inside a cardboard outer inside a cellophane wrap)

Years ago, confectionary was wrapped in paper – now it has to be plastic. Anyone hear of problem being caused when it was just (biodegradable) paper?

A bit move to limit the number of different materials would make the recyling of more products possible – some plastic containers have a loyethylene body, but use a PVC top – so the two MUST be manually separated before recyling.

Soft drink cans are sometimes part steel, part aluminium – ALL aluminium would again make recyling more cost effective.

This could turn into a 20,000 word essay very easily – but I am not going to do all of your homework for you – but what I am trying to get over is that before you worry about things in too much detail, you MUST get rid of the hugely misleading myths.

Some recycling at the moment is VERY counterproductive to the environment – the recycled paper being one of them.

Mark

The Expert answers:

What blew my mind was when you said your teacher tells students not to follow their dreams because they will crash and burn!! Bitter, much? Unfortunately, a lot of teachers HATE their jobs and their lives in general. I’ve had a lot of “gems” for teachers (I too was in a Catholic school grades K-3) in my day… And here’s the deal, I guess. Unfortunately, Catholic schools are going to be assholes about expressing ones self. I mean, they make everyone wear uniforms, you all have to believe in the same thing… It’s very oppressing and sad in my opinion. Someone with such an amazing talent and personality like yourself shouldnt have to go through this! At a public school, teachers are pretty laid back, in fact they almost go as far as to not even give two shits about students unless they’re jocks or preps. Vice principals will usually always be assholes, though. I was once given a Saturday detention for something that wasnt even my fault (long story but it ended with the girl’s mom actually serving the detention with me and the other people she got in trouble, haha) and when the VP asked me if I had ever had a detention before, I said, “no.” This was my senior year and she knew this. She smirked at me and said, “well, I think it’s good for ALL students to experience this.” WTF.

You say the study hall teacher just so happened to find this piece of paper in the trash… I find that very odd. Of course there was snooping going on, they’re assholes. It was in the trash, it wasnt on display or anything and even if it was, it’s a DRAWING!!! The unfortunate thing is, they will not negotiate with you in a Catholic school. What they say, goes. It sucks. My best advice to you would be to just talk to your guardians about the whole situation, and tell them your perspective. It’s all you can do. I know you’ll be nervous the whole time they’re at your school, but maybe if you try to explain to them passionately how you feel and what’s been going on, they will understand.

Sorry things cant be better for you. I wonder if you can convince your guardians to just transfer you to a public school. I think you might be a little happier there!

The Expert answers:

As far as I am aware “your government” has only ever used 2 nuclear weapons, an no one who is still alive today could be blamed for that. You seem to be ignoring the fact that since Regan in the 80’s there has been a continuing effort to reduce the number of these weapons, this only stopped in the last 8 years when you had an idiot in the White house and a Russian Chuck Norris in the Kremlin. In the short period Obama has been in office reduction talks are back on the table again.

I think you will also find that it is private companies not the Government that is outsourcing American manufacturing jobs to China.

Cfl’s? Sorry that’s nonsense, I have seen first hand the machines used to recycle cfls, they are sealed units that crush and separate the materials, including the mercury. If we have such things in little old Australia, I find it hard to believe you don’t have them in the U.S.
You will find a good number of the stories about cfl’s track back to energy companies as although the savings are small per household wide spread use is actually going to cost power companies 10s of millions of dollars a year in lost profits when spread across an entire population like the U.S.

The Expert answers:

Thanks for this link Tinman12. I found it very interesting indeed that Rosa DeLauro is married to Stanley Greenburg of Monsanto no less. Sounds like an inside job to me.
Big gov would just love to get their hands on the small farmers markets that are just pulling in the big bucks (tongue in cheek statement). What companies like Monsanto don’t want to see is the growing popularity of organic farming and the small 2-10 acre truck farms. People are sick and tired of buying fruits and vegetables that come from unknown countries.
I don’t advocate tobacco or smoking but it has been taxed out of existence. Why aren’t Twinkies or Ding Dongs taxed like tobacco? Too much of that kind of food will clog arteries thus leading to health problems too. Oops there I go…some congressman might read that statement and decide we need a Twinkie tax.
I’m glad that we have saved seeds for years and recycled them. We grow tomatoes that the seeds have been in the family for generations. It’s the same with our peppers and green beans.
We need to put a stop to this senseless kind of government. Monsanto wants nothing but huge factory farms supplying our food. I come from a long line of small farmers of which lived to ripe old ages. They grew their own livestock and food. They knew what they fed their animals and used natural, not chemical pest control on gardens.
I will be following this bill and writing my congressman to let him know how I feel about this.
Thanks

The Expert answers:

THe juvenile should have to pay restitution and do community service. If there is a monetary restitution to be paid, the parents have to pay because the minor has no job or money.

If I were the parent, I would pay, then insist the bratty juvenile kid of mine would lose his allowance, take jobs like cutting grass, shoveling snow, washing cars…whatever, and turn the money over to me until he’s paid me back.

My son and one of his friends broke two windows at their elementary school – in the summer – throwing rocks. They were caught.

Each window was $150.00 to replace. My son had to apologize, in person, to the principle and dean of students and to the police officer that caught them. We paid for the new window to be put in. Then, my son’s allowance was terminated and he was required to cut grass, haul wood, recycle and other things – and give us all the money…until the $150.00 was paid in full back to us.

He was 10 years old……

His buddy’s parents just paid for a new window and grounded him for a week.

Interestingly enough, my son is 44 years old and that was his only brush with vandalism and the law. He grew into a fine adult. His friend has been in jail more times that I can count and has served 2 years in prison. He still lives at home with his parents when he’s not in jail.

It is important to hold kids responsible for their actions.

The Expert answers:

Actually the argument made is the fact that a single personal computer can contain easily more information (equivalent to number of books) than an entire public library. Easily. So comparing the cost of creating a single computer does less damage to the environment than creating over half a million books and other print materials. (estimating 2 meg/novel) And that is just on a single hard drive. On a multiple hard drive system it becomes much more so. (Not including the storage space of storing the files on blue-ray/DVD/CD… Doing so could easily allow a home computer with a series of blue ray discs to store the entire written portion of the library of congress… Over 34.5 million books/printed materials.)

We are not even talking servers here. And the computer only uses power when it is on, when you go to call up the information.

Now I am not claiming that computers are not themselves environmentally friendly… Just that you need to look at sheer massive capabilities of the storage media involved. Compared with the amount of damage producing the same amount of works in print causes.

Mind you, I personally prefer the feel of an actual book when I am reading. Just wanting to keep the conversation accurate.

BTW a server farm is normally not that massive and power consumption wise uses not that much power. Computers comparatively use very little power to operate. The largest expenditure is actually for the monitor, which uses as much as a small TV.

And I am curious from when your study is from, the newer monitors are actually much less damaging to the environment. The worst part of a computer environmentally speaking is the battery/power supplies they use. And recycling a computer is very easy… First off one form is called upgrading (which is what most people do with their desktops) which allows the same case to be used over and over as you switch out part. Second, you actually have to recycle parts on most computers as it is illegal to put them in the trash in most countries. (There are special centers you normally have to send them too, as you will be fined if you just take them to the dump to throw away.)

Response to OP:

I am sorry but you have just proved you are full of BS on this. Let’s talk real numbers here then. (Some of us actually work with computers you know)

First off a “relatively small sever farm” is not 50,000 square feet, that is just BS. Average server room is only 10 x 10 to 20 x 20 square foot for a large nationwide company to handle all traffic. Heck even a large ISP (I used to work for one of the largest in the U.S. For years before I switched jobs) will not use a room anywhere near the size you are talking about.

… Editted to allow more space for later response…

You are playing a game by trying to use the numbers from large server farms and exaggerating them to try to prove a point that is false. The actual impact on the environment of a personal computer is less than that of the same amount of impact from replacing everything the computer is used for from paper generated equivalents.

And I love how you tried to put words in my mouth on my original post… I was using the specific information on a single computer and how it is more environmentally friendly and the amount of power used for it, not that of the power consumption of a server farm… And even that you got wrong.

Btw the only server farms that are even close to the sizes you were throwing out are ones for like google or the like… Ones that host literally hundreds of millions of websites at a time (you know using up less resources than an equivelent number of physical stores by uncounted times.) And there are litterally only a couple handful of those in the world. (Heck the number in the U.S. Alone could be counted on one hand. And the U.S. Has more than any other country on this.)

Reply to OP:
Apparently you do not read what people post… I stated the google one was one of the only ones the size you are claiming… And that there are only a handful that size in the U.S. Total. And that those centers service hundreds of MILLIONS of users each. Which doing a non computerized version of the same services would waste much much more resources. And even then the actual server rooms are a very very small portion of the buildings…. Most is office space. Due to heat issues you CANNOT fill rooms that big with servers… They will get cooked.

A Data center is NOT a server farm…. It is an office with a small percentage of the building having servers.

I still work in the industry (just not at that ISP)… And if you are going to keep trying to deflect the conversation and lying, I am going to say good day to you.

The Expert answers:

Well you say recycle and people think taking there cans and plastics and putting them in different trash bins . But any time you have something and find a good practicle use for it then you are truly recycling . I needed to enclose my carport . Had the money to do it . But i used other materials to do it . Old siding left over and scrap wood . And news paper to insulate . In all i spent maby 40 bucks on a job that will take 400 . And i dont have to keep it that way . I dont just throw stuff out . If it brakes and i cant fix it . I strip it down . And use what i can . Then the rest goes to the bin . You see people running around with those T shirts that say going green but most of those are not made here to start with . And most are not made from recycled material . And the synthetics that are so good for the environment . Well guess what they are not . If you truly want to go green help push for hemp to be put back into Americas production. Then you can truly say you are in the interest of keeping the word green . If you dont know what hemp is look it up . It will not get you high . It is referred to in the bible as manna . And the only reason it is illegal today is due to Roman influence . It was made first illegal in Rome . You seen the movie 3000 . Well it was that war that prompted the Romans to make it illegal . It was a failed attempt to starve out the people into submission. And it was THE main product of food and manufacturing in the USA prior to the late 50s . Fords first car was built entirely from it and even the fuel and oil . It needs no pest asides or herb asides . It will grow in any part of American soil . In fact it will grow in almost any climate . It will shut down company’s like the ones that make round up . And many more . But it will open up more jobs than it will cost . And because we wont need those harmful chemicals the world will be better off . And as a bonus it is a natural insect replant . But thanks to our beloved goverment we are robed of it and forced to accept what they will allow .

The Expert answers:

Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is the leading centre of the worldwide ship breaking and recycling industry. Close to 99% of the materials from the ship are recycled.

“Safety is our motto” reads this welcome sign at Alang, a controversial statement.The shipyards at Alang recycle about 50% of the ships salvaged in the world. The yards are located on the Gulf of Khambat, 50 kilometres southeast of Bhavnagar. Visiting Westerners complain that before shipbreaking began there in June 1983 the beach at Alang was pristine and unspoiled. However, locals say that the work means the difference between an early death from starvation and a reasonably paid job by local standards with a steady income that can be used to support their families.

Large supertankers, car ferries and container ships are beached during high tide, and as the tide recedes, hundreds of manual laborers dismantle each ship, salvaging what they can, and reducing the rest into scrap. Tens of thousands of low-paid jobs are supported by this activity, and millions of tons of steel are recovered.

The salvage yards at Alang have generated controversy about working conditions, workers’ living conditions, and the impact on the environment. One major problem is that despite many serious work-related injuries, the nearest full service hospital is 50 kilometres away in Bhavnagar. Alang itself is served by a small Red Cross hospital which offers only limited services.

Almost one in every six workers could be suffering from an early stage of asbestosis and are at serious risk of contracting lung cancer, according to an expert committee set up by India’s Supreme Court.

A shipyard at Alang is possibly the model for the shipyard described in the Iain Banks novel, The Business (1999). A documentary on the industry in Alang entitled Shipbreakers was produced by Michael Kot in 2004.

A more modern and safer ship-breaking yard is located nearby at Pipavav.

In January 2006 Alang became the center of an international controversy when the Supreme Court of India temporarily prohibited the French ship Clemenceau from entering the port. [1]

[edit] Demographics
As of 2001 India censusGRIndia, Alang had a population of 18,464. Males constitute 82% of the population and females 18%. Alang has an average literacy rate of 62%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 89% of the males and 11% of females literate. 7% of the population is under 6 years of age.

The Expert answers:

From the beginning Judaism has traditionally accepted reincarnation as fact: “Behold, all these things does God do — twice, even three times with a man — to bring his soul back from the pit that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.” (Job 33:29)

There are numerous biblical reference for reincarnation. Besides the most obvious (Truly, literally, you must be born again… No one goes up to heaven but he who came down from heaven), there is “Who sinned, THIS MAN or his parents, that he was BORN BLIND?” which is a clear indication that past-life karma was accepted as real by his disciples. Jesus did not correct them, because according to historical fact, Jesus believed in reincarnation and karma.

According to the bible Jesus’s answer was that the man was born blind so that he could be healed by him. Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this answer applied to only this particular blind man whose path crossed that of Jesus.

The old standby “it is appointed that man dies once and then face judgment” makes no sense as an argument against reincarnation. Reincarnationists do not believe that “the man” returns after death. Reincarnationists know that it is the spiritual energy of man that returns to inhabit a new “man” (new body). Jews knew that; Jesus knew that. You have to wonder what do the critics think survives death to “face judgment”? The “soul” of course. And it is the “soul” that reincarnates, not “the man.”

This judgment is Judaism’s Gehenna, the original biblical concept of after-death residence of souls, where the soul of the individual faces and contemplates his past life, the mistakes he made, the good things he did, the things he achieved and did not achieve. It is a place of judgment and introspection, which is completed before the individual moves on.

Reincarnationists (at least those not bound by the superstitions of eastern dogma) believe that the dynamic of reincarnation is free will (yours and those around you) and that we learn by the choices we make and in contemplating the choices we have made.

“Be ye therefore perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect,” Jesus instructed his followers. He didn’t say ‘hey, do your best,’ or ‘if you just believe I existed that’s enough…’ He said BE AS PERFECT AS GOD IS. Jesus indicated, according to the bible, that absolute perfection is within the reach of every human when he made the statement, YE ARE GODS.

Anyone with a functioning mind should be able to comprehend that perfection and godliness cannot be attained in a single lifetime.

Early Christianity fully embraced the truth of reincarnation. The emperor Constantine fashioned a type of Christianity to suit his purposes, which included conquering all he considered his enemies. He redesigned the concept of Jesus as a type of soldier figurehead who would help him gain greater military powers and defeat his enemies, claiming to have had visions of that sort. Although Constantine’s Christian bishops refused to accept this new, revised Christianity, the emperor had his way through brute force and established the corrupted Christian church we have today. All this is *factual history* which can’t be denied other than by manipulating the truth.

Christian Gnostics were all reincarnationists. History scholars not poisoned by church revisionists consider Gnostics to have been the descendants of the original Christians who were grossly slandered and later persecuted by corrupted Christianity. Gnostics were the true inheritors of the teachings of Jesus. One of these teachings was the secret doctrine Jesus referred to in Mark (4:11 and 4:33-34) – see “source” below.

The bible records only the parables, not the secrets of the “mysteries”.

“Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables.”

“And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.”