Your Questions About Recycling
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Filed under Recycling Q & A
John asks…
Faucet, garbage disposal, dead bolt recycling?
Any ideas on what I can do with these items? Jist replaced all 3. Don’t want to throw away but do want to recycle somehow!
The Expert answers:
You can bring them to a salvage yard, there might be a nominal fee on the disposal, but the others items are fully recyclable and should be accepted without any charge at all.
Check your local yellow pages to find one. Otherwise contact your local unit of government and ask them if there is anyone in the area who recycles metals.
Richard asks…
Do people in the USA have recycling pick ups as well as the regular garbage disposal pick ups?
The Expert answers:
Many areas in the USA have recycling pick ups. I live in San Mateo County, California, just south of San Francisco. A few cities here run their own garbage and recycling pick up programs, but most cities here (and the county for areas outside city limits) contract private companies to handle garbage and recycling pick ups. Recycling of electronics is done by the garbage company, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.
Lizzie asks…
Can someone help me with a garbage disposal assignment?
Ok, so in tech class I was told to come up with this contraption for a garbage disposal thing… Here are some of the details:
– it has to be a garbage disposal system thing
– it has to be able to separate different types of garbage (recycling, cans, compost etc)
– make sure that it doesn’t “leak” the other garbage when it’s being emptied; so if the garbage guys come and empty it, the rest can’t fall out.
– It has to be efficient in terms of cost, size, etc.
That’s all for now. It’s home time so later. 10 points for the best answer. 😀
The Expert answers:
Hmmm
Sharon asks…
If a garbage disposal isn’t running, does food that goes down the drain go into pipes or is…?
…there something to catch it?
Every morning after I feed my cats, I rinse out the empty cat food can before putting it in the recycling. If I turn on the garbage disposal while I am rinsing out the can, it scares one of my cats out of the kitchen and my other cat eats her share of the food. If I don’t run the garbage disposal, are the bits of cat food that go down the drain going on into my pipes, or do they sit in some kind of trap so that I can turn on the garbage disposal to eliminate them later?
The Expert answers:
You should not regularly use your garbage disposal to dispose of gravel, but for your purposes, it is fine. In a garbage disposal, there are multiple “blades” that spin on their own axis when the disposal is on. These work well on soft food that it is designed to chop up. The occasional pebble can ding these blades, but should not significantly decrease their ability to chop. A more rare circumstance is a pebble wedging between the blade and its axle preventing it from spinning. This might decrease the efficiency of the chopping action of the blades, but the disposal spins so fast that it should not be significant. Since rocks are more dense than water, there may be a greater chance of them remaining in the disposal until it is turned on. Only a knuckle size rock or larger has a chance to jam the disposal and cause real damage. You can use a drain strainer to catch any boulders too big for your disposal to handle. Sand and dirt should be no problem. The whole point of the disposal is convenience, so keep those doggy feet clean the easy way!
I remember that coffee grounds can most definitely clog a sink… At my previous job the cleaning personnel clogged it virtually every night by dumping the coffee grounds from the machine into the sink (we eventually wrote them a note in Spanish which solved the problem). Thus, given that dirt is a lot like coffee grounds in consistency, I am convinced you can clog it.
Also, given that there are either blades or a grinding mechanism in every disposal, with big enough pebbles (about marble size?) you can damage the mechanism enough that you’ll have to replace it.
Final word of advice: never wash a shedding Collie (spring time!) in your bathtub. Pounds of long dog hair will reliably clog it…
Mark asks…
Why should people go through the troubles of recycling?
I mean recycling is way expensive than other garbage disposal options.
lol… I need help on my project for recycling
The Expert answers:
Actually it is cheaper in a lot of instances to recycle. AL is 44% cheaper to recycle, and plastic is nearly 75% cheaper to recycle. Plus in the long run commodity costs will increase as we run out.
James asks…
Why has Indian and Korean garbage collection failed?
Why has Garbage disposal in India failed?
Garbage consists of vegetable wastes, spoiled foods, and plant matter that is collected in a recycled cardboard container, and disposed into the town manure generation system. Today, the system results in the formation of ragpickers who are instructed to pick up plastic covers, papers, and wastes from the roads, ditches, and give them to the social service groups. Now, due to failure of generation of organics from garbage, we have to send more orphaned children to sort out the plastic wastes from huge mounds of garbage outside the city limits, just to get the cycle going. This is clearly seen in the BBC and CNN programs where they showed that these workers come under abuse. Even the social workers who try to help them come under the rod. What would be the solution?
The Expert answers:
Educate the electorate so that they vote for the best possible person,rather than the one who dishes out millions to seduce them and regain 100 times that amount once they come to power.
Laura asks…
Suppose you are operating a boat 28 feet long on federal waters?
Suppose you are operating a boat 28 feet long on federal waters. What must you display in a prominent location?
1. Nuisance Species Identification Card
2. USCG Recycling Guidelines
3. Garbage Disposal Placard
4. The Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The Expert answers:
Read the book and you’ll know. I know the answer but you need to know the answer too.
Robert asks…
How to dispose of disposal?
Our garbage disposal is cracked and sprays water all over when used. What are we supposed to do with it? Throw it away or recycle? Think it can be used/ traded for parts?
The Expert answers:
Look in the Yellow Pages under Recycling, and you should be able to drop it off or schedule for it to be picked up. This way there is nothing taking up room at the dump or polluting our beautiful earth.
Daniel asks…
Should this be made obligatory in the UK?
While living in Belgium and Switzerland during 2001/2002, I noticed the difference in the recycling and garbage disposal laws.
When binning our household rubbish, we had to use colour-coded bins for different types: a yellow bin for packaging, a blue bin for paper and cardboard, bins for glass, and another for leftover food. Of course, we also had the black bin for the rest (or for those too lazy to sort out their rubbish, who ended up getting fined for it most of the time).
At first I found the system difficult to get used to because, as an Englishwoman, it was alien to me. I think it was a good idea though, and it certainly made me more environmentally aware.
As UK recycling stats are still far behind the continental countries, should we bring in the same laws here?
ni2penang – yes, I know. I recycle too. I was asking whether this should become the law for the UK, not talking about my own personal habits.
wonderwoman – I agree. Unfortunately, though, much of Britain can’t be bothered, it seems.
The Expert answers:
I think so. We are so lazy about this as a nation.
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