Your Questions About Recycling
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Filed under Recycling Q & A
Mandy asks…
Am i cheap for recycling single-use items?
Back during my broke college days, I recycles EVERYTHING I could so as not to waste money on things I didn’t really need. For the first year, I did not own any ceramic dishes. I purchases a pack of plastic cultery, cups, plates and bowls, the disposable kind, just to get me through the first week, with the intention of buying “real” ones later. HOwever, after realizing how sturdy the plastic was of these disposable items, that I could microwave them, freeze them, and they not melt or break, i just never got around to buying ceramic ones until I moved off cmapus and got an apartment.
I am now a young married woman, with plenty of ceramic dishes, but old habits die hard. I recycle items that many consider one-single-use. Aluminum foil gets boiled and reused so long as it hasn’t become torn or become too crumpled. Expensive zip-lock bags, the kind with the “zipper-pull”, get washed an reused to store similar items, i.e. If I cook soup one Monday, freeze some, and eat it on Wednesday, I may wash the bag out and use it to freeze the leftover chili I cook Friday. Fast food tupperware, such as the hard-plastic McDonald’s cups and the rubbermaid-like side-item containers you get from chicken places get used in my classrooms after a thorough washing. My husband, and even some of my coworkers, laugh at me and say I am too frugal, and “it’s ok to throwaway a plastic fork,” but the way I see it, many clothes today are made of plastic (acrylic, rayon, nylon, etc.) and you don’t thorw THOSE away after one wearing, so why throw out an unbroken fork if it is still intact? It’s only going to a landfill to sit and NOT biodegrade for the next 50 years or so
Don’t get it twisted; I’m no hoarder. You wont open my cupboards and be lost under a landslide of old Smuckers jars and Country Crock butter tubs. I just don’t think i should be ostracized for not wasting petroleum!
Your thoughts?
The Expert answers:
In my book I would have two words beside your name – thrifty and resourceful.
Charles asks…
Recycling question?
Our community is going Green. which means starting tomorrow everything has to be sorted into different bins and blue bags. I think this inicitive is fantastic.
we’ve always recycled a little bit, and a lot of it is easy to figure out what goes where.
But things like the powedered formula containers have metal bottoms, paper wrapped all around it, and when the paper is taken off its cardboard looking so does that just go to the waste bin since its made from a bunch of different materials? same with the tetly tea containers?
so then those would be concidered waste and non recyclable? okay, if so than thats what I thought.
also, plastics like saran wrap on the meats from the butcher, it has the paper on. do i take that off, and rinse off the meat juices? because I would hate to do this wrong and contaminate everything!
wow your community seems to be less strict our is really strict. we have black bins which is waste and diapers, pet poos, and anything with mixed materials goes in there, we have blue bags, and we have the green bins. our green organics get picked up every other week!! isn’t that gross but paper products get picked up weekly!!?? same with waste every other week. baby diapers.. gag!
The Expert answers:
My community used to be more strict but now we basically have 3 forms of “garbage”
blue
green
the rest
what goes into the blue box ?
Actually I ‘ll start with the green.
Anything food ( even what cannot go in a compost – ie meat, fish, vegies etc
used kleenex
cat liter
dirty diapers
yeah – I still cannot believe it.
Blue box – almost any form of container whether mixed material or not. The only thing that cannot is styrofoam and plastic utensils.
Any paper, cardboard etc
so ypu can see that we have very little actual garbage left.
Blue & green gets picked up weekly ( we have a special breen bin which seals tight and the rest of the stuff is once every 2 weeks.
Also they encourage us to take batteries, old light bulbs, used paint cans, used aerosol cans etc to a hazardous waste depot which is actually not to far from me
we also have special yard waste bags ( paper or we can use rigid plastic re-useable and just label them yard waste.
We cannot put grass clippings in the bags though although I guess if someone did and then filled the top portions with prunings it may happen.
After writing all this I suddenly remembered they have a site so I’ll give you the link for interest sake
http://www.markham.ca/Markham/Departments/WstMgt/MsnGrn/material_acpted.htm
James asks…
Could someone correct my translation in British-English? My native language is Croatian.Thanks a lot!?
Composting is the breaking down of plant residuals and other organic matter by microorganisms which creates dark, friable matter. Compost has excellent properties as a fertilizer for gardens and for agriculture in general. This is a way to recycle the residuals from kitchens and house yards, which is crucial step in the reducing the volume of the waste. Every day we face plant residuals left in green markets, on city lawns, food residuals, which eventually end in waste containers.
The Expert answers:
Composting is the breaking down of plant residuals and other organic matter by microorganisms which creates dark, friable matter. Compost has excellent properties as a fertilizer for gardens and for agriculture in general. It is a great way to recycle any leftovers from kitchens and house yards to make a crucial step to reducing the volume of our waste. Every day there are composting opportuntities in green markets(what is a green market – a fruit & vegetable market?), city lawns and from food leftovers which usually end up in the waste bin.
Sharon asks…
Do you know how to add this to my face book page?
Richard asks…
How to become more “green” and environmentally friendly?
I have gutters redirected into big wheely bins to collect rainwater and frost water, and I have lowered electricity costs by changing all my lightbulbs to the friendly ones that use much less energy. I turn all electrical appliance off at the wall (except fridge and freezer) and I grow native plants to benefit the wildlife. I have recently remulched the garden using sustainable mulch (They grow the trees for the mulch instages making sure they don’t take more land for demand) and I am a recycling freak and do as much as I can to reduce waste and rubbish.
I also take my own cup when I buy coffee and take my own container for take out (so I don’t have to throw away the empty cup or container) and always use my own bags when shopping.
Can you give me any other ideas to help the environment that I might not already know about? Thanks.
The Expert answers:
My family and I do the following:
1 ~ We have trees in our house. My home looks like a jungle. My husband and I grow everything from tiny African violets to huge banana palms. We are fortunate to have a little piece of land attached to our house, so there are birches, lilacs, fruit trees.
2 ~ We try not to use paper towels, paper shopping bags, and other paper products that involve in cutting trees to make them. We are shopping with our cloth totes and use cotton kitchen towels that we simply wash after they get dirty.
3 ~ Every Christmas we use an artificial fur tree. It saves a lot of money and a tree.
4 ~ We keep an eye on new construction sights that involve cutting the trees. We ALWAYS try to dig the trees out before they have to be cut and find a new “home” for them. It actually works pretty well and construction workers always help us.
Everything begins within yourself and your family.
Robert asks…
Could someone check my text in English. My native language is croatian. Thanks a lot!!?
Composting is breaking down of the plants’ residuals and other organic matters which end up with creation of dark, friable matter which has excellent properties as a fertilizer for the gardens and in the agriculture in general. Actually, this is a way to recycle the residuals from the kitchens and house-yards which is crucial step in the reducing the volume of the waste. Every day we are facing with the plant’s residuals left on the green markets, city lawns and like which eventually end in the waste containers.
The Expert answers:
The word “the” is usually used for a definite object. When you say, “the plants’ residuals” that mean that you a talking about plants you can see or know about personally. Try this: Composting is the breaking down of plant residuals and other organic matter which creates dark, friable matter. Compost has excellent properties as a fertilizer for gardens and for agriculture in general. This is a way to recycle the residuals from kitchens and house yards, which is crucial step in the reducing the volume of waste. Every day we face plant residuals left in green markets, on city lawns which eventually end in waste containers. Friable is the correct word to use.
Lisa asks…
what do you think of my persuasive essay so far ?
Dear Manager of Applebee’s,
Did you know that 2/3 of the landfills have been closed down in the last decade? This is from people who are inconsiderate about the environment and the current condition it is. But everyone can do one small and simple task, recycle. Dumping recyclable materials in the trash not only fills the landfills quicker but causes both air and water pollution. You can even save your business money and attract people who are environmental enthusiasts.
Making recycling second nature for you and your employees will be one of the best choices for your restaurant economically and environmentally. Most people believe that recycling is not worth the extra time spent condensing aluminum cans and cardboard boxes. But in reality the money spent will be more beneficial for you in the long run. When you throw everything away in the dumpster it overfills very quickly and you have to pay a fee for the waste management companies the dispose of your trash. But when you recycle the glass, cardboard and paper products that usually contribute to filling up your dumpster will in the recycling container, therefore this required fee will be less frequent than when you don’t recycle. Also after you start to recycle customers that care about the environment will notice that your business is Eco-friendly and will want to eat at your restaurant over others that don’t recycle. You can also attract even more customers if you used other materials than Styrofoam boxes for leftover food, this is actually one of the top items that contribute to filling up landfills in the U.S. So recycle it will only add more publicity to your restaurant and even save you money that is now being wasted by paying a constant garbage collection fee.
Did you know that an estimated 12 million barrels of oil is used annually to make plastic bags just for American consumption. Sadly many of these plastic bags, Styrofoam containers and paper products end up other places than just the landfills. Places like forests and other natural areas are found littered with non-renewable resources that take up to decades to decompose and some even end up harming native animals and plants. This is becoming too much of an issue, actually it’s such a big issue that humans are having to take action in cleaning up the waste and pollutants that end up in these areas. The earth is suffering from people that are just simply throwing away everything, that is why you must take initiative. Humans are throwing so much plastic away industries have to make more and more, which is leading to increased air and water pollution. This must be stopped but the only way to save are planet from ourselves is if everyone recycles, so team up with mother nature and recycle.
The Expert answers:
No manager of a chain restaurant is going to read past the first paragraph, and if one did, there would be little he/she could do to change Applebees corporate policies.
Daniel asks…
In a drought should you waste water to wash soiled recyclables or put them in the trash to conserve water?
Recycled items have to be cleaned before you recycle them. But I live in a drought state and feel like I’m wasting water every time I wash something to be recycled. During a drought should water be conserved rather than wasting it on cleaning “trash” that’s going to be recycled?
Once water goes down the drain it’s gone for good so I feel like the water is more valuable since we only have a finite amount but we can produce all the items we need until the drought passes.
This is mostly related to retail food containers. Most other things I recycle go straight to the recycle bin with no need for washing.
The Expert answers:
When I consume a product in a recyclable container, I always rinse it out immediately (because residue hardens and makes it harder to rinse it out later) and use as little water as possible. It would also help if you cut down on your consumption of products in single-use containers that are recyclable.
I think, even in a drought, it’s important to recycle. Just consider what it is you’re cleaning out, and how much water you’re using. Items that require very little water to rinse (i.e. Milk jugs, gatorade bottles) are worth it. And aluminum cans do not need to be rinsed, as they are melted down at extreme temperatures. Rinsing mostly applies to plastic containers.
Paul asks…
which form of waste disposal poses the greatest danger to the quality of groundwater?
1- burning waste in incinerators
2- burial underground
3- recycling waste material
4- packing wastes in waterproof containers
The Expert answers:
2-burial underground.
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