Sunday, November 17, 2024

Your Questions About Recycling

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Filed under Recycling Q & A

Carol asks…

Do you think the USA can free itself [any time soon] from dependence on oil and fossil fuels?

I have several questions, I guess. I recently received an email forwarded to me that spouted off about all the oil we could get squeezed out of the USA ground, if we would just dig up our wild lands. It so outrages me that people still want to tear up our land to harvest a NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCE! Why can’t we just get off the bandwagon, and modernize? And think of the jobs it would create while we help our own situation.

Let’s GET REAL, people, and face the facts. Why would anyone advocate the desecration of the wild natural beauty of USA country, existing still pristene for our enjooyment, in favor of sucking a NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCE out of it? Can you see the futility of such a cause?

Whether it be oil, or gas, or coal – to obtain any at all is another scar upon our land! And, once our future generations HAVE harvested all to be had, then what? Because when it’s gone, it’s gone. Do we again wait till the last minute to solve a problem, after it becomes a crisis? Again, futility.

Wouldn’t it be much more realistic to put all this “campaigning” effort into emails backing the generation of RENEWABLE energy? This century could see the beginning of use of our great technology to create multi-avenues of a variety of energy sources — intelligent sources — with availability of such energy well into the future, for our children? Why should we again wait until the last minute to develop a solution to what is a known future problem?

And, the bonus: at the same time, for one source, we find a method of destroying our garbage by recycling a large amount of it back into a useable energy — just one of the benefits. Then we don’t need to bury it in the ground, or dump it in our oceans.

Try Googling for yourself into websites for these realistic renewable energy proponents, and remember this: if there was NO OIL, we would not need to go to war, one after another. Why? Because we would not need to FIGHT for something that should, in the end, be a useless commodity, not an exhausted one.

Oil is dirty, even for engines – and besides that, it is 100-year-old technology we should be far ahead of, by now. Given the capabilities of our society, any fossil fuels are antique! Yet we still use them. Wow! – boggles the mind. Can you respond or elaborate (please be courteous)? I want to hear what people have to say on this.

The Expert answers:

Yes. If most American homes had solar electric, solar hot water and residential wind turbines it would put a big dent in use. Most systems are connected to the grid, local power companies buy your excess power during the day, and supply you at night and in bad weather. Voltage goes up as temperature goes down with Solar PV, so cold is good as long as you have a sunny day. My Prius get’s great gas mileage, saves a lot of gas and money. Ford has the same system Chevy is making the volt electric hybrid. Replacing incandescent bulbs with CFL makes a huge difference in usage. Better insulation can really cut your home heating costs as does new tech air conditioners. Warehouses and commercial buildings that install lights that go on and off as people pass by save a lot. Hydo power saves. Hydrogen Cells are in development. Windmills are great, Condensed Solar Plants that are long trows that concentrate the sun and heat oil that heats steam and runs conventional commercial generators are proven technology. Oil has a hold on the USA government and their lobby staff and PR departments spend a lot of time trying to make sure alternatives get little attention. Then we have walking, Bicycle paths, better public transportation. Sure we could make a huge dent in oil use. Renewable Energy Technology and implementation could be a huge boom for USA business and economy too. Who doesn’t want it? OIL. Oil rules the USA. We need to change that.

William asks…

i think i has aspergers syndrome but im not sure?

I have a inactive social life. I’m 16 and only have a social group in school I can understand jokes. However I noticed I don’t look at people when I talk to them, at all. I stand oddly, one foot tucked behind the other at a right angle. I single mindedly approach tasks, which is a problem. If I get told to empty the dishwasher I don’t think to load it. If I get told to empty the bin It doesn’t cross my mind to empty the recycling bags. I excel in maths and science but generally do well in school. As a child i was really interested in ancient Egyptians- I could reel of endless facts right now. Now I really enjoy Maths and physics- loads. I look forwards to the lessons and am fascinate by them. I watched a film called Adam and googles asperger’s, I seem to tick most of the boxes on symptoms. Also as a child I was kind of a social recluse, and still am I guess, although it’s been brought to my attention and I feel ashamed. I did an online test and got the score that said asperger’s. However I wouldn’t like to go to the doctors, what if I’m wrong? I’ll feel stupid. I don’t know where to put my arms when i walk- and sometimes i do this rub-palm-of-one-hand-with-thumb-of-other thingy that i didnt notice until recently. My mum got angry at me recently because she said im always asking ‘why’. why do i have to put this cream on for eczema and not this one. why do i have to wear a coat it seems warm in here and the windows are open, and many more questions. i didnt even realise she was frustrated until the outburst.
Maybe im a hypochondriac or something, i daren’t tell anyone incase i dont have it, then ill feel bad. but if i did it would explain so many things then i wouldnt have to be ashamed about not having a social life, sometimes forgetting to do jobs and the way i stand, not look at people, or sometimes not know wy theyre angry. God, it sounds worse when i type it- but still. Also i remember some things vividly but forget others in a matter of hours. i couldnt tell you what i did first thing yesterday but i sometimes remember odd things vividly- like where i sat on a tram once. Im intimidated by the idea of seeing a GP on my own but im not going o tell any family members either, and as i said i only have friends in school.

The Expert answers:

You say you take the tests and test positive, but there are some things that you are not talking about here that are aspergers.
Although you are quiet and have two things that are quirkly standing or the thumb palm thing, that isn’t sick in and ot itself.
As far as memory glitches sometimes that is very common at your age due to hormones, and you will probably have a resurgence of that in latter life if you don’t get your hormones tested and treated now. Remember that.
I am thinking you are over thinking all this and if you need to find a school psychologist to test you, then do that, so you will stop worrying.
From what you have said here, the way you communicate, and the rest, youdon’t sound like you have it at all.
If you ask a lot of questions, and learn from the answers, than there is nothign wrong wit hthat either, it is intelligent. That your parents may get frustrated with that is common also, and you should learn to research out yoru own answers as much as possible. Compare products, ingrediants,etc.
I thnk you are so concerned that you will not be happy until someone trained tests you and finds you are just fine, and probably exceptional.
Best wishes for you and yours

Donald asks…

i feel bad working @starbucks because i think theyre lying about their fair trade policies, their environmenta?

environmental policies, and their worker treatment policies. they made me go to a workshop called “Starbucks experience” yesterday…i had to drive for 45 minutes there, spend $12 on parking fees…okay well lemme put it this way, i spent more getting there than what i made in the measly couple hours.

the class teacher said something of the like, “don’t feel bad about starbucks exploiting latin american workers…we use fair trade…well we don’t pay them much but we pay them more than other companies do” …I couldn’t believe that all the other workers there were lapping that one up…

some dingbat sitting next to me told everyone that she wanted to work at Starbucks because they are good to the environment…uhm maybe theyre better than some companies, but when i work there, the only thing the baristas are recycling is milk cartons…nothing else. pretty much. I’m the only one who puts my plastic cups in the recycling bin…in fact I was chastised once by a shift supervisor for doing it…she told me, “come on you don’t have to do that…i need you on the bar”

and worker’s treatment? better than most , but when you talk the talk, walk the walk. I make 8 dollars an hour and live in an area where the bottom line 1 bedroom apartment in a so so area is at least 1300 a month. they give me around 20 hours when I asked for full time, and give me irregular, ever changing hours so it is near impossible for me to find a second job. free drinks doesnt pay my bills, ok

i’m wondering how people can truly believe such lies like what the class teacher was saying, how “we pay them fair trade” …uhm she’s insinuating that starbucks pays every farmer fair trade wen in reality, isn’t it more like 5-10% of all their purchased coffee?

is it true that if howard schultz split up all his 1.1 billion net worth among all the workers, every barista would be a millionaire??
lee you are brainwashed. if i were to split ur veins, u would bleed coffee. wheres ur proof of how many starbucks workers there are world wide, including the farmers who work for $3 a day to provide $4 lattes?

The Expert answers:

They are insidious and evil, I wouldn’t buy their product if you paid me. Do a seach on their reputation and count the lawsuits….

Laura asks…

Please Help! I can’t afford my textbooks for college?!?!?

I can’t get a job either, I’ve been searching for over a year and a half,but no one will give me a job despite the fact that I’m a straight A student with excellent credentials. I’m 17 and I’m going to be starting my first year of college in two weeks! The school still hasn’t processed my financial aid either, and I know I’m definitely supposed to get financial aid because our EFC was 0. My family has no money at all, and right now there is no food in our house. I’m starving, and I spend my days collecting cans to get money. This isn’t a joke, I know it sounds crazy,but its real, and I need help because I don’t think recycling cans at 5 cents each will give me the $800 I need for my textbooks?
Any helpful answers will be apperciated. Thank you.

The Expert answers:

You need to call financial aid to get that process going. I’m concerned that there may not be time to get all the aid stuff done before classes start, and if you don’t have it done by that time, will they let you attend class, or will you be dropped? So you need to contact them immediately, and find out what’s up.

Don’t buy textbooks yet. First, go to the first session of each class. Make sure you really need all the books listed for the class. Only after the first session do you purchase the books.

Try to get the books used. That’ll save you a lot of money. And for any book that will only be used for a short time, or infrequently, see if you can either 1) share it with another student so you split the cost or 2) if they have it on reserve at the uni library (and if not, ask the prof if it can be placed on reserve).

You can buy books online, from other students, and even from the college book store.

Nancy asks…

Is the quran nothing more than mohammad practicing plagiarism?

Muslims proudly quote several passages in the Koran 30:48; 24:43, as scientifically accurate explanations of the hydrologic water cycle. My question is: given the fact the Bible had already fully documented the hydrologic water cycle 1600 before the Koran in Job 36:27-28, and 3 other passages (Eccl 11:3; Job 26:8; Eccl 1:6-7), doesn’t this proof Muhammad merely copied the scientific facts of the hydrologic water cycle directly from the Bible? (Clouds hold water: Eccl 11:3; Job 26:8; Rivers recycle water: Eccl 1:6-7; Evapouration: Amos 9:6)
Hey Banana – can you answer the question or not? I think not!
Samir – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Jesus did not claim to be a prophet – he claimed to be GOD Himself. According to the quran this is blasphemy and contraditory to the teachings of mohammad. How can you accept Jesus and claim he was God’s prophet when he contradicted the quran by claiming to be God?

The Expert answers:

Don’t read Koran, It is for bad people. See what does they do with Human: http://www.faithfreedom.org/gallery.htm

Susan asks…

If you could choose how you would die…?

…from the following options, which would you choose?

1. You are a Vietnamese sweatshop laborer who spends 12 hours a day stuffing polyester into the lining of generic coffins that are sold to Americans at an outrageous profit, none of which helps you as you only make 20 cents an hour. One day, you are feeling more exhausted than usual so you decide to take a nap in one of the coffins. Due to the near weightlessness of you emaciated body, however, no one notices that the coffin is any heavier with you in it and they load it into a shipping container to be sent out. After 8 days at sea, praying for a speedy death, the cargo ship carrying you collides with an American cruise ship whose captain was too distracted by the hand job he was receiving from a hooker on cocaine to navigate his own boat. Your container falls off the ship and you are turned upside down, forced to stand on your head in the cramped coffin. As you feel an ice cold sensation on the top of your head, you realize the coffin is filling with water.

2. You work for a company that specializes in processing recycled materials. Your job is to operate a grinding machine that reduces recycled glass bottles into small granules to be melted down. One day, a vat holding alkaline hydrogen peroxide used to treat recycled paper springs a leak and starts pouring down into the glass pulverizer. You run to shut the machine off but slip on the spill, sliding underneath the railing and straight into the machine, sinking into the pit of alkali and glass shards. The machine undergoes emergency shut down after taking in your leg. You are submerged past your head in hydroxide and no one is going to find you. Thrashing about only digs the glass further into your skin.

3. You are put into a giant glass sphere and launched towards the sun. There is exactly 1 year worth of food, water, and air in the sphere and at the rate it is moving, it will be that long before it reaches the sun. You are in a helmet and straight jacket to prevent you from committing suicide, and each day the sphere draws closer to the sun and grows a little hotter. There is no waste management system in the sphere.

4. You are the son a French nobleman born out of incest in the year 1638. Due to the fact that your mother/aunt is your father/uncle’s sister, you are born with paranoid schizophrenia and suffer from horrible hallucinations. Believing this is God punishing them for their sin, they chain you up in a dungeon to hide their shame. One day, you break the chain and escape into the forest, becoming the scourge of the townspeople. As you grow older and your hallucinations grow worse, the cuff around you neck becomes tighter and tighter, slowly cutting off your circulation.

The Expert answers:

Jesus….ummm….i dunno…..but you should probably get a gig brainstorming gruesome deaths for horror movies.

Paul asks…

Does the FAA check your personal PLEASE HELP home Internet history?

I am a gay teen and my mother is against it. We live with her boyfriend, who works in the FAA Oklahoma. She tells me that they check home Internet connections and that if I have anything on my computer. It will show up, along with my history, and he will lose his job. Now to me this seems a little far fetched, even unconstitutional. Needless to say I am still frightened of the fact of him losing his job, not the fact of my history. He is an I.T. If this helps I also use “Eraser” to erase my Internet history recycle bin, an unused harddrive space once a week. Please help me!

The Expert answers:

Not only is being gay not a crime, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) does not have the jurisdiction to access anyone’s internet history. Only investigative branches (FBI, CIA, etc) would be able to get the green light to do that. And they certainly aren’t going to waste time and resources on looking at a gay teen’s internet history just because his mom wants them to.

Employers also don’t check the background of non-family members when deciding to hire or fire someone.

Helen asks…

R-22 cost question? HVAC?

Hi HVAC/Service people,
How much does a can of R-22 cost?
How much will the recycled can of R-22 cost in 2010?
Both 30 lb.?
I’m trying to get a job, and need the facts to sell my skills 🙁
i think the cost of service calls are about to go up too then

The Expert answers:

I believe the R22 is running about $185 right now. Starting in 2010, manufacturers of HVAC equipment will no longer be allowed to manufacture Equipment using R22. The new refrigerant is R-410A which is currently available. The price of R22 will continue to rise as stocks deplete.

Donna asks…

why do we have to pay taxes?

Nobody likes to pay taxes.

And because of that many do not understand why paying taxes is important. Or maybe they don’t want to understand.

One way I explain it to people is to say that it is like paying your dues to an organization you belong to. Those who get more benefits out of being a member of that organization have to pay higher dues, hence, progressive taxation. Could rich people become rich in Mexico which has lower taxes than the United States? I suspect it’s a lot harder to become rich in Mexico than it is in America. I hear the rich people in Mexico don’t like to pay taxes either. Since they pay less taxes than their rich counterparts in the United States, the Mexican government cannot do too much for it’s poor people. So the poor Mexicans risk their lives to come north where they find it much easier to get a job in this wealthy land, a land that is still the wealthiest on the planet, I think.

But here is another way to explain taxes:

At work, I often do snow peas and crab rangoon by myself. I work at a Chinese restaurant. On those rare occasions when someone helps me do those two side jobs, I notice that the jobs get done a lot faster. The more people you have helping you do something, the faster it goes and the easier it is. The same holds true when I recycle at the local recycling plant. The work goes a lot faster and a lot easier when my dad helps me to do it even though he is 78 years old.

So the more people who pay taxes, the easier we can accomplish those things that need to be done, like Social Security, Medicare and defense, the less sacrifice each person has to contribute to the cause. The more people taxed, the less our individual taxes have to be, the less of a sacrifice. Shared sacrifice.

Shared sacrifice. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what taxes are all about. I understand there was a time in the history of England when they tried to take care of the poor, and do what needed to be done, without taxes or with low taxes. As an alternative to taxes, society encouraged people to give to charities. It was voluntary. One problem with that was that not everyone would volunteer. In fact, most people didn’t. I suppose a lot of people talk about doing good deeds, but when it comes to opening their pocketbooks, things get more dicey.

So the sacrifice was only shared by a small few. The result of this was a tremendous increase in crime even though there were harsh penalties for criminals. In fact, there is one story about pickpockets robbing a crowd of people that were watching a pickpocket get hung. Desperation has a way of making people do things that they think they would never do. Well, while they have some money they think they would never do those things and therefore judge those who do those things harshly.

So it doesn’t work to try to pay for everything the government needs to do by having bake sales.

Now, one solution to taxation that is often proposed is to cut spending. Many of those who propose that solution do not feel that they benefit from government spending. They do not feel like they are part of the underclass that does benefit from government spending, the underclass which they harshly judge as being lazy, uneducated, immoral and criminally oriented.
This was essentially the solution imposed by Governor Arnold Schwardzeneger of California. He cut spending and refused to raise taxes. And I think an odd thing happened after that. His popularity went way down. In fact, I think his disapproval rating grew higher than his approval rating. But how can this be? The underclass is the minority in California. Apparently the majority of Californians do get some benefit out of government spending. They didn’t realize it until after the governor’s cuts began to be implemented. I suspect his most unpopular cuts were cuts in Medicaid spending.
Back during the Clinton administration, political analyst David Gergen, a Republican, made a very salient point. Most government spending actually benefits the middle class, not the underclass, Gergen said. And, in America, the middle class are still the majority.

I have heard many Republicans argue that we can spend our money a lot better than the government can. Well, I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. Not too long ago, the average family had a credit card debt of about $10,000 or more. That doesn’t sound wise to me. Of course, that figure may have changed somewhat due to the great recession.
And hopefully the middle class will continue to be the majority in the United States. It may not if we keep cutting taxes. If we keep cutting taxes we may wind up like Mexico.

But getting back to shared sacrifice. Since the more people we have paying taxes means less taxes that each individual has to pay, the more taxpayers you have to collect from, the better. Well, the federal government can collect from a lot more taxpayers than the state of Missouri. The bigger tax pool of the federal government should lower the tax burden on each individual taxpayer’s back. However, I’m fairly certain that federal tax rates are higher than the tax rates of the state of Missouri even if you account for all taxes, not just income taxes or payroll taxes.
On the other hand, it was not really particular states which started Social Security and Medicare, the two most popular government programs. If left up to the individual states, those two programs would not exist. Also, while the Constitution does put defense in the hands of the federal government, I suspect most state governments are very glad that is the case and that they don’t have that massive financial burden to contend with.
So while the federal government takes more of your individual paycheck than the state, the federal government does a lot more for you.

I suspect the reason why it took the federal government to start these very needed programs for the elderly is because the fed has a much larger tax pool to collect from than individual states. In other words, the federal government is able to spread the sacrifice for the costs of these programs among almost 300 million people currently, while the state of Missouri can only spread that burden among maybe 10 million people. But don’t quote me on the population of Missouri.

Shared sacrifice. Some call it socialism. Call it whatever you want. But if you try to cut Social Security and Medicare, you are going to see the Tea Party on steroids. President Reagan tried to cut Social Security. Didn’t work. President Bush II tried to partially privatize Social Security. Didn’t work. So you can call it socialism. I call it….reality.

The Expert answers:

I believe you are incorrect. Governor Schwarzenegger was put in place due to highly unpopular governor, and ran on a platform of jobs, reduce taxes.

Since then, AB32 has become his ugly baby, he and his buddy maldonado and villiers were the 2 republican votes needed to provide the 2/3 margin producing the 8 billion$ tax increase in CA in 2008 (to bridge the budget gap — guess what, it is back again). His unpopularity has led to NO endorsement for Brown or 140milliondollarwoman, whatever her name was.

He is unpopular because he did NOT lower taxes, lower spending. He did implement furlough days, but those still get counted as days worked for pensions. The voters then voted against a tax extension of those tax raises in 2008 — so they will expire. Like his political and acting careers respectfully.

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