Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

If a student does not know and cannot discuss very basic concepts then that student will never be able to get to higher level critical thinking.
For example: We could just rely on digital text readers instead of memorizing the alphabet and learning how to read. Couldn’t we?

We could just carry dictionaries around with us all the time instead of memorizing more complex words. Couldn’t we?

The students I teach have to memorize latin root words and prefixes. Seems dull and stupid right? Our students do much better on SAT’s as well as improve their abilities to figure out the spelling and meanings of words they are not familiar with.

The fact is, relying on technology to get through life is not always efficient or practical. You need to actually know what your talking about. I can’t whip out my laptop at job interview to look something up. When having a conversation with colleagues i want to be able to analyze ideas with my own knowledge, not take out my Iphone to look it up.

Also, just imagine if everyone decided they weren’t actually going to learn anything because they could just look it up. Kids wouldn’t know history, they wouldn’t know how to do calculations on their own, and so on.
There is a lot of debate over how to effectively education children. I ‘m a teacher, and I believe, just based on my experience actually working with students, is that you cannot assume every student has basic knowledge. You have to start at the beginning. While testing isn’t the end all in learning a concept, there does have to be some way to assess a student’s knowledge, otherwise we as teachers cannot gauge whether or not the student is learning. That is why there has been a shift to experiential, and project based learning instead of tests, yet we still have to assess whether the concepts are being absorbed. It is hard to explain to a student that learning is not about grades and exams, but when a student has a clear understanding o the expectations they do much much better academically. Call it programming if you like, but if there is not accountability then learning suffers.

I think a lot of the problems in our society come from people not having a comprehensive view of a subject. If you were never taught a subject from its most basic level and then built upon that basic knowledge, you have a one sided view.

For example: I can throw trash on the ground. I know that it is wrong, and I can look up why it is wrong on the internet. But if I was taught from a young age about recycling, environmental issues, materials science, how trash decomposes, ecosystems, and the long term effects of trash on communities, from a basic level, I probably wouldn’t have thrown that trash on the ground in the first place.
When you learn the basics, memorize them, build your knowledge on them, you provide yourself with context for the world you exist in. Sometimes context is the starting point to change. Change leads to evolution.

The Expert answers:

I have news along the line of the first responder.

Volunteer. People who help other people without expectation of reward or recognition feel better about themselves.

Pitch in at a recycling center, show up at an animal shelter and pick up a shovel, help out at a soup kitchen, find the agency that will allow you to read to a blind person, join the group that will help you treat an adult to read. Be a candy striper at a hospital. Find your skills and interest set and give it up for two hours a week. Here’s a hint: people hire people to solve problems, not to create them.

Your parents will trust you more, your friends will raise their opinion of your previously selfish, whining….. You will have something to write on your first job application, the college admissions office will overlook the fact that you took you two years in high school to get your head on straight. You will be on the way to finding your meaning and purpose in life, and you will feel better about yourself.

You can ignore me if you want to, but the time will come when you accept that I was speaking the truth. I just hope that you haven’t run your Ferrari into the wall by then.

You have a roof over your head, you have more than enough to eat, you have outstanding clothing, your parents give a damn about you, you have the best school that is available in your socioeconomic strata, you have health care, That put you at about the 99.8 percentile of teenage girls in the world and you are asking for a helicopter. Would being homeless be an improvement?

Ordinarily I would make a joke and say, “Run away with me.” I won’t even do that for you.

The Expert answers:

Http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Army-Basic-Training-Really-Like?&id=3193851

tristan.lyne@yahoo.com If you have any questions, there is so much to explain it is too much to put into one or two paragraphs.

I cannot really remember my basic training experience all I remember is being bored a lot. I am a guy so the facts may be different for the ladies. Start running if you have not already, we never ran more than 2-4 miles but we ran them fast and I never felt sorry for the females that fell out of company runs. All of the females and more than a few males that recycled or washed out were from injury. Half of the time these were avoidable by being more in shape than they were. Look up the Army PFT test standards, in training everyone gets graded as an 18 year old. If you can pass the PT test before you go there then you should not have any problems. Mainly females had problems with keeping up with the guys; this is not a knock on women. Men have a longer stride and for a female to try and keep up in some cases caused stress fractures in the hips and those will get you recycled. If you can get a backpack and do some walking quickly, make sure there is at least 20-30 pounds in there to get you ready for that part. And depending on where you are going and what time of year the weather also plays a huge factor in all of it. The only thing worse than training is being recycled or a holdover, those are the ones that got hurt and could not train. You watch everyone else train and then you get to start over with the next training class.
Living arrangement vary from base to base but plan on sleeping with no less than 12 no more than a 100 females in a bay and some of the bays are huge so they will pack you all in there as tight as possible. Showers are in an open bay, no private showers sorry. Toilets are private, and if you are in a coed training there are dressing rooms that you have to use. My company had an incident with a fight in a shower and I was taken down to the female shower room to see all of the blood and explain to an officer why I did not report the problem between the two females. The Army is like that; I was nowhere near the incident and had to explain the problem since I was the platoon guide. Oh, avoid that job no matter what, it does not get you anything but less sleep and more headaches. I was PG for the entire cycle and I never volunteered again for that role either in AIT or Airborne. You will be given everything you need, but you can bring stuff like soap you like and underwear/socks as long as it is completely white (no logos) you should be okay. The Army is not the Marines those guys show up with nothing and if they do have anything it is thrown away. The Army is not as Spartan, but it is still tough. Oh stamps and cards are cool but in the beginning you will have time for nothing especially writing. If you get two phones calls in a cycle consider yourself lucky, we got one and they were for 3 minutes. Make sure your calling cards can be used from pay phones and that they work, you get three minutes from the time you touch the phone until they say stop. Become a church member, it is only an hour and a half but the DS cannot get to you there and it is a great break during the week.
If you look at everything as a challenge or fun then your time at basic should be a blast. Yes, you are away from your loved ones, yes, you are exhausted and not doing anything really fun. Yes, you have not used makeup or hair products in weeks (you will at least have hair). By the way go to your natural color or they will make you there at in-processing, and it will not be fun. There are a ton of lifestyle changes that if you make them before you go they will not be a shock. But enjoying those now is better than not enjoying them at all. The food is cafeteria food, do not expect miracles, MRE’s suck do not eat the charms they will tear your insides up, the cheese will too. Stay away from desserts if you need to lose weight, oh another point. The ones that need to gain muscles will gain muscle; the ones that need to lose weight will lose weight. But if you are stuffing fatty cakes in your mouth all 63 days you will not lose as much as you could. The gas chamber sucks, you will not die though, getting gassed always sucks so get your mask on quickly.

There are always trouble makers in every cycle, just do not be one of them. We had a DS get assaulted by a kid who thought he was being disrespected. The kid went to jail with a broken arm, and then he got kicked out of the Army. Make sure you lock everything that you own even if you are going to the bathroom, there are thieves in the best bunch and this is not a group of saints. Just do exactly what you are told and everything else will become second nature. Remember one thing, they will not kill you in basic, most things are 100% safe and have been done by millions of others before you. Email me I had an Army girlfriend in AIT that had a lot of insight and shared with me and I can tell you all that I know. I just do not want to write a novel trying to get to them all and I will remember these things tonight around 2 a.m. And will forget them by morning.

The Expert answers:

I came across this on an internet forum where people were revealing the ‘nasty unknowns’ of jobs they have had in the past.

“Pet shops only sell 2/3 of their puppies before they get too old, become less desireable and therefore less profitable. So, every quarter when The Puppy Truck arrives with new replacement pups, the older ones are loaded on the truck and returned to the breeders to be “recycled” into feed for something else. If it was widely known that all pet shops who sell puppies participated in this you can imagine the results. Therefore The Puppy Truck is designed to hide what it is. It’s a clean white unmarked semi on the outside but stainless steel wall to wall and floor to ceiling inside with small cages along the walls. No lights inside. The sound of three dozen barking, yowling, crying 8 week old pups in that metal box is beyond description. The drivers arrive at the stores after hours to do the swap. They have keys. No employees are -ever- told when they will come due to the fact they love animals and would likely quit en masse if they knew what was taking place. In fact as a rule they are not told about any of this. They order new pups from a breeders FAX sheet and the pups come and go without warning. Only the owner/manager knows and they don’t talk. “

The Expert answers:

Japan has been around for centuries so I don’t think they’re going anywhere. Biggest problems?

-next to zero population growth. To put it bluntly Japan needs to start makin babies, and lots of ’em. The population is aging like almost no other country in the world.

-next to zero economic growth. It’s been this way since about 1989. Not good.

-The Japanese economic system is byzantine, inefficient, and out of touch. They build museums that nobody visits. Roads are constantly under repair, even if they don’t really need to be repaired. Some poor guy is always out there holding a “Slow” sign, all so Japan can say they have low unemployment.

-Most Japanese universities are a complete joke. The Japanese will openly admit this. Their colleges are aging, decrepit, out of date, and horribly underfunded. Most serious Japanese academic researchers go overseas to do their research. Very, very little serious academic research gets done at Japanese colleges. The “best” university in Japan, Tokyo University (Tokyo Daigaku, or Todai) is hard to get into, but once you’re admitted you can literally sleep through classes, act like a drunken frat boy, and be guaranteed a top job with the government or a big corporation when you graduate.

-Japan is slowly but surely destroying their natural environment. They dam rivers, destroy beaches, put annoyingly loud Toshiba speakers in a Zen garden. Read “Dogs and Demons” by Alex Kerr. He’s lived in Japan for about 25 years. It’s a real eye opener. Mr. Kerr wrote this book because he loves Japan and wants to see it succeed, not because he’s a Japan hater.

I pointed this out at a dinner one time where a former Japanese history professor of mine was in attendance, and he totally shut me down. I got annoyed but I kept quiet. It doesn’t change the fact that these things are real, and the Japanese have to deal with them.

-Tokyo is one of the 2 biggest cities in the world and is overdue for a catastrophic earthquake. The government talks about moving the capital but nothing gets done. I shudder to think of the absolute carnage that would happen when this thing hits. And it will hit. It’s just a matter of time.

-The Japanese are very xenophobic, by and large. Not all Japanese, but most Japanese.

-The Japanese treat ethnic Koreans like dirt and it is a travesty! 3rd or 4th generation Koreans who speak Japanese and have Japanese names are discriminated against in every way shape and form.

-The Japanese by and large do not recycle. They will throw away near new TVs and microwaves in the middle of a pristine forest. It is still legal to burn your trash in Japan. Carcinogens, anyone?

-Japan gives big sums of money to little tiny island nations in the Pacific to vote “yes” at the United Nations so Japan can hunt whales for “scientific research.” B.S. The Japanese like to eat whale meat, even though most whale species are highly endangered. This really bothers me. (Iceland and Norway do this, too.)

-The indigenous Japanese (the Ainu) have been reduced to little more than tourist attractions. Literally. Their proud culture has been ransacked, violated, and all but destroyed.

I lived in Japan. I love Japan. I respect Japan. I want to see Japan thrive and succeed; for their own sake, and having them as a stable ally in that region is good for Western/American interests as a check against North Korea. But still, these are the big issues and not talking about them won’t solve them.

The Expert answers:

Economic Recycling Benefits and Facts
information supplied by: National Recycling Coalition
Well-run recycling programs cost less to operate than waste collection, landfilling, and incineration.

The more people recycle, the cheaper it gets.
Two years after calling recycling a $40 million drain on the city, New York City leaders realized that a redesigned, efficient recycling system could actually save the city $20 million and they have now signed a 20-year recycling contract.
Recycling helps families save money, especially in communities with pay-as-you-throw programs.
Well-designed programs save money. Communities have many options available to make their programs more cost-effective, including maximizing their recycling rates, implementing pay-as-you-throw programs, and including incentives in waste management contracts that encourage disposal companies to recycle more and dispose of less.
Recycling creates 1.1 million U.S. Jobs, $236 billion in gross annual sales and $37 billion in annual payrolls.
Public sector investment in local recycling programs pays great dividends by creating private sector jobs. For every job collecting recyclables, there are 26 jobs in processing the materials and manufacturing them into new products.
Recycling creates four jobs for every one job created in the waste management and disposal industries.
Thousands of U.S. Companies have saved millions of dollars through their voluntary recycling programs. They wouldn’t recycle if it didn’t make economic sense.

The Expert answers:

Costs people money.
When I lived in Michigan it was 10c/can deposit, making soda pop cost 10c more per can (so if a 12 pack was $3, it was really $4.20 with deposit!)
I guess so many people don’t recycle so they don’t get that money back. (I always did – in fact we would go to Toledo, since OH DIDN’T recycle and buy soda, bring the cans back to MI and get $$ for them!)

Now that I live in AZ, they don’t recycle cans for $$ here… But they do have recycling in general, and many people just throw their cans in the trash — they don’t even put them in the recycle bins!

So maybe it’s just the people are lazy.
I at least put my glass and cans in the recycle bin.

The Expert answers:

Enzymes can break down many substrate molecules. In fact, some enzymes can act on millions of substrate molecules per minute! This allows cells to have very efficient metabolism, producing relatively few proteins for the amount of substrates they act on.

However, they are eventually broken down any recycled. There are enzymes called “proteases,” which, as the name suggests, have the job of breaking down other proteins. So a given enzyme, like a lactase, is broken down and recycled pretty regularly; perhaps every few minutes or so, depending on the specific enzyme and how fast it is broken down by the cell. But in that few minutes of life, the lactase can act on thousands or millions of substrate molecules. So it’s not a single-use enzyme.

The Expert answers:

We cannot dispose of our trash cans, because not everything we discard is recyclable.

Chris H. Is partly correct in that 80% of “things” put in UNATTENDED recycling bins end up in landfills. Why? Because many people don’t know, or don’t care, or don’t want to bother to educate themselves, on what is recyclable. Or they are spiteful and throw garbage in recycling bins.

My husband and I run our city’s Recycling Center, and I have found in unattended paper-recycling bins: maggoty bags of garbage; dirty diapers; broken glass; oilfield chemicals; used tampons; half-eaten food; fireworks; drug paraphernalia; drugs; beer bottles full of urine; shoes; clothing; and, most memorable, a pretty-good quantity of vomit.

We also have “attended” recycling bins. This means a volunteer remains by the bins to keep people from throwing garbage into them. Almost 100% of what goes into those bins ends up being recycled; I have spoken to the company that picks up our recycling and they say we do a very good job.

You are describing “curbside recycling”. Bins are left at curbside and a company picks up the recyclables. This company sorts and packages the recyclables, usually selling it to a third company that processes it (i.e., makes glass cull, paper pulp, or plastic shreds) and sells it to yet another company that uses it to make products. Fewer or more companies may be involved, depending on how “advanced” the recycling is in that area.

I have an excellent essay/paper that I helped my daughter write on the benefits of recycling. This essay includes many resources, statistics, and facts. If you would like to read this paper and use some of our resources, please contact me.

Good luck with your scholarship!