Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

I think it is a combination of things.

First of all, think there are still a number of municipalities that have no recycling programs. For those that do, I think there is a lot of confusion by people as to what can actually be recycled because it does differ from place to place. I am fortunate that my township recycles type 1-7 plastics, steal cans, aluminum cans, paperboard (cereal box material), newspapers, and junk mail. However, the next town over only does type 1 and 2 plastic and newspaper which is typical in this area (south central PA). If it weren’t for a program at which my wife and I volunteer, we’d just throw out corrugated cardboard and office paper.

Another reason is that organizing all of it can be a bit overwhelming. My wife and I struggled at first but we worked out a system of bins in our garage that we can simply slide out to the curb on trash day or throw in the car when we go to volunteer. We do help our friends organize their stuff and take what their municipalities do not take to the volunteer program facility (this include all of the recycling from our church which is in a municipality without a recycling program).

In the end, some people are just plain lazy. Unfortunately, I think this is the biggest reason. I have heard every excuse in the book

…I don’t want to rinse everything and that take a lot of water so how is that any better? (showed them how to rinse a party’s worth of beer and soda bottles with six ounces of water by transferring the water from container to container)
…I don’t have time to sort it (gave them extra bins next to their current cans in the garage five feet from kitchen trash)
…Can’t afford the recycle bins (found out their municipality offer free bins and even picked them up for them on my way through town)

I have watched people throw a soda can in the trash when a clearly marked recycling bin was right next to the trash can. Some places make recycling mandatory but there is no way to enforce it. Until people see a real impact in their life (most people are self-centered), they won’t do it.

The Expert answers:

My guess is that you are asking about recycling via returning items to the grocery store and getting a deposit back for each item? The reason that the grocery store will only accept those items marked CA CRV is because they want to make sure they were purchased in CA and deposit was given.

So someone couldn’t go to another state and purchase the items w/o giving a deposit but returning it to a CA grocery store and getting money for it. That’s my guess.

The Expert answers:

Recycle it anyway. I recycle anything that is plastic, cardboard, etc., and they always take it. Better to be safe than sorry!;)

The Expert answers:

A plastic trash can or hamper with a lid, to which you can attach a label “BATTERY RECYCLING”, can be had for under $15 at Target, Wal-Mart or a similar discount retailer. It needn’t be a specialized container.

The Expert answers:

The most unusual plant container i have seen is an old toilet bowl. Someone used an old toilet bowl and planted it with water plants (i.e. Water lily and reeds )

The Expert answers:

Depending on what your local/National building code requires, as well as the local bylaws, you would most likely need to find an architect/Engineer/building contractor to design the house for you.

The short answer is that it is possible to build a house out of these containers. I personally would not want a house build completely of steel, but that is just me.

Also, another main concern of useing steel containers for a house, especially in a rain forest, is corrosion resistance. You would have to make sure the steel is well protected, or you could have a rusted out house in a couple years.

The Expert answers:

What data are there to suggest that those laws DO “encourage” recycling? For many years, the state of Oregon had a law that required a fee on every container that would be returned to the purchaser when the empty container was returned. The neighboring state of Washington had no such nonsense law, and yet had a higher rate of recycling of the same types of containers. Amazingly, there were groups always trying to get the laws passed in Washington, that would have required adding staff to the government, and that obviously would have no benefit other than requiring more taxes to be levied in order to pay for the more government employees to administer the un-needed law!

The Expert answers:

Scrap glass taken from the glass manufacturing process, called cullet, has been internally recycled for years. The scrap glass is economical to use as a raw material because it melts at lower temperatures than other raw materials, thus saving fuel and operating costs.

Glass that is to be recycled must be relatively free from impurities and sorted by color. Glass containers are the most commonly recycled form of glass, and their colors are flint (clear), amber (brown), and green. Other glass, such as window glass, pottery, and cooking utensils, are considered contaminants because they have different compositions than glass used in containers. The recycled glass is melted in a furnace and formed into new products.

Glass containers make up 90 percent of the total glass used in the United States. The 2000 recycling rate for glass was about 23 percent. Other uses for recycled glass include glass art and decorative tiles. Cullet mixed with asphalt forms a paving material called glassphalt.

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The Expert answers:

You have the answer…. Itz cheap and can be recycled!!!