Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

There are many industries that have recycling options that are more likely to be profitable than others. I recently worked on a project involving metal manufacturing. One company that makes equipment to aid in the recycling of metals from various manufacturing processes is Chip Systems located at:
http://www.chipsystemsintl.com
This company presents a lot of material to suggest that recycling can be a cost saving or profitable venture.

The Expert answers:

Yes it’s true. Aluminum cans have the paint on the outside of them. They also have a plastic liner inside (bet you didn’t know that!). Almost nobody knows they have the plastic liner, but they do. So that contaminates the aluminum as well.

Scroll down on this link, and you’ll see the pictures:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000100

The pop tabs do not have the plastic, or the paint, just pure aluminum.

~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

The Expert answers:

If you recycled them you can get 5 cents for each bottle…that’s good money

The Expert answers:

Yes
Try looking for scrap metal dealers in the yellow book

The Expert answers:

You are basically asking two different but completely related questions:

1) Exactly what you may, MUST, and should do with the recyclables you put in your bin for monthly pick up depends upon what your solid waste (garbage/recycling company) people say in your area. With only monthly pickup, I would say that both for your own and greater public health (insects and rodents) you are probably required to at least rinse your containers. You are probably required to remove lids and tops from plastic containers; they have a habit of exploding whether in your own bin or off at the facility. I would further suggest that you semi-crush your plastics when possible as they can take up a lot of room. Some areas do take tin food cans where as others do not due to their low re-sale value; I know of one area that will collect the cans but not the lids due to potential worker injury. Likewise, many areas do not collect glass at curb side due to the dangers imposed by broken glass. In terms of plastics, most areas will collect number 1 and number 2 plastic (check for the number inside the recycling triangle, typically on the bottom of plastic containers) but will not collect other types. Paper, mixed paper, light weight cardboard like cereal boxes, and corrugated cardboard also very tremendously from area to area. I know of one area that will only pick up, at curb side, light weight cardboard as other types of paper may blow out of their trucks causing litter, corrugated cardboard is too bulky, and newspaper weighs too much. Most will not accept “soiled” paper into their paper recycling stream like pizza boxes, used paper napkins and paper towels, etc…. Some will accept this into their composting stream and is typically picked up with the yard debris. Speaking of which, some communities are also accepting all sorts of kitchen waste in their composting/yard debris streams now too. Most curb side programs do not include any type of remodeling materials nor metal items. And, most curb side programs have some sort of weight limit on the containers as well. – It all depends upon the rules established by your solid waste pick-up system and community.

Since your folks are only getting once a month pick up service, I would suggest that they begin practicing what I call “garbage or recycling condensing”. In this process, you flatten all of those cereal type boxes, cans, and bottles when possible. In your parents’ case, as they discover what all they can recycle and get into the practice of doing so, it could mean quite a difference by the end of the month. – With only a once per month pick-up, could your parents’ can be primarily for yard waste?

2) What happens when the collected, cleaned, and flattened items leave your parents’ curb side container is a whole other question. In an ideal world the “recycling loop is closed” or, the items go on to be completely and fully used to make some other or additional manufacturing process. In our most real world, most communities and municipalities have a primary goal of reducing their landfill stream in order to prolong the life of their landfill; or reduce the assocated costs of shipping landfill items off to other areas. They are then left, themselves, trying to find places, people, and businesses willing to take certain types of materials in the easiest and cheapest manner possible. In some areas, businesses and/or governement entities step up and generate sorting facilties then find local or distant buyers of the items. Often, one type of item can be actually sold and the proceeds from those sales then pay for the sorting facilities and/or off-set transportation costs and/or off-set the costs for getting rid of other items. Some items can be gotten rid of for free but, the transportation costs must be paid for by the community’s solid waste system. Other items actually cost to get rid of but, for less money than paying for distant landfill space. When a community already has a functioning landfill, it can be difficult to actually pay more to get rid of recyclable items than it would be to simply landfill them; on the other hand, building a new landfill when the current one fills up is a very expensive prospect that often community members are not willing to realize until they are forced to.

You might want to help them understand their local curb side program. Also, check out their local solid waste systems and/or through Earth911 to see what else they have that they can transport themselves for recycling at a lower cost than tossing in their landfill stream. Then work with them on systems that make as much financial as environmental sense. – Also, you might help them get registered with their local freecycle.org chapter. In many communities, recycling saves money for the individual in the immediate.

The Expert answers:

There are places to recycle newspapers in Orleans and Paoli has a recycling center on the south side by the iron bridge. He takes newspaper, cardboard, junk mail, magazines and more.

The Expert answers:

Experiments in California and Sweden have shown that plants (especially trees) grown in a high CO2 environment come out with stunted growth, malformed leaves, and have shortened lifespans (2-3 years in the case of trees). CO2 in the air that we make when we burn coal, gas, or oil is making the earth get hotter. Everything makes some when it burns, but we burn more of these “fossil fuels” than anything else. It could get too hot for people to live.

Plants convert the carbon that’s in the air as carbon dioxide to the organic (carbon based) material they are made of . They release oxygen when they do this. Without plants, animal life would have never been possible. It took half of the time life has existed on earth for the first plants to come into being. If the plants ever died, the animals would too, including humans.

Recycling is important in many ways. Aluminum is made by a process using electricity. It takes much less electricity to make things out of old aluminum cans, etc, than it would to mine new aluminum ore and make it from scratch. It also decreases the amount of waste in the environment. Plastics are now being recognized as a huge problem. If you reuse something made of plastic even just once it saves a lot. Plastics are made from petroleum, so it helps keep the price down and cuts down pollution. Plastic bags get in the ocean and break down into tiny particles which the fish eat with their food. These build up and poison the fish.

The world is running out of water. Over half of the people don’t have enough. Water sources are drying up. The glaciers on the mountaintops are melting. They supply most of the water for most countries. When they are all melted a lot of people will have no water. Most fresh water that you use never gets used again. It makes it’s way to the sea, then when it gets to the equator a little bit of it evaporates, then a little bit of it may fall as snow way up North. None of it gets back to you. Most of the fresh water that we know about is too far underground where we can’t get it. Most of what we have gets used only one time. Any time you can save or reuse water you are helping the whole planet.

Most of the energy we have comes from power plants that aren’t very “friendly” to the earth. In the USA, most of them are coal burning. That can cause a lot of pollution and more global warming. Some places use nuclear. It is better in some ways, but lots of fossil fuel is used to mine nuclear fuel, and lots of heat is given off when it’s being used. The wastes are very dangerous if they are not disposed of properly. In America none of the States want nuclear waste.

I hope this little bit of information helps you. These are wonderful questions!

The Expert answers:

Find them using Recuva

The Expert answers:

Recycling reuses things so that we can save earths natural resources. Also, if you recycle you can cut down on garbage in landfills. AND, you can help stop population because plastic is made of oil and oil cause pollution. If you only have to make plastic once, then there’s less pollution.