D.C. said it was recycling all of those old trash bins. It wasn’t.

[devils chaplain]

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s administration acknowledged on Tuesday that thousands of plastic trash bins that the city said it would reuse were instead crushed and sent to a landfill along with city waste.

Gray’s Department of Public Works said about 5,300 cans — roughly a third of those picked up last week during a citywide “blitz” to rid the District of unwanted cans — were not recycled despite a promise the city would do so...

...Dozens of residents complained that the blitz was overly aggressive, taking both old cans and even new ones. And as the “blitz” sped up, residents across Northwest reported seeing not the flatbed trucks that were used for weeks to slowly carry away old cans, but D.C. garbage trucks. They swallowed up and compacted the cans as if they were the week’s trash or recyclables.

[link]http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/pictures-show-dc-may-have-dumped-trash-cans-that-it-said-were-being-recycled/2014/05/20/1f4c2a24-df9a-11e3-810f-764fe508b82d_story.html?hpid=z3[/link]

This makes me ill.

[Leme]

1. Just my opinion

A lot of recycling is just a "feel good" exercise or political lip service.

[A Little Weird]

2. I disagree

Recycling is far more than a "feel good" exercise. IMO, it is important and should be expanded. http://www.umass.edu/recycle/recycling_benefits.shtml

What happened in D.C. sounds like a mess brought on by someone playing politics with city services.

[Leme]

3. well, recycling as often practiced is not energy nor product efficient

sending stuff overseas to be recycled may make money, save some environment locally, but not at place of recovery and transport costs may be cheap in money... but not on total environmental costs.
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You feel good, earth feels worse.
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and the stuff does not have to go overseas to have a net negative effect on the earth.

[A Little Weird]

4. Got any sources to back that up?

Electronics recycling is often sent overseas and I agree that is a problem.

With most other recycling, I think you are wrong. It takes energy to recycle but it also takes energy to create something new. It takes energy to extract minerals, cut trees, etc.

Recycling also keeps material out of landfills - the garbage you throw away has costs too. I spoke with a truck driver who drives loads of garbage every week from New Jersey to a landfill in Kentucky. So there are clearly some transport costs for garbage too. And I have to wonder why they would do that. The landfill situation must be pretty bad up there if they are willing to spend money to truck it that far for disposal.

[Leme]

5. recycling is down cycling, for one..feel good but just postpones

quick link

http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/learn/common-misconceptions/

[A Little Weird]

11. Your link is talking about reducing the use of platics

It doesn't support your assertion that recycling is a "feel good exercise". I agree wholeheartedly that we should use less plastic, but recycling the plastic that exists is a much better solution than just pitching it in the landfill and making more plastic.

[Leme]

18. I think people feel good when they recycle,thanks for looking at link

and do not realize they are at times just postponing waste. But to "prove" my point, I think you sort of did in another post. Perhaps you use old water to rinse things out.. others might not. But they "feel good" recycling.
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Many municipalities probably do not have that much to recycle.. and the cost to do so is high, but the "feel good" is higher than environmental impact. It becomes an election question, not an environment question.
It has become a "sacred cow".
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I think it should be acknowledged... but it is not a cure all by any means. and it tends to crowd out the coverage of more environmentally effective things.

[A Little Weird]

20. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree

If you don't want to recycle, that is up to you. You're not going to convince me that recycling is a waste of time and I'm not going to convince you it's worth doing.

[Leme]

21. I don't think I said it was all a waste

I think some, perhaps a lot of it is a waste though. It is not as effective as many think. People think they have done a lot, when it really is not that much. And the media backs them up.
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If we disagree, I think it about scale and perception.
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Not that bad of a thing to disagree about imo.

[Leme]

7. cost not included

in my area, cans and bottles are to be rinsed before placed in recycle bin
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cost of water not included in total cost to recycle

[A Little Weird]

12. Yes, that is a cost that is often overlooked

When I wash my plastic I just do it in the same water I wash my dishes so it's no more water than what I would use anyway. Usually people can find ways to save water if they wish. But in either case, I suspect that making new plastic has a higher environmental cost.

[devils chaplain]

15. There was an article on Slate a while back on the environmental effectiveness of recycling various

items. As you suspect, it becomes a net loser if you use fresh water to clean things out. Doing it with the dishes is ideal, so long as you don't use more water or soap obviously.

I don't even bother recycling milk jugs anymore. It's not worth it to get all that gunk out, if it's even possible.

[Leme]

9. we probably agree a lot

I just think recycling gets too much hype.
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I think less packaging, perhaps standard packaging would reduce the total amount and be much more environmentally effective.
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Reduce and re-use > recycle

[A Little Weird]

14. Probably true

Reduced packaging especially would be helpful. Until that happens (and probably even then), I think recycling is critically important and should be encouraged rather than minimized.

[Romulox]

10. I've often wondered if some recycling is a net energy loser, similar to ethanol from corn. nt

[devils chaplain]

13. These are big, thick plastic tubs.

If anything is cost effective to recycle, it's these. This was done solely for political expediency, not any savvy concern for the Earth.

[Leme]

16. yeah using corn for ethanol

a big mess, and big companies involved...and the Farm bill.
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an environmental and food catastrophy... unless you were getting from the Farm Bill what you paid the lawmakers to include

[Orrex]

6. Oh, sure. But when I threw all those paint cans in the quarry it was a big damn deal.

[Raine1967]

8. Get officer Obie on the case!

[Chathamization]

17. And they're charging two people with theft for taking cans that had "Take me!" stickers on them

See here. Charging people with theft because they took the thing you were going to throw in a landfill seems pretty low, especially if you put stickers on the cans that say "Take me!".

[Leme]

19. in my community also

I think there is an ordinance that prohibits people from picking up things left at the curb. I do not think it is enforced though.. but could be.