I think that everyone make a conscious effort to recycle at least some things that we would be able to make a substantial contribution to saving our planet because we all are guilty in one way or another to the contributing factors of what is destroying where we live.
I do such as recycling of paper and plastics. I do not litter and encourage other not to as well.
What do you really think recycling accomplishes? Recycling wastes more energy in the process than it saves in making people feel good for recycling. It costs more too. But whatever floats your boat. :D
Well the best way is to use things that don’t have to be recycled as in when you go grocery shopping take a cotton bag to pack your groceries in or when you go to the cleaners take back your coathangers from the last time.
There are many ways that you can re-use. For instance at Christmas don’t use wrapping paper and tape use cloth or decorated paper backs and tissue and it can be re-used the next Christmas. The same goes for any gifts such as Birthdays, Anniversaries, Mother’s Day… well you get the idea.
[quote author=“SweetRiver”]There are many ways that you can re-use.
Thank you for agreeing with me. Re-using makes sense. Recycling, on the other hand does not. It’s mostly so people can feel good. Instead of actually doing good. A better course of action is to DO good instead of hollow effort for a warm fuzzy feeling.
My local gov’t has instituted a garbage sorting thing and we all have to use clear bags for ALL garbage so they can see that we’re putting our plastics in one bag, and cans in another, and no food garbage that should be in the big green bin, and bottles in another, and o dear lord I’m now spending half my life sorting garbage. I’m not sure it’s not all going into the landfill anyway and it’s making me crazier than I already was.
where i live the bin men open every bag as they go through the streets that is tossed to them by there colleagues and about three of them separate everything in the truck so it’s all done for you simple isn’t it.
We sort by glas and plastic and trash. We also have different days for trach and recycle. It doesn’t seem to be that hard. I have stopped purchasing large juice bottles. It seems the bin get full to quickly with those large bottles in the in. I also break down my boxes so that they do not take up to much room in the bin.
Reusing is very affective in reducing the amount of waste. I try to use the produce bags more than once. I get frozen juice and use the milk jugs to mix the juice in.
I disagree, recycling is totally worth it. Plastics are made from oil and when they are molded co2 and other toxins are released into the atmosphere. By reusing existing plastics you are keeping new toxins from being released and you are keeping the amount of garbage that fills up your local landfills.
Paper recycling is also very much worth it. Producing new paper is not environmentally friendly. You may think that by having those trees, they will help to absorb the co2 (which they do) but when the tree is turned into pulp all of that absorbed co2 is released. I recently wrote a post about paper and snail mail span, it may be worth reading so you can understand what goes into making paper. Stop Save The Environment, Stop The Snail Mail Spam
But trucks have to drive around and pick up all the plastic, and landfills turn in to parks and the gas they produce can be used to generate electricity.
If trees absorb CO2, then release it it cancels out.
yes I understand that, but when you do the calculations it is much worse for the environment to produce new plastics and paper as opposed to recycling.
The comment about the landfills being used to generate electricity, yes this can happen, but there are very very few of these types of “trash to energy” plants, so the net affect is definitely worse.
hands down recycling is better any way you look at it.
