The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[darjr]

deleted

We recycle ourselves now. Metal, specifically aluminum, is easy. Everything else is suspect.

 

[aco175]

Almost 100% of the recycling on the college campus becomes contaminated with trash and needs to be throw in with the trash. Yet, if we do not offer recycling the same students that contaminate the recycling are up in arms (or whatever serves as arms these days).

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I think that I didn't get the joke here.

 

[payn]

Almost 100% of the recycling on the college campus becomes contaminated with trash and needs to be throw in with the trash. Yet, if we do not offer recycling the same students that contaminate the recycling are up in arms (or whatever serves as arms these days).

In my city, they had sorting recycling. You had to separate everything. Cans without lids, paper shredded and stapled shut, yada yada. They did a study and found folks were just tossing everything in the trash because it was too much to follow. They went to no sort (they collect it all and sort it at a center) and its gotten much better.

 

[deganawida]

Yep. You’re paying for an entry to some organization’s carbon credits. Like a lot of money, only exists on paper. The actual cost of recycling most materials is still, last time I checked, too high for most places to do it.

I won’t let that stop me from doing my part, though. I can only control what I do, and even that isn’t 100% true, as there is plenty that I would not do but do anyway. Worrying about what others do is a waste of effort.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Americans can be very bad tourists.

You know how Americans are, Payn. They all love to travel, and then they only want to meet other Americans and talk about how hard it is to get a decent hamburger.

Seriously, though, we can't hold a candle to the British. Once you see the lads out and about, you'll be thankful for the Americans.

 

[darjr]

I did find a place that takes styrofoam. First few times I went the place was a ghost town, but the bins out back were jammed full of styrofoam. Bags if it piled besides them. Every time it seemed like all new styrofoam.

 

[billd91]

I had to open up a thread and look at it because the title was so weird I was worried the author was having a stroke.

 

[Ondath]

Almost 100% of the recycling on the college campus becomes contaminated with trash and needs to be throw in with the trash. Yet, if we do not offer recycling the same students that contaminate the recycling are up in arms (or whatever serves as arms these days).

Well, the most likely explanation is that the students who contaminate the trash cans and the ones who ask for recycling are probably not the same people. In fact, if it's just a small minority of idiots who don't care for recycling and just throw everyting everywhere, and if they have 4-5 different classes in different points of the campus, you can get 100% contamination even though 99% want recycling, no?

 

[CleverNickName]

Well, the most likely explanation is that the students who contaminate the trash cans and the ones who ask for recycling are probably not the same people. In fact, if it's just a small minority of idiots who don't care for recycling and just throw everyting everywhere, and if they have 4-5 different classes in different points of the campus, you can get 100% contamination even though 99% want recycling, no?

Yep, this seems to be the case. My college campus actually did a graduate-level study of the recycling that was being done on campus. They used GPS devices to track the routes of garbage and recycling, and they used hidden cameras and security footage to monitor the recycling bins. Their findings were pretty clear--I don't remember the exact numbers, but the conclusion was that on average, each recycling bin would be used correctly by everyone except for a handful of "regulars" who always used the same bin and never sorted their rubbish. (Some of them even wore the same hoodie every day.)

I asked WTF?! They said “it all goes to the same place anyway”

The study also debunked this urban legend. They put a set of GPS trackers in garbage cans all over campus, and put a different set of GPS trackers into recycling bins. None of the GPS trackers got mixed up: the garbage ones went to the landfill, and the recycling ones went to the processing center.

I'll see if I can find a copy of it.