Should I recycle?

lisyloo

I have just had a black box delivered to my house for regular collection.
Previously we took items to the supermarket when going there anyway.

A colleague at work says recycling is a complete waste of time and the energy involved in transport and recycling means it does not have a positive impact.
He believes it's all being done for political reasons.

I don't have time to investigate all the latest scientific papers.

Is he right?

Should I carry on recycling or should I just put it in the bin?

martinpike

I have no idea if your colleague is right, and I'm sure there are loads of examples where 'recycled' stuff ends up in landfill.

In response to that, yes, of course you should recycle. If you just stick everything in your normal waste, there is NO chance it will be recycled. Also, certain recycling methods will require a minimum volume to make it practical. You would be helping demonstrate that the volume is there.

Finally, recycling is the third thing you should be doing. REDUCING and RE-USING are far more effective.

stevenshell

I'd say, yes, recycle what you can! We have bags for our recycling here, and in our house have two bins one for normal rubbish that can't be recycled and one for the recycling bags. I compost the food peelings!

Thing is, every little helps in my opinion, surely we can't make things worse than they are by wasting energy in the transportation?

irnbru_2

lisyloo wrote:

A colleague at work says recycling is a complete waste of time and the energy involved in transport and recycling means it does not have a positive impact.

Waste has to be transported whether for recycling or direct disposal.

Some recycled waste goes to landfill - I guess if it's deemed contaminated.

So it then comes down to resource use - is it cheaper to extract the raw materials or re-use the derived products. That depends on the product. Plastic bag manufacturers will tell you that they are less polluting than the paper alternative. Per bag, it's cheaper to transport plastic than paper. It's cheaper still to reuse.

If you do recycle you at least make reuse a possibility.

If your work has a 'secret santa' see if someone can get them this or this.

SaverSarah_2

Of course there's an element of the political about recycling, but since when was that an excuse not to do something (sorry, I don't mean you're using it as an excuse...)? Most things a politicised in some way or another.

Anyway, yes, you absolutely should still recycle, as the previous posters have said, but most of all you should think about reducing the amount of packaging you consume in the first place. Teeny tiny changes like using bags for life when you shop, putting fruit and veg loose in your basket or trolley (I thought this was crazy talk when I saw it on that Penny Poyser programme but I've never done it since and you would believe how many bags you save) or even better, start getting your fruit and veg from an organic box scheme.

I always buy croissants and the like loose to save that crazy plastic packaging that's 'the wrong type of plastic' to be recycled, and we don't have a daily paper any more, only at weekends (we now read the news online, or just don't bother, and life's SO much nicer without all those bad news stories!).

There's LOADS more you can do, none of it is any effort, just a bit of thought. Good luck, and well done you for thinking about it in the first place.

:A

going2die_rich

In the two streets around me their are only around 10 houses that recylce using the council. So the cost to the environment for someone to drive a huge fuel guzelling truck to collect a few bottles and bit of paper to send miles away to recycle isn't worth it.

If you are going to a s supermarket anyway you might as well dump it then, but since the council are still going to drive on your street looking for black boxes you might as well let them take it.

Recylcing is pointless though since it's not done enough or by everyone in the right way so it's really just a waste of time.

sampa99978

going2die_rich wrote:

Recylcing is pointless though since it's not done enough or by everyone in the right way so it's really just a waste of time.

I'm currently studying a masters in renewable energy and resource management, so I learn a lot about waste and recycling. Landfills are very quickly being filled up and with laws becoming far more strict on the landfill operators, the cost of getting your bin bags in the landfills are going to go up anyway and that cost will get passed on to us lets face it.

More to the point, if I was to rewrite the above quote:

" Everyone should recycle therefore I'm not going to." Even by seeing a recycle bin in the street waiting to be collected might be enough to make people think about their habits.

IvanOpinion

I keep bashing on about this but recycling is bad ... it is a nasty side effect of not REDUCNIG what we use and then not REUSING. The most important thing everybody can do is to REDUCE their consumption of everything .. second most important thing is to REUSE what they do consume (if it is possible to reuse) .. then and only then should we RECYCLE what we can not reuse.

To a certain degree the OP's work colleague is right, however it does not excuse anybody from not doing their little bit towards leaving something for the next generation. The work colleague has taken the lazy selfish attitude .. maybe someday they might have to explain that attitude to their children or grand children.

Ivan

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

going2die_rich wrote:

In the two streets around me their are only around 10 houses that recylce using the council.

They don't just come to your street you know? Yours will be just one of many they will drive to that morning. ten people for every two streets seems quite worthwhile.