Re: the power of junk, Is Parallel Programming Hard, And, If So, What Can You Do About It?

On 5/23/2025 12:43 PM, MitchAlsup1 wrote:

On Fri, 23 May 2025 16:57:57 +0000, Stephen Fuld wrote:
 

On 5/23/2025 8:17 AM, MitchAlsup1 wrote:

On Fri, 23 May 2025 14:21:57 +0000, John Levine wrote:
>

According to Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net>:

Don’t you have regulations, or at least discouragements, against e-
waste
going to landfill?

>
Yes, in the last two decades.   A quarter century ago, not so much.

>
This is 'Murica, pretty much everything goes in the trash here...

>
Nonsense.

>
It's sort of true. In my town they pick up paper and containers and yard
waste
at the curb but I have to take electronics down to the recycling dump.
Most
people don't bother.

>
In Austin we have recycling, but at the sorting department, recycled
glass is diverted straight to the garbage dump.

>
Interesting.  I thought glass was supposed to be the easiest thing to
recycle. Perhaps separate clear from colored, then just melt it down and
reuse.

 It is, Austin just does not have any glass factories nearby and shipping
eliminates any gain.

Yeah.
Likely reasoning: Unless it is more profitable to recycle than to make it new, why bother recycling it?...
Then, there are some metals (such as aluminum) that while historically expensive, are in a downward trend with a comparably low salvage value.
Versus, copper or steel or brass, yeah the recycling centers will pay a fair amount for these.
Aluminum? Not as much. Both aluminum and glass being almost not worth the effort.
Say, new (at a metal supplier):
   Steel is generally cheaper than aluminum.
But, for recycling:
   Scrap steel gives a better return.
But, it almost stands to reason in a way:
Aluminum, Silicon, and Oxygen, are among the most common elements in Earth's crust; the world isn't going to run out of glass and aluminum anytime soon.
So, it likely comes down to the relative cost of mining and processing of new material, vs transporting and reprocessing existing material.
Given enough time, aluminum might eventually become the cheapest metal.
...