Re: recycling

On Sat, 24 May 2025 17:17:22 -0500, "Brian G. Lucas"
<bagel99@gmail.com> wrote:

On 5/23/25 1:43 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.

Curious, since Austin has two hugh vodka producers whose products are
in glass bottles.
>
Brian

As I understand it, brown and green glass have to handled differently
(both from clear and from each other), and it causes all manner of
grief if different colored glass gets mixed together.


Where I am, we have so-called "single stream" waste processing: you
don't need to separate recyclables because everything in the trash
ends up being dumped on a conveyor and gets sorted out at the transfer
center.
 
You can separate recyclables, and if you do they are taken separately
from your trash ... but most people here just don't bother unless
there is a large amount involved (e.g., moving boxes, big party, new
matress, etc.). 

Our trash collectors will take pretty much anything except old paint,
oil, gasoline, etc.  They even will take furniture and appliances,
although those may have to wait for a different truck.

Mileage varies considerably. There are some locales here that force
separating recyclables by law ... but many (including mine) don't
because of single stream processing.