Re: Pearls Before Swine: Rat The Luddite

On Wed, 7 Aug 2024 08:28:09 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 8/7/2024 5:49 AM, Chris Buckley wrote:

["Followup-To:" header set to rec.arts.sf.written.]
On 2024-08-06, Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:

On 2024-08-06, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>

However, LEDs have the advantage over LCDs of being disposable in the
landfill (ie, put in the trash as opposed to having to be dropped off
at special locations) when they stop working. Well, if that /is/ an
advantage, of course. And both have the advantage over incandescents
that they work a lot longer.

>
LED lights are electronics and are collected along with other
electronics for recycling.  At least in Europe.
>
Actually, according to the signage at the local station for bulk
waste, recycling, etc., LED tubes go into the same container as
fluorescents.  Which seems odd.

 
It sounds like things are changing here (near DC). LED bulbs were
collected for recycling for many years along with the fluorescents,
but that's not the case anymore. They may still be considered mild
hazardous waste (the website is inconsistent now) but not recyclable.
Ordinary trash may be fine.
 
Strings of LED Christmas lights are still recycled, but I assume that's
for the wire rather than the bulbs.
 

Actual recycling turns out to be a lot more finicky than we were lead to
believe.  "Just recycle your plastic!"  Which kind of plastic?  There
are a few hundred different types and a lot of them simply CAN'T be
recycled economically, if at all.  Separating metals costs and so on.

Locally, there is an online list that can be used when doubt exists.
And recycle glyphs cannot always be relied on here.

Something that popped up some years back is recycling films (bread
wrappers, TP wrappers, bottled water plastic holding the bottles in,
certain Amazon mailers, stuff like that) based on returning them to
the grocery store or drugstore (well, some of them, anyway). They are
not allowed in the home recycle bin. And so it goes.

There is some hope: some time back, /Science News/ had an article
about a form of plastic that could be made into a bag, recycled into
its chemical constituents, and remade into a bag -- and after 100
cycles was as strong at the end as it was at the beginning.

But whether it can be commercialized was not known.

Some plastic items (bookshelves, carts), of course, unless they are
actually broken, can be re-used (that is, donated to an organization
that can get them to someone who needs them). No landfill needed.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"