Bob

Paper isn't really, it's less resource creating fresh because the pine is so quick to grow these days.

Glass only worth it if recycle plant is within 20 miles of you dropping the bottles off, or you'd use more petrol than would have been saved recycling.

Metals are worth doing though.

The rest is just a feel good factor...better used as a source of energy and burning it at super temps, but that's not very PC

meauxna

Surely the bright people posting on this thread can agree that one measurement (energy savings) is not an effective way to measure something.

I heart Penn & Teller, but that was a fact-less piece of fluff that didn't even support their point in the end.
But they got to say the f-word, which must be pretty thrilling.

robin1234

It used to be that they'd grind up glass and add it to bulk up the black top for road paving. I don't know if they still do that.

Sally Redux

When I spent some time in East Germany we all took our bottles back to the supermarket and they were refilled - makes a lot more sense that melting them down and remaking them.

robin1234

That was very common (or universal) with beer and wine until quite recent years. You used to see that ground-out ring at the top and bottom of the bottom of the bottle, where it had gone through the bottling machine, possibly dozens of times. Maybe some beer bottles in Europe are still refilled? ..Then of course there are milk bottles in the UK..

I seem to remember when I was a youngster in England, you took a pill bottle or a bottle in to the chemists for a prescription of pills or medicine or whatever. No-one seemed to care whether you had washed it to a certain standard or not. Mind you, we were pretty hardy in those days.

And Corona in the UK; the van came round once a week, and you returned your empties and got full bottles.

Octang Frye

Exactly. Metals are worth it - the rest is a waste of energy.
The same is true with the smug, feel-good stuff associated with Live Aid nonsense; sure, you feel good -you're concerned! you're helping! - but in the end it's at best a waste of time, at worst detrimental.

Octang Frye

That's just their schtick. How did that not support their point? Were we watching the same show? Did you see it in its entirety?

Captain Cheesestick

I like Penn and Teller. They make me laugh very much. But that particular episode blatantly ignored the actual reason for recycling - there is only so much of some stuff before it runs out. And no not trees. I'm talking metals and oils/plastics.

On the other hand the "business" of recycling is as crooked as everything else.

Still - they got to tell pretentious wazzacks to **** off so it was funny at least.

robin1234

What about reducing the space needed in the landfill? For instance, grinding up glass and using it in road paving material?

Cape Blue

I've no idea what you read from my post Steerpike, but what I am saying is that CO2 from forest fires isn't that significant as the carbon released was only removed from the atmosphere recently during the plant growth - it is part of the current carbon cycle of sequestration and release (and the post-fire growth will start to sequester again).

The fossil fuel carbon is not part of the current carbon cycle and the CO2 is purely additive into today's atmosphere, which is increasing the greenhouse effect.

We need some of the CO2 "shit" in the air to stop us from freezing, the current carbon cycle helps moderate the "shit" content nicely, the problem is the extra fossil fuel shit we are adding the equation.

Captain Cheesestick

Hmm interesting. So is the constant shit on BE part of the natural cycle of shit, or extra shit added that we just don't need?

tonrob

I've been trying to recycle my farts by doing them in brown paper bags.

Unfortunately that's as far as I've got. Does anyone know what I do next?

Octang Frye

Kind of related to recycling, and an interesting concept.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011...ve-consumption

Bob

Reuse rather than recycle makes far more sense for a lot of this stuff, doing just that

Bob

Plastics, generally another thing better super heated and burned as a fuel source than to recycle it as it's quite energy intensive and not very good for the environment for most plastics.

Best would be reducing the amount of plastic packaging in the first place though...there really isn't the need for all that shrink wrapped rubbish on every product these days.