I was in a Wexford town today and saw the bin lorry emptying the blue recycling bin and the black waste bin into the same truck, I have also seen our local waste collector just bulldozing everything into a pile (apart from cardboard) in their depot and loading it onto a truck for incineration I presume, are we wasting our time cleaning and seperating stuff at home?
Why do we bother recycling?
- Thread starter Shelby219
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There was a woman on the radio (Claire Byrne show) the other morning attempting to explain what can and cannot be recycled and I came away from it even more confused than before. If an item has a recycling symbol or text on it I bring it to the local Bring Centre but I suspect that at least some of it shouldn't actually be going in the recycling. I've given up trying to understand all the different rules and exceptions.
Edit: I think that this was the item:
www.rte.ie
Edit: I think that this was the item:
How to recycle properly
Des Crinion, Chairperson, Irish Waste Management Association; Pauline McDonogh, Resource Efficiency Officer at mywaste.ie.
Our recycling stuff and waste stuff and brown bin stuff all go into the same truck - but it has three separate compartments at the back! Are you sure that the Wexford one isn't the same?
The whole recycling thing is one big lie.
A maximum of 5% of all plastic is getting recycled. A bit is transformed into something else. The vast amount is either incinerated or exported to some foreign countries- where another large part is getting burnt or ends up in some jungle.
We are all codding ourselves. We want to carry on with our unsustainable lifestyle and invented this recycling thing. A sort of absolution. We feel good about ourselves and carry on regardless of the consequences.
This thing will only stop when the current "civilization" goes over a cliff and comes to an abrupt end.
Here are some links for those who really have an interest in the matter:
just-zero.org
The rest of you can carry on as before and think you did something great for the environment....
A maximum of 5% of all plastic is getting recycled. A bit is transformed into something else. The vast amount is either incinerated or exported to some foreign countries- where another large part is getting burnt or ends up in some jungle.
We are all codding ourselves. We want to carry on with our unsustainable lifestyle and invented this recycling thing. A sort of absolution. We feel good about ourselves and carry on regardless of the consequences.
This thing will only stop when the current "civilization" goes over a cliff and comes to an abrupt end.
Here are some links for those who really have an interest in the matter:
Plastic Recycling is a Lie Designed to Distract Us from Real Solutions - Just Zero
Plastic recycling is a toxic nightmare. And there's only one real solution: To turn off the plastic tap once and for all.
just-zero.org
The rest of you can carry on as before and think you did something great for the environment....
JoeRoberts
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Agreed. Better to burn it all and generate electricity. I've pretty much stopped since the return scheme farce came in.
There's a lot more than plastic going into my recycling bin every week, Sonny Jim. And I suspect that that applies to everyone else's too.
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I agree totally in the fact that I think it's all pointless but I'm still going to try and do my bit by trying to consume less and recycle more
JoeRoberts
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I washed 4 empty guinees cans last week. Needed to do them twice each to ensure no smell when I put them in the machine. That's 4 litres of water wasted. Would have put them in green bin before without washing
What - are you being facetious or am I doing it wrong myself?
No they both went into the same side!
I know in New Zealand there are numbers printed on food packaging and you can only put certain numbered packaging into the recycling bin and they must be clean, every so many weeks a person will call and look into the different bins , any mistakes yo get a warning and next offence no bins collected for X weeks and you will have to bring them to the dump yourself, also I observed the trucks are a one man operation, bins are lifted up and tipped in with a mechanical arm , driver never leaves the cab, we have a lot to learn?
JoeRoberts
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Are you not washing yours ? ..maybe that's why there is a smell at the machine and for the staff who have to empty it and clean up.
A litre of water to wash one 500ml can? You only need to give them a quick rinse, not flood them full to the brim twice.
Like others I don't think it's being recycled but it cheaper than the black bin. So at that simple level it is worth it.
But the level of packaging and plastic in normal shopping is insane. It really needs to be regulated at the point where is packaged not at the end point.
But the level of packaging and plastic in normal shopping is insane. It really needs to be regulated at the point where is packaged not at the end point.
T McGibney
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We shouldn't be using plastic for so many of the uses we currently do.