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Environmental matters

Started by Dave, July 09, 2018, 10:56:20 AM

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Dave

I have been chastised!

In the supermarket, selecting my apples and putting them in one if the plastic bags supplied. Up pops a maybe 5yo girl, pigtails and all, "That's naughty, the plastic bags kill the worms!"

I spotted her obvious torn mother, in two minds - appologise or . . . I nodded at the mum and agreed with the young lady, thanking her, and placing the apples, loose, in my basket.

I still throw away a load of plastic in landfill. The local council, or their contractor, only accept recycle marked stuff and I have nowhere to store non-marked stuff to take to the local recycling/disposal facility. It's four miles away, in another district and I am not supposed to use it. The one in my district is three times the distance. No point making CO2, NOx etc to save a worm or three.

Apart from that I portion things like bacon rashers into plastic bags or cling film before putting them in the freezer. So the bags get binned every time. An American friend recently said something I have often wondered about, why don't British supermarkets make more use of paper bags, recycled or recyclable?

May be looking for a cheap supply of recycled/able paper bags for the freezer, they do not all have to be plastic.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Icarus

My county has a recycling program that many of us use for disposal of materials that can be recycled.  We have a separate trash can for non recyclable items.

Our recycle bins are large (90 gallons).  The huge automatic picker upper truck comes once a week and automatically/hydraulicly lifts the bin and deposits the contents into the truck.  The contents are delivered to a sorting station where paper, glass, plastic, and tin cans are separated into the appropriate mass. It is then sold to businesses who reclaim the material and convert it into further uses. 

Retail businesses are the worst offenders because they furnish plastic bags to carry whatever you have bought. My grocery supermarket gives me the option of choosing Kraft paper bags or plastic bags.  They also encourage us to bring our own cloth fabric bags so as to avoid the plastic glut. They sell the fabric bags for a pittance.  I have several of them that I keep in my car.

jumbojak

I've been involved in a few environmental issues over the years. The first was as an organizer and liason to prevent a coal fired power plant from being constructed in my home town. It was a big learning experience and although we were successful in the end I learned more about what not to do and who not to bring in as I did about how to successfully conduct a campaign like that.

It's not easy to get people on your side when a large corporation is suggesting job prospects in a small town. It's even easier to have people turn against you when outside groups decide to take mass action that is obviously coming from without, rather than from within.

In the end I think the price of natural gas is what killed that plant. We tried, and we learned a lot but I don't think we did a whole lot of good. I lost some friends and probably made more than a few enemies.

"Amazing what chimney sweeping can teach us, no? Keep your fire hot and
your flue clean."  - Ecurb Noselrub

"I'd be incensed by your impudence were I not so impressed by your memory." - Siz

Icarus


Dave

Quote from: Icarus on July 09, 2018, 07:52:30 PM
My county has a recycling program that many of us use for disposal of materials that can be recycled.  We have a separate trash can for non recyclable items.

Our recycle bins are large (90 gallons).  The huge automatic picker upper truck comes once a week and automatically/hydraulicly lifts the bin and deposits the contents into the truck.  The contents are delivered to a sorting station where paper, glass, plastic, and tin cans are separated into the appropriate mass. It is then sold to businesses who reclaim the material and convert it into further uses. 

Retail businesses are the worst offenders because they furnish plastic bags to carry whatever you have bought. My grocery supermarket gives me the option of choosing Kraft paper bags or plastic bags.  They also encourage us to bring our own cloth fabric bags so as to avoid the plastic glut. They sell the fabric bags for a pittance.  I have several of them that I keep in my car.

We have a similar system, paper+card+drink cartons in one box, plastic, bottles, jars and tins in a wheelie bin. Auto loaders on the wagons and auto/manual sorting at the depot. But only plastics with the recycle mark are wanted now.  Non-marked plastics were exported to China for processing, but they have now banned imports of this - probably have enough of their own! There is a technique for incorporating some of these plastics in tarmac for road surfacing, in its infancy but growing.

Plastic bags are a problem. Carrier bags, bread bags and some frozen veg bags are recyclable and most supermarkets have collection points, but there are loads more food packaging bags, single use thin storage bags etc that are not currehtly recyclable. Neither are the yoghurt pots I use, I may change my brand. So a lot of plastic still ends up in landfill. Then there are those like the guy downstairs, every thing he chucks out goes to landfill, no recycling at all.

But, we have to use black bin liners by the council's ruling - so more landfilled plastic by decree (unless those are stripped off in the sorting.) They are building a huge waste processing/incineration/power generating plant less than a mile from where I live. What fun! Bet we get no cheap electricity from it, but this is going to gave to be the coming thing - if you can't foul the ground why not pump it out into the air? Wonder where the toxic ashes go?
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Dave

I wonder how much difference changing some of the smaller things might make.

I need some new clothes pegs, my old ones are plastic and many have got broken over the years. So, do I buy more pkastic ohes or look for old fashioned wooden jobs, even "dolly pegs" with no metal content? (I still have the last remaining/wooden spring job from those I bought back in 1991 when I moved here!) Is that greener?

It "feels" that it should be.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74