Culture War - who's waging it?

[Twangbanger]

It's also nonsense. The trash you throw away your plastic bottle in the recycling bin ti ends up in the same place as the stuff you throw in the trash. Only 5% of stuff you throw in the "recycled" bin actually gets recycled. The rest either goes in landfills or goes on trash barges sent to China or whereever.

What really explodes brains, is when you explain to well-meaning people that the "Plastic Trash Pool" in the middle of the Pacific actually comes from Chinese barges dumping it there, when the price of virgin plastic went below the cost of recycling, and the barge companies were trapped in contracts requiring them to pick up recyclable trash, that there is literally no market for. So they solve the problem logically, in the darkness of night.

The funny look on their face. It's like they thought plastic drinking straws were getting thrown in creeks, then washing down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico or something. When they realize that by participating in plastic recycling, THEY are helping create the Pacific Trash Pool...they just cannot accept it. So they transfer that anger into wanting to ban plastic straws . My utopian solution actually made the problem worse...so now I have to ban the product, to make sure other idiots don't fall prey to the same mistake.

It really is a Jim Jones situation. When you figure out a way to make the stupidity self-reinforcing, it becomes like a perpetual motion machine; a utopian room temperature fusion experiment that's actually able to generate enough heat to sustain itself.

 

[ljk]

The universal formula:
Disarm the population
Dumb down the population

 

[BugI02]

Returnable glass bottles.

For that to be as effective as aluminum recycling all glass would need to be the same color, preferably clear

 

[DoggyDaddy]

For that to be as effective as aluminum recycling all glass would need to be the same color, preferably clear brown.

FIFY Clear is no good for beer...

 

[KLB]

For that to be as effective as aluminum recycling all glass would need to be the same color, preferably clear

If they are returned and reused, what difference does the color make?

 

[BugI02]

If they are returned and reused, what difference does the color make?

Do you think that the beer factory is recycling brown glass? Do you think the glass factory wants to run separate recycling and melting lines for various colors of glass?
Recycling from a business standpoint is all about keeping costs down and selling to the largest market. Melt aluminum and it is all the same color. Melt all glass together and it is pretty useless. Separate glass by color and melt it and some of it becomes too expensive to bother with. If all glass is clear, recycling all of it is easy and specialty users like beer can just have the clear bottle coated with an opaque advertising media decorated with their logo

 

[jamil]

What really explodes brains, is when you explain to well-meaning people that the "Plastic Trash Pool" in the middle of the Pacific actually comes from Chinese barges dumping it there, when the price of virgin plastic went below the cost of recycling, and the barge companies were trapped in contracts requiring them to pick up recyclable trash, that there is literally no market for. So they solve the problem logically, in the darkness of night.

The funny look on their face. It's like they thought plastic drinking straws were getting thrown in creeks, then washing down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico or something. When they realize that by participating in plastic recycling, THEY are helping create the Pacific Trash Pool...they just cannot accept it. So they transfer that anger into wanting to ban plastic straws . My utopian solution actually made the problem worse...so now I have to ban the product, to make sure other idiots don't fall prey to the same mistake.

It really is a Jim Jones situation. When you figure out a way to make the stupidity self-reinforcing, it becomes like a perpetual motion machine; a utopian room temperature fusion experiment that's actually able to generate enough heat to sustain itself.

Funny story. My niece came to visit from college on the west coast and we all went out to dinner. She was freaked out when her drink came with a plastic straw. "These are plastic straws!"

I think she didn't know what to do with it! I mean it was like watching her toil with a moral dilemma for a few seconds. Finally I said, it's okay to use plastic straws here in Indiana. It won't end up in a turtles ass.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Do you think that the beer factory is recycling brown glass? Do you think the glass factory wants to run separate recycling and melting lines for various colors of glass?
Recycling from a business standpoint is all about keeping costs down and selling to the largest market. Melt aluminum and it is all the same color. Melt all glass together and it is pretty useless. Separate glass by color and melt it and some of it becomes too expensive to bother with. If all glass is clear, recycling all of it is easy and specialty users like beer can just have the clear bottle coated with an opaque advertising media decorated with their logo

He's not talking about melting and re-making. He's talking about returning and reusing (refilling).

 

[Ingomike]

He's not talking about melting and re-making. He's talking about returning and reusing (refilling).

They quit reusing a long time ago as I understand it. Too labor intensive and energy intensive. They are recycled as best I can find.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

They quit reusing a long time ago as I understand it. Too labor intensive and energy intensive. They are recycled as best I can find.

Probably, but I think that's what KLB was talking about. I still remember saving our pop bottles (and Dad's beer bottles) to take back for the deposit. When I was going to school in Michigan in the late 70's they had deposits on aluminum cans too IIRC.

 

[Ingomike]

Probably, but I think that's what KLB was talking about. I still remember saving our pop bottles (and Dad's beer bottles) to take back for the deposit. When I was going to school in Michigan in the late 70's they had deposits on aluminum cans too IIRC.

Still do. They rehash it about every year but nothing gets done. And it is an exorbitant ten cents a bottle, plastic or glass, and cans. Get @Leadeye in here, follow the money. The government keeps most of the deposits that are not collected. A little windfall there…

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Still do. They rehash it about every year but nothing gets done. And it is an exorbitant ten cents a bottle, plastic or glass, and cans. Get @Leadeye in here, follow the money. The government keeps most of the deposits that are not collected. A little windfall there…

I will say that you didn't see much can/bottle trash on the side of the road up there compared to here.

 

[Ingomike]

I will say that you didn't see much can/bottle trash on the side of the road up there compared to here.

I think, like here, it depends on where. Major cities like Indy I do see it similar to here, but not in rural areas, same as here.

 

[Ingomike]

I will say that you didn't see much can/bottle trash on the side of the road up there compared to here.

I think, like here, it depends on where. Major cities like Indy I do see it similar to here, but not in rural areas, same as here from what I see.

 

[Leadeye]

That's why they have to identify some 'problem' to solve. They need to convince themselves that it HASN'T been working now and thus changing things to solve the 'problem' is necessary

Personally, I think the rise of gaming culture might play a role. I think the fact that gamers are always assigning themselves a heroic role that is able to make a difference primes them to seek a similar role in real life events. It then becomes easy to slight the idea of say, a march of dimes, where we all give a little and over time that will be used to solve the problem through research, in favor of 'you can literally help save the world and the time is now' - just get on board and support these programs. Same thing with saving 'our democracy' from Orange Hitler'

"Don't think, we'll take care of that for you"

When the BLM marches were going I thought about this as it seemed some of the crowd was treating it like larping with real guns. I told both of my sons who lived and worked in cities to look around their houses for bullet resistant spots to stay in if they heard shooting on the streets. Stray rounds can kill just as easily as aimed fire.

I hoped the body count would be low and these kids would go home after the first firefight or two where somebody was injured or killed. I see the skateboard guy in Kenosha and wonder what he could have possibly been thinking, that the "cause" somehow made him bulletproof?

 

[BugI02]

He's not talking about melting and re-making. He's talking about returning and reusing (refilling).

Is that even done anywhere anymore? I think the need to transport, wash and sterilize the used bottles results in expenses that outweigh the advantage - even before lawyers try to extort money for any inadequacies of those processes

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Is that even done anywhere anymore? I think the need to transport, wash and sterilize the used bottles results in expenses that outweigh the advantage - even before lawyers try to extort money for any inadequacies of those processes

I doubt it is, but it used to be done. Why is it more expensive or litigious now?

 

[indyblue]

I doubt it is, but it used to be done. Why is it more expensive or litigious now?

I wish I knew. I prefer the taste of soda/beer in glass bottles.

 

[Creedmoor]

Do you think that the beer factory is recycling brown glass? Do you think the glass factory wants to run separate recycling and melting lines for various colors of glass?
Recycling from a business standpoint is all about keeping costs down and selling to the largest market. Melt aluminum and it is all the same color. Melt all glass together and it is pretty useless. Separate glass by color and melt it and some of it becomes too expensive to bother with. If all glass is clear, recycling all of it is easy and specialty users like beer can just have the clear bottle coated with an opaque advertising media decorated with their logo

You might want to talk to people that work in Lapel at Owens Illinois about using recycled glass. Recycled glass "cullet" is railed in from across the country.
Recycled is added with new material because its more efficient to melt.

 

[Ingomike]

You might want to talk to people that work in Lapel at Owens Illinois about using recycled glass. Recycled glass "cullet" is railed in from across the country.
Recycled is added with new material because its more efficient to melt.

The colors still have to be hand separated…