REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE
For the next few Saturdays, we are going to look at the 3Rs -- reduce, reuse, recycle -- focusing on simple things we can do in our daily lives to save the planet. Of course, we still have to call and write and march and try to move our congresscritters and business leaders toward a more sane energy policy. But seeing progress through simple acts of conservation can it can be highly motivating and help us keep up the fight.
So far we have explored Reduction and Reuse. Tonight we Recycle!
Recycling involves processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials. In the strictest sense, recycling of a material would produce a fresh supply of the same material, for example used office paper to more office paper or glass bottles into glass. On a practical level, it is impractical to directly recycle some materials and they are converted to a lower-order product. For example, magazines can be pulped into cardboard more efficiently than they can be recycled as paper for printing.
Another form of recycling is the salvage of certain materials from complex products, either due to their intrinsic value (e.g., lead from car batteries, or gold from computer components), or due to their hazardous nature (e.g., removal and reuse of mercury from various items).
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
Does your community have a recycling program? Do you use it? Enthusiastically? If you have a program, your community is probably one of 8,660 that had a curbside recycling programs in the United States in 2006
Until last week, I would have had to answer "no" to the first question. And then on Wednesday, with no fanfare – or even any publicity at all – a new recycling bin magically appeared at my curb with a note from Waste Management saying we were now recycling. No muss, no fuss, we have a program. Dump it all in the bin, they pick it up on garbage day. Couldn’t be easier.
This is in contrast to the adjoining city, which has fought about its recycling program since the 1980s. In the 1990s the city was shamed into implementing a recycling program – big bins in the parking lots of all area grocery stores. The stores loved it, the people loved it, usage was very high. But the city, which was being wooed by an incinerator operator, hated the success. They stopped picking up the recycled material, then called the bins a health hazard and removed them.
Much protest and a new form of government later, the city put the bins at the city Public Works garage at the far south end of town inside a locked fence. People drove all the way to the facility, neighborhoods had collections and took them to recycle. Usage was high and the city hated it. They started locking the gates at 3:00 pm, so people went earlier. Then they said it was traffic problem and shut down the program.
Much protest and a new mayor later, they now have a recycling program with curbside pickup. Everything must be separated, labels removed, jar lids removed, paper tied in bundles, collected on odd days. If they decree anything is in a bin incorrectly, they leave everything. If it is picked up, it is all taken to the facility, dumped together into the same truck, and trucked to the Waste Management recycling facility in the next state. Once again, they make it harder than it has to be.
Of course, not all recycling is at the municipal level, but these are the only programs tracked by EPA. According to their data for 2006 (most current available), the United States has a patchwork of recycling programs of all types to reduce an annual waste stream of around 251 million tons of trash. We were recycling 82 million tons of materials – 32.5 percent of all waste. At a personal level, we produce about 4.6 pounds of trash per person per day in the United States (the most in the world), of which about 1.5 pounds per person per day is recycled.
According to the EPA, this is an increase of nearly 100 percent over the prior decade. That isn’t quite as good as Austria, which recycled 60 percent of total waste that year, but it is a good deal better than Greece, which recycled only 10 percent of its waste.
In the early 1970s, Woodbury, New Jersey, became the first city in the United States to mandate recycling. Since then, recycling has had a checkered history. Recycling grew throughout the 1970s, decreased in the 80s, picked up in the 90s, and declined somewhat in the 2000s. Federal legislation has been used to increase and maintain a demand for recycled materials, including: minimum recycled content mandates, utilization rates, procurement policies, and recycled product labeling. As you might imagine, this too has change with administrations.
Both minimum recycled content mandates and utilization rates increase demand directly by forcing manufacturers to include recycling in their operations. Content mandates specify that a certain percentage of a new product must consist of recycled material. Utilization rates are a more flexible option: industries are permitted to meet the recycling targets at any point of their operation or even contract recycling out in exchange for tradeable credits.
Local, state and federal governments have used their own purchasing power to increase recycling demand through procurement policies. These policies are either "set-asides," which earmark a certain amount of spending solely towards recycled products, or "price preference" programs which provide a larger budget when recycled items are purchased. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency mandates the purchase of oil, paper, tires and building insulation from recycled or re-refined sources whenever possible.
As this indicates, recycling is not a well-established entity in the United States. Indeed, it has some very vocal critics, who insist that recycling uses more resources than it saves. According to Wikipedia:
Specifically, critics argue that the costs and energy used in collection and transportation detract from (and outweigh) the costs and energy saved in the production process; also that the jobs produced by the recycling industry can be a poor trade for the jobs lost in logging, mining, and other industries associated with virgin production; and that materials such as paper pulp can only be recycled a few times before material degradation prevents further recycling
If you are a supporter of recycling, it is important that you do more than just participate. Find out about your local program. How does it operate? How is it managed? Who makes the decisions? Is there opportunity for citizen input? If so, consider serving on the governing board, or even volunteering in the program at some level.
I learned the importance of this decades ago. The University at which I was teaching implemented a paper recycling program with much fanfare. Every office received two boxes – one for white paper and one for not-white paper – and for the most part, everyone participated by dutifully dividing their paper. The next summer my cousin (a public school science teacher) took a summer job on a University custodial crew. One night he commented to me that the recycling program was "a joke, and a bad one" because the papers were just being tossed into the trash at the main collection point.
Upon further investigation, I found that he was correct. Inquiring further, I discovered that someone had been put in charge of the program that did not agree with recycling. So the paper streams were divided at each building, but when they were consolidated at the main facility, all of the paper was being tossed in with the trash. Eventually, through faculty involvement, we were able to have the program reinstated with a more supportive manager.
So if you agree that it is important to conserve our resources through recycling, get involved in your local program. And if you have a change, visit a recycling facility. It is an eye-opening experience.
But before you rush off to recycle, a word from our sponsors. . . .
We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos. Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain. We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.
One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.
Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at topcomments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.
These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But hopefully they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.
Tonight’s Top Comments. . . .
From ridemybike:
As Bill Clinton tries to save Blanche Lincoln, borregopass responds with a rather poignant Dear Bill letter.
From addisnana:
I nominate LI Mike for his response to Crissie's idea of what it would be nice to hear a Democratic nominee say in an acceptance speech. This is from NCrissieB's Morning Feature Diary: Whose Liberty, Part III - Four Freedoms (non-cynical Saturday) . Talk about claiming the moral and political high ground!
From etbnc:
This concise analysis by DBunn in Morning Feature offers several nuggets of useful insight on citizenship and immigration.
From me:
geomoo has an interesting take on CT taboos in *Fredrick Clarkson's excellent When A Lone WOlf Assassin is Not Nuts or Alone.
Celtic Pugilist talks like an engineer and explains whyBPs top kill failed -- apparently they believed their own PR.
Innereye does the calculations based on BPs announcement and determines the Deepwater Horizon well is leaking at least 41,760 bpd of oil and gas.
Tonight’s Top Mojo . . . .
Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, and C&J comments:
1 - You are only in High School????.....toby esterhase.....129
2 - Tourists, "illegals", no difference.....Deoliver47.....96
3 - I'm so sorry for your loss.....hpchicago.....85
4 - Okay, it wasn't me......Bob Johnson.....81
5 - The country is aching for Obama to play hardball.....crystal eyes.....77
6 - Post Cats U Wantz?!? Post Cats U Getz!!!.....leonard145b.....73
7 - As a practicing Socialist Fuckstick, i think this.....Flag Waving Idiot.....72
8 - I'd Like t See America Rejoin th Developed Natns.....Gooserock.....68
9 - Jamaica one of the countries.....dopper0189.....65
10 - Because of a well-established factual basis.....sfbob.....64
11 - I am so sorry.....1864 House.....63
12 - Americans Have Been Terrified by........Pluto.....62
13 - Whoa....that is some serious.....St Louis Woman.....62
14 - You KNOW it's bad when Ron Christie.....Muzikal203.....61
15 - It is good that you reposted this.....real world chick.....59
16 - Oh Hai Tricia On Caturdays Nuthins Finer, Oh Wait.....leonard145b.....59
17 - Corporations in most of the world.....RudiB.....58
18 - Man I love the way you write.....juliewolf.....58
19 - He's still a registered Republican.....Troutfishing.....56
20 - Denial is a Terrifying Thing.....Pluto.....56
21 - I picked real.....Hedwig.....56
22 - I am sorry for your loss.....GlowNZ.....56
23 - Not going to happen as long as political debates.....voracious.....55
24 - There's a lot of former Reagan voters.....mjd in florida.....53
25 - I'd like to see.....eugene.....53
26 - WHAT INACTION?.....GlowNZ.....52
27 - Indians 101.....Ojibwa.....51
28 - Ya think :-) ...it's a little late for that, tho.....grannyhelen.....50
29 - Fabulous headline. Thanks for the pics. n/t.....Meteor Blades.....50
30 - How it began.....Catte Nappe.....49
31 - Shooting Straight Post-DADT...JekyllnHyde...49
32 - If only......CathodeRay...49
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1 - Tip Jar.....Troutfishing.....475
2 - Tip Jar.....Deoliver47.....386
3 - Tip Jar.....YoungChicagoDemocrat.....382
4 - Tip Jar.....mark louis.....283
5 - Tip Jar.....1864 House.....240
6 - Tip Jar.....Frederick Clarkson.....238
7 - Tip Jar.....Meteor Blades.....232
8 - I'd Like to See Americans........Pluto.....226
9 - Tip Jar.....FishOutofWater.....174
10 - Happy Memorial Day!!!.....brooklynbadboy.....169
11 - You are only in High School????.....toby esterhase.....129
12 - Tip Jar.....Ojibwa.....124
13 - The Rand Rebuke Thee!.....Hedwig.....111
14 - Thank you all so much......noweasels.....106
15 - Scritchie Jar.....triciawyse.....103
16 - Tip Jar.....Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse.....100
17 - Tip Jar.....johnsonwax.....97
18 - Tourists, "illegals", no difference.....Deoliver47.....96
19 - Tip Jar.....Liveblog.....90
20 - I'm so sorry for your loss.....hpchicago.....86
21 - Okay, it wasn't me......Bob Johnson.....81
22 - The country is aching for Obama to play hardball.....crystal eyes.....77
23 - Post Cats U Wantz?!? Post Cats U Getz!!!.....leonard145b.....75
24 - Tip Jar.....yawnimawke.....72
25 - As a practicing Socialist Fuckstick, i think this.....Flag Waving Idiot.....72
26 - Tip Jar.....Ojibwa.....70
27 - I'd Like t See America Rejoin th Developed Natns.....Gooserock.....68
28 - Tip Jar.....RhymesWithUrple.....67
29 - Overnight low was.....Frankenoid.....67
30 - Yak it up.....weatherdude.....66