EXCELLENT article (with images) related to recycling.
Plastics: What’s recyclable, what becomes trash — and why
Where I live, we can no longer put any kind of plastic in the recycle bin … only cans and cardboard boxes. We do take our soft drink cans and bottles to a local recycle center, use cloth bags for grocery shopping, and ask for paper at other retailers. But there’s still SO MUCH that we must toss in the regular trash.
One can’t help but wonder where all this is going to end up. We worry about climate change, but the plastics may take over the planet long before the weather does.
*Sigh* Human innovation may be the death of us all.
Nan's Notebook 
The sea can’t take any more plastic and I think we’re knee high on land. There’s no choice but to refuse to buy items that come in plastic. At some point the manufacturers will have to withdraw their products or reduce them drastically and find a different form of packaging.Something that won’t help kill the planet.
Huge Hugs
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Hello Nan. When Ron and I lived in W.P.B. we had colored bins to put out with all these different materials. When we moved here we found that there were bins set in a side area and we had to take our stuff there and put it in the correctly marked bins. Now even those are gone. I recently asked the guys who pick up our trash what they do with the carefully separated cans we put out. He grinned at me as he said they just throw it all in the same trash dumpster. So no recycling is done here in our park anymore. Hugs
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We carry our recycling 300 kms to the nearest recycler. Unfortunately we are propably the only ones in our town who try. We live in the backwoods, assuredly, and there is lots of area around for the trash to go. But that is just a temporary thing. We too use bins (unfortunately plastic) and cloth bags for grocery shopping, but paper bags are not available at any commercial outlet. Besides which, trees get cut down in enormous numbers to produce paper. Yes, it is biodegradable, and the trees can be grown back, but that takes time, and we don’t have much of that left.
Also, though we have a low gas-using vehicle, we are still producing poisonous and dangerous gases to get where we have to go, not counting what it takes to get goods to our town. Life in North America is wasteful, we cannot escape it, whether you live in a city, a town, or the backwoods.
Someday, if we survive climate disasters, we will be knee-deep in plastics even up here. We are not doing a good job of anything.
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When we land on the moon again in a couple years we can send it up there.
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From what I understand, the moon already has some. But just think what we can do to Mars if we ever get there! And maybe someday we can contaminate the entire Milky Way! And then … and then … and then …
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It’s the one thing we are good at. Pollution.
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Some politicians are REALLY good at polluting …
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Polluting the air with their mouth farts.
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The only real available garbage dump is the sun. Nothing can survive the level of heat we are talking. But STOP. We have no way to predict what tons and tons of garbage would do to the Sun after a few millennia. To us in our puniness, it would seem a virtually neverending ball of fire, but we cannot fathom those kings of temperatures, or the reactions that go on in the sun.
We MUST become a garbage-less society if we are ever going to be kind to our home planet, or planetary system. Space is more vast than we can realize, but humans can fill any space with garbage, given enough time. Finding new garbage dumps is not good enough.
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Ha ha. Yes, you are right. I was only kidding about putting garbage on the moon. I think the sun would eat it up, but as you say, it is best not to mess around with things we don’t understand.
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Here, single use plastic bags are prohibited, but in the big scheme of things this is really no more than tokenism. In this country recycling is the responsibility of local authorities, and its seems to differ with every one. Where I live, the district council provides every household with a crate for glass and a wheelie bin for all other recyclables, and these are collected every fortnight. But in the nearby city, residents must take items to a recycle collection centre. Consequently the amount of refuse per household there, is much greater than it is here. In some areas, the authorities do no recycling and the public must rely on private enterprise to do the task. Often this means paying for the service. The result is that everything becomes rubbish.
I try to purchase products in paper/cardboard or glass containers where possible, but for many products this is just not possible.
As an interesting side note, the ban on single use bags has seen a resurgence in the making and use of kete – traditional Māori flaxseed baskets. An traditional art coming to the aid of a modern dilemma.
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I’ve been grappling with this same issue, our recycle center still takes #1 and #2 plastic – but I admit to being unsure of what they do with it. I have quit using cling wrap and ziplock type baggies and dropped buying single serve things like yogurt because I know the #5 containers end in trash.
It is not really consumers running the plastic madness, if you ask me – but corporate ease and habits of plastic over other forms of packaging.
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I agree. Any changes must start with the companies. Consumers can only do so much.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
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We do what we can, here. both of us are recycling mavens, and have been since the first bins went public 45 years ago around here. We burn wood, so a lot of what would be trashed is used as kindling or fuel all winter and saved during the summer. Our old but good clothes go back (yep) to the salvation army, the rags are used as, er, rags and then burnt.
the local recycling center (what used to be knows as the landfill and before that the Dump) here is putting a huge amount of effort into the process, and they are to be applauded. it’s a small town, but they do an amazing job.
Oh, and those plastic bags? I use them for insulation stuffed between the laths in this old house. In spite of the regular insulation (which the mice LOVE), the plastic bags stop the breezes and reflect the heat back into the rooms., and the mice aren’t interested. They also make wonderful stuffing for animal beds. Cats love the crunchy noise it makes, and they give back the heat.
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Plastic products have become an indispensable part of our daily lives as many objects of daily use are made from some kind of plastic. Special event containers collect tons of plastic bottles at many outdoor events. Plastic has many advantages over other materials as it costs less, resists corrosion and is highly flexible and strong. While all these properties make it the ideal material for making many substances, waste plastic can be a threat to the environment. The curbside recycling bins are evidence of the amount of plastics we use. Every breakroom should have some Bullseye recycling containers right next to the Rubbermaid recycling containers. Need for plastic recycling: Because of the advantages that plastic products offer, its use has increased plastic waste. Plastic has the property of not decomposing for a long time.
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I’m approving your comment, BST, even though you essentially have not said anything that most people that read this blog don’t already know.
If you wish to participate in future discussions, I would prefer that you offer personal thoughts rather than something that reads like an informational pamphlet.
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Reblogged this on It Starts With You and commented:
We don’t realize how much we actually throw away. Once we are finished with something, we put it in the trash and that is that, never thinking about it again. Or where it is going to end up. WE should start wondering where it ends up.
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