Quote:
Originally Posted by vivaldirules
I have a question about recycling. Our curb-side recycling used to be limited to metal cans, #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) plastic, and clean, dry newspaper. Glass and the other plastics were too expensive to recycle. Last year, they changed and now they accept literally all kinds of plastic and all kinds of paper products (but still no glass). What has changed?
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You'd have to ask your local government that. Could be as simple as a local contractor that now offers a new service... or was forced to by your local govt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vivaldirules
Related to this question is the fact that I heard recently that roughly half of all the shipping containers headed back to China from the U.S. are now filled with our trash that is headed for recycling. If this waste is really headed for recycling and they've just gotten better at it recently, then that's great. But I'd like to know that we're not just shipping our trash to other countries for incineration or landfilling abroad. That would be very bad and has been done before. Anyone have any information?
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Quite a bit is landfilled... the US pays handsomely to take our trash off our hands.
A lot of the rest is landfilled, but in places where individuals will go in and manually sift through the trash for recyclable material, to make some money. Although this in itself is not so bad, recycle-wise, it unfortunately exposes them to toxic materials, few of them wear any protection (not even gloves), and as a result, a rise in health problems and birth defects has occurred in those areas.
Though I see no reason not to send trash to another location/country to be recycled, the process should be done safely and efficiently, and in many places it's not. We as a people should do what we can to pressure our govt, and others, to handle recyclable trash in a safer manner, for health concerns at least.