The recycling rules are changing in my neck o' the woods -- perhaps in yours, too. My city has announced that in the future it will accept only four kinds of recycling:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email
http://www.ecocycle.org/junkmail
- clean metal food cans
- plastic jugs that have necks ("no yogurt containers", they emphasize)
- clean glass jars
- clean corrugated cardboard
My college's waste hauler accepts these four, plus newspaper and cardboard drink containers. No office paper.
The situation has put a bunch of my dearest friends into tizzies. We're sending emails back-and-forth about drop-off locations for those things we've been accustomed to dumping in the green bin, but can't any more. One of my friends, slightly inclined to conspiracy theories, rants to me that this is a plot by our waste haulers to get more burnable trash (which they lucratively convert into energy and air pollution).
It's a good time for us to remember that recycling was never The Answer. Turning plastic water bottles into plastic park benches is not a way of saving the planet, no matter what the hype says. Avoiding waste in the first place is significantly more effective.
Probably the biggest shocker to all of my eco-friends is that office paper will soon be going in regular trash cans. We've been trained for so long, and have accustomed ourselves for so long, to thinking of white paper as being the ultimate poster-child of recycling. "Save a Tree!" is the rallying cry for recycling, after all. I admit that I myself am less immediately concerned about what happens to paper, and will instead focus my first, fiercest transition efforts on reducing plastic.
Still, the whole recycling uproar, together with a sudden spike in unsolicited credit-card offers to my sons, means it's probably a good time to think again about avoiding paper we *don't* want: junk mail.
A quick google search of "How to stop unwanted mail" reveals a bunch of helpful sites. Here are two places, with a bit of representative advice:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email
If you decide that you don't want to receive prescreened offers of credit and insurance, you have two choices: You can opt out of receiving them for five years or opt out of receiving them permanently.
To opt out for five years: Call toll-free 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) or visit www.optoutprescreen.com. The phone number and website are operated by the major consumer reporting companies.
To opt out permanently: You may begin the permanent Opt-Out process online at www.optoutprescreen.com. To complete your request, you must return the signed Permanent Opt-Out Election form, which will be provided after you initiate your online request.
http://www.ecocycle.org/junkmail
First, look for any of the following phrases: return service requested, forwarding service requested, address service requested, or change service requested. If you find any of these phrases, write "refused, returned to sender" on the unopened envelope. Mail sent to "Resident," "Current Resident," or "Current Occupant" can be refused if it contains one of the above endorsements, or is sent First Class. When you receive unsolicited promo products, you can mark the envelope “Return to Sender” and put it back in the mail.
The really discouraging thing about recycling is when the waste hauler is too lazy, disincentivized or whatever to actually recycle items and simply puts them in the landfill. You are right that the best practice is to prevent waste in the first place. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThe road to recycling can go wrong in so many places -- people who don't recycle at all, or people who do "wishful recycling" and thereby contaminate recyclable materials and make them un-recyclable are probably the biggest issue. But, yeah, sometimes people who collect the recyclables and trash take the easy way out (in our neighborhood, those are two separate collections, at different times of day, so that isn't the issue for us). But it's also just not cost-effective for some places to recycle stuff, unless it's "pure" coming in, and valuable enough to resell going out, and that seems to be the real obstacle right now.
DeleteI fear this is going to be a trend since China has stopped accepting stuff. I'm not sure if they've stopped entirely, or if it's just certain things they no longer accept, or what - and I don't know if it's because they're pissed off about the tariffs, or just because they no longer want to be the dumping ground for the world's garbage. Either way, I've always questioned the wisdom of shipping garbage half way across the planet for the sake of the environment. Hopefully some local companies will step up and fill the void - but it is a good reminder that the first R (reduce) is always the most important, and that the final R (recycle) is a last resort if it can't be reused!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of plastic, I read a study recently where they made an interesting and disturbing discovery. Apparently when plastics photo-degrade, they emit (you guessed it) greenhouse gasses! So not only are the great plastic garbage patches killing ocean life, they're also a source of methane & ethylene. Sigh.
You know, it's hard not to be overwhelmed with the enormity of the problem. But I guess all we can do is try to improve our own tiny corners of the world. Well, that and VOTE!
Yeah, I don't know if this is going to be our new normal or not. I'd like to hope no. On the other side, I have lots of young people (college student age) who seem to be seriously curious about my low-trash lifestyle, and that curiosity might bode well for the future. Maybe we're looking at a generation of people who will actively seek a more sustainable way forward. ???
DeleteFrom what I hear, the China thing may predate the tariffs but either way it's going to mean we need to be much more mindful of generating waste in the first place. We're working on it too, but thanks for the tip about returning to sender for generic mail! I've been trying to figure out how to head those off.
ReplyDelete