Are you recycling?
Recycling, by itself, forms a great illustration of the Jason W. Moore idea of "negative value." Somehow "Nature," which is to say (specifically) Earth's fossil fuel endowment, has been fashioned into enormous amounts of plastic. It's all hydrocarbon art, right? Or maybe it's just the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. For the capitalist, dealing with trash becomes a great cost, and so the stuff is thrown into the oceans.
Dealing with the plastic does not yield much value compared to the relative energy expense required to "do it." I'm imagining a great fossil-fueled effort to clean the plastic up. So, in general, there will be no gee-whiz startup going out to the garbage patches to clean up the microplastics. It's not profitable.
Garbage, then, is "negative value." It's an accumulating nuisance on Planet Earth because not all of it offers a profit. Its price is not considered newsworthy: a site from last August states that "Over the past month, the national average of sorted residential papers (PS 56) remains unchanged at $31 per ton." I'm sure it costs more than $31 in energy and other resources to collect a ton of newspaper.
The New York Times suggests that collection bills are also high. This should be no surprise. What do you think? Is your collection bill high?
Comments
H/t to Heather Rogers
Gone Tomorrow
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
This is why recycle is the last of the 5 Rs.
http://tmac.org/blog-27/
You don't need to recycle something you don't acquire or don't throw out.
That Pacific Garbage Patch
is not going to recycle itself you know.
https://youtu.be/vrPBYS5zzF8
This is a problem of capitalism, as I've pointed out above.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Recycling is the one R that . . .
. . . does not explicitly run counter to capitalism and its handmaiden consumerist culture. The point is not to get to that 5th R, to use everything up before you get there.
I get the critique of capitalism, honestly I do, and I do not mean to derail your essay and thread, but everyday readers of this site, who mostly already have beefs with capitalism, might need more hands-on specifics about how to oppose it without getting oneself clubbed or shot on the barricades. As Clausewitz noted, the soldier who is not on the front line needs to contribute to the effort, too, or he'd/she'd become an unwitting participant in the enemy's effort against you.
The newspapers you mention (how quaint, newspapers) or junk mail (the non-glossy kind, with plastic windows removed) can be used to build soil by composting or lasagna gardening. That doesn't require one's own land, just some shared space somewhere where a community garden or greenspace can develop outside corporate control. Reuse glass or plastic containers until the expenditure to clean them exceeds the savings, and then repurpose them (e.g., fill them with dark sand to be stacked as a thermal sink in a cold frame). These are just two simple things; there are hundreds.
As for the plastic patch in the Pacific, it's probably gonna stay there, unfortunately. Just being realistic, it's still largely a cosmetic problem (for tens of thousands of years). There are simply more crucial things that have to be done to survive what's coming.
OK so --
if you compost tons of newspaper it takes how long to decay? And the ink in the print will decay admirably?
But yeah, you're right, if the products aren't produced, they're not recycled or composted.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Newspaper is best shredded for composting, . . .
. . . or kept intact as full sheets for lasagna gardening. The inks are not much of an issue for black-only (newspaper print); colored inks are more of an issue but not the end of life-as-we-know-it in the soil.
Composting shredded newsprint in a mix with other organic matter takes only a few weeks total, if you have rain occasionally to wet it and sun to warm it. The newsprint will be the first thing that breaks down, even before food waste. Lasagna gardening relies on layers of several sheets (or one or two sheets of corrugated cardboard) staying intact just long enough (and it's barely long enough, a few months at most under humid conditions) to choke out the weeds beneath (I use this to kill poison ivy organically).
Now, if you look at this on a concentrated level, of a community taking everyone's bundled newspapers and dumping them all in a heap at once, those bundles take years to decompose, just because they are so densely packed and homogeneous.
Composting is an individual thing, or a small-group thing, not a big-community thing. You have to pay attention to it and turn it occasionally to speed up the decay. Lasagna gardening works best when its more than one person, and you are building a modest expanse of soil, up to a quarter-acre at most. It also is not what a whole community would do, because the system we have does not reward the care to do it right. Our population -- all those individual households out there -- is overworked already and wants to shove this task onto someone else. And our corporate overlords who accept that task for a fee wants their garbage collectors to be efficient collectors and dumpers, not careful tenders. Which is all to say that municipal or state recycling is pretty much a cosmetic band-aid on a gaping ecological wound that is not healed in the least. In a proper world you don't want to recycle on such a scale; you want to eliminate the need to recycle at that scale.
The individual thing --
is trying to find somewhere to live. When the polar vortex invaded my West Coast habitat I lived in my car for three and a half weeks. That's particularly un-PC, when Home Sweet Home is a fossil-burning travel device.
The small group thing is in forming a small group. The closest thing I can find to an organizer of small groups at present is Keith McHenry.
And the big group thing remains unsolved.
Yep, this is a matter of capitalism.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Looks to me like we're on another topic.
No one is expecting the homeless to solve recycling. Leave that to those who have a roof. Meet your immediate needs first; then fight capitalism.
btw if you are in Pittsburgh:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=296904694335845&set=a.1310517609...
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
We do extensive recycling at our house...
...Garbage collection, and local transfer stations/services resolve about 80%-90% of our recyclable goods (paper/cardboard, plastics, metals); special days/weekends for some of of the more complex and bulkier materials (i.e. refrigerators, a/c's, old paint containers, computer/video equipment, unused medicine, etc.). Surprisingly, that last item--unused medicines--is oft-overlooked, but depending upon your location, it can affect water quality, just like so many other materials. (We live in an area that's home to--within less than few hundred yards of our house, and each other--two major watersheds: NYC, NY and Stamford, CT.)
Additionally, elimination of plastic bag use is critical; and that's happening in communities throughout our state (NY), right now.
Last but not least, what I really have a hard time accepting is the fact that there are only 10 states in the U.S. [and one U.S. territory] that have beverage container deposit laws. That's pathetic! (Those 10 states and 1 territory: CA, CT, GU, HI, IA, ME, MA, MI, NY, OR, VT.)
Cass, a question for you: Why doesn't Washington State have a bottle bill?
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
I'll have to ask the locals.
Maybe they can explain it. I've only been here for nine days.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
See my response to Lookout's comment, immediately below...n/t
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
I can tell you why GA doesn't....
Coca-cola...whose lobbyists insure no deposits. I sure remember as a kid collecting glass bottles for the deposits.
We recycle..in fact back in the 90's our students are the ones who lobbied the local city council to establish a recycling center in our area. Composting is another good way to use your organic waste. We used to make paper (and paper mache) often, and for many years used all our own junk mail to that end.
As to plastics...although we no longer use plastic grocery bags, it is difficult to escape...wrapping around so many foods and so on. I like the idea of converting the plastics into blocks for buildings...
https://offgridworld.com/sustainable-company-makes-building-blocks-out-o...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Yeah, the water, soft-drink and alcoholic beverage lobbyists...
...spend boatloads of bucks suppressing container deposit legislation throughout the country. Obviously, this is a big part of the problem undermining universal container deposit legislation. As Cass notes it, typical crony capitalism working against the best interests of the public; i.e.: common sense legislation that would otherwise substantially contribute to a comprehensive solution.
Another basic part of the problem:
Per the link, immediately above...
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
In Onondaga County
We had one of the first curbside recycling pickup programs in the country, certainly the state (Mid 1980s). But the recycling market has changed, the county can't find anyone to sell to. They're about to start passing the costs on to the trash haulers, who will pass it on to the towns they contract with, who will raise our property taxes...I expect the county to start asking for an increase in the cap on how much they can burn in the incinerator...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
NY State's Dept. of Environmental Conservation...
...has been very good, if not excellent, when it comes to its focus on the environment (and all things related to it) in our state. Say what you will about Cuomo (he deserves the criticism, and then some, for sure), but he's been quite effective supporting the NYS DEC, which is one our state government's more impressive entities.
Of course, like every state, there are major problems (even at the DEC), but as a resident here for well over 30 years, I can honestly say that--at least compared to most other states--New York is better than most when it comes to this subject. Now, that might not be saying much, but it's a start.
Personally, I can say that--for the first time ever, starting over the next 60-75 days--all of the energy we use in our home will be from non-fossil fuels (hydroelectric, wind, solar, geothermal, etc.), and at a cost that is equal to or less than fossil fuels. This effort is now being publicized throughout much of NY State, as you read this. And, that's pretty damn good, all things considered.
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
yep, we recycle.
cans, glass, paper (that we don't use to start our back-up heat wood stove to passive solar) and plastic, and mr. wd has to drive the glass, plastic, and cans to durango 35 miles away. but still... once a month our county landfill (22 mi. away) takes used tech gadgets, and iirc, those weird curly-Q bulbs w/ mercury inside.
the caveats are perhaps that it's a negative 'carbon' value, to that i'm agnostic, but the devil's as ever in the details. some inquiring citizens have found their municipal recycle trucks just dumping everything int local 'landfills', some actually do use the plastic for firms making it into park benches, and so on.
but i'd add that i'd thunk there were more than one ocean garbage patch, so i'd bingled and found all of these sorta lesser ones. 'five gyres'
good subject, cass; thanks.
addendum:
polystyrene foam containers and other products: were i the steppenwolf (herman hesse) making war on machines, i'd make war on those creating and using that shit.
Climate news is looking very bad
'Everything Is Destroyed': 90% of Mozambique Port City Wrecked by Tropical Cyclone Idai
'Off the Charts': Catastrophic Flooding Wallops Midwest
More photos and tweets in the two articles. California's Sonoma Coast was recently flooded with Guerneville being hit the hardest and then of course we have people in the panhandle of Florida who are still trying to recover from hurricane Michael and not any of these catastrophes are being mentioned on the msm because Trump's idiotic tweets and Russia Gate sucks all the air out of the room. Just like they are designed to do.
OK so --
1) The government creates a vehicle manufacturing company manufacturing non-fossil-burning vehicles, either veggie oil or electric
2) Everyone is given an offer: exchange your fossil-burning vehicle for a government one, free of charge
3) At some point the gas pumps are shut off.
Would that help any?
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Our town used to,
still metal and cardboard (clean) yes. Some is incinerated. The rest, they can't find any takers for it anymore.