Initially, I had titled this post, ‘Garbage’, but then I decided that the word meant worthless. The question must be, ‘Is the material that we discard really worthless or, just, waste that we seem unable to convert into something useful?’
I doubt if there is anyone who does not believe that we must manage our waste more diligently, but are we?
Recently, a local NGO distributed blue, intelligently illustrated, collection bags to every household to encourage people to set aside recyclable items, i.e., paper, plastic, glass, and metal. This was a good idea, but I do not belief that it is sufficient to change bad habits. Perhaps, people creep stealthily to the communal garbage containers in the middle of the night ... I don’t know, because I never see them (Then, I guess that they never see me, either). I did notice one person at the local supermarket the other day who considered it a useful shopping bag.
What else can we do? A recent TV programme about poorly packaged goods, discussed waste disposal, and mentioned something that I must convey to you (The idea for this post). An interview with the supervisor of a waste-sorting facility stated, with examples, that although they are quite capable of sorting glass from metal, etc., if any of these individual materials are stuck together, e.g., paper to glass, or plastic to metal, they can not separate and, therefore (and here’s the revelation), all these items are sent to the main waste-disposal dump. During the TV interview, cameras showed that the majority of the items appeared not to be destined for recycling.
Good intentions, badly managed ... at what cost?
Postscript: The supervisor also made another amazing statement. If the type of plastic could not be positively identified by some kind of marking, it too, would be sent to the main waste-disposal dump. We must assume, I suppose, that a blue box, itself, is identifiable.
ReplyDeleteStop the world, I want to go back to saner times!
For most of these products the last phase of recycling is to extract energy from the plastic and paper materials. The energy is converted into electricity and the ash can be used for a variety of purposes. Many communities will not allow burning fearing toxins but others have done it for years. Peel region is one that does it and a new plant is being built in Durham Region. Tires contain a great deal of energy and are often burned in cement kilns.
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