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hawkgrrrl wrote:
When we were living in Singapore, recycling was difficult. Trash went down a chute in our maid’s quarters, straight down 30 floors. In order to recycle, we had to hold things aside and then take them down in the elevator and walk them across to where the recycling area was. But we did it.
It should be made simple, IMHO, then more people will do it. I can imagine what Singapore was like (have friends who’ve lived there, and in Hong Kong, which has some similarities to it), but that’s surely different to most of the low rise suburbia many Mormons live in. My problem in this regard is that if I’m not careful, my home gets bogged down in trash, and it’s hard enough to get it out, let alone start to sort it. (The last big clear out I did, two weeks ago, we *did* manage to recycle many items, btw!)
In the case of the church, it’s so admin heavy and over-organized that it should be able to do some of these things. (TBF, it just sprung into my mind that our temple’s canteen has had soda can recycling for a while – so I think the church’s record is poss. not completely terrible.)
The other problem is the abuse of recycling. I have heard of companies picking up things and then putting them in landfill. Also, hypocrisy of hypocrisies, even though we have more pick-ups, the trucks they use round here appear to work on gas/petrol.
(I’m pro-recycling, but trying to make a couple of points about it.)
SamBee wrote:The other problem is the abuse of recycling. I have heard of companies picking up things and then putting them in landfill. Also, hypocrisy of hypocrisies, even though we have more pick-ups, the trucks they use round here appear to work on gas/petrol.
(I’m pro-recycling, but trying to make a couple of points about it.)
I had that happen. The local plant nursery gave 5 cents back on each of the plant containers returned. I took the time to clean them and brought them back and got my $ (and probably created a hundred pounds of CO2 driving there and back). I got my $1 back and as I walked out, I saw the employee take them and throw them into the trash bin. I felt warm inside that I was helping the planet. NOT.
Recycling has been mandatory in New York for many years. There is tax supported curbside pick up, with special colored bins. Initially it was sort of a pain – we had to remove labels from cans and bottles, only certain plastics were accepted, paper was supposed to be bundled, everything had to be clean. The recycling guys had these stickers they’d put on your bin when they didn’t take something explaining why (labels not off, dirty, not the right plastic, etc.) We also had to use clear garbage bags (picked up on a different day). If the garbage collector (private company where I live) saw recyclables in the trash they weren’t supposed to take it. People learned to hide recyclables in the clear bags, or just took stuff to the transfer station themselves, where it wasn’t checked. Fast forward 20 years, all plastics, clean or dirty, labels or no labels can go in the recycling and clear bags are no longer required. Essentially whatever isn’t recyclable just gets sent to the landfill from the sorting place now. But having lived this for over 20 years, I was shocked when my daughter first went to BYU. We talked about recycling one day and she said she was very disappointed at the lack of recycling there. No curbside pickup, and people actually have to take stuff to the place themselves if they desire – pretty much impossible for a student living in student housing. I thought our old rules were a pain, nevertheless it was better than the way it is in Utah (and I’ve learned most other places).
Seriously, folks, the recycling tax is delineated on our bill – it’s pocket change, less than $50 a year. We save way more than that in garbage fees (not tax supported). I think the business tax is a bit higher, but churches participate (we have bins at the buildings) without being taxed (it’s part of the property tax).
We believe in recycling and we do it religiously (so to speak). But honestly I’m not sure we be as good at it if we had to take the stuff across town on our own. It is easy to do and I think that’s why it works here.
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