Recycling and Sheer Stupidity; Who makes the rules here???

6/29/04 | Bedrock

[BedRock]

How many of us have taken something to the recycling place near us to make a few honest dollars..

[BedRock]

How many of us have taken something to the recycling place near us to make a few honest dollars, and to help just do our town/community a favor by saving just a small percentage from going to the landfill? Also at the same time knowing we are helping our Country by participating in recycling in general, and also receiving a little pocket change in return for that little bit of extra work/effort.

Doesn't that make one feel good about the effort of recycling itself?

Well one would think so, but enter the EPA and your government watchdog groups who thinks we aren't smart enough to think for ourselves anymore.

You see, to these folks, it doesn't make sense to let recycling yards buy automotive batteries because it may pose a hazard to surrounding lands due to water runoff laced with battery acids. Well, when the EPA gets out from behind thier large walnut desks and thier duffs out of those real soft plushy chairs, maybe they could see that they are doing more harm to the environment than good in hindering recycling yards from being able to buy batteries. For instance, here are a few places I have picked up automotive batteries:

on the side of the road in a ditch...
lying out in a field...
on the banks of a river...

And yet the EPA is mostly worried about the batteries at the recycling yards polluting water and ground from runoff...Geesh, these folks really need a reality check...

Another material that is hard to find a buyer for is lead. While they have outlawed the use of lead shot in shotgun shells on Federal Wildlife Refuges for wild game hunting, many old houses are being torn down that contain old sewer piping with lead seals. What is one supposed to do with the lead if there is no recycling place that will buy it? You can guess what will happen to it. But here again the EPA is looking out for our best interests... Yeah, right...

A really hard one to figure out is what happened one day I took a hair spray can along with some other aluminum items in to sell at a recycling place. It had the "recycle" logo on it and stated it was all aluminum, except of course for the plastic spray button. It was empty, so I punched a hole in it before I took it up there. As they were weighing my items, my hairspray can got chunked back into the truck. I asked in total dismay why the can was thrown back, and the guy at the scales replied, "We cannot accept aerosol cans unless the top and bottom of the can has a hole punched in it."

Well, I thought to myself, would you like for me to melt the can into an ingot before I bring it next time?........

[martin_fierro]

The garbage company in our area won't even adhere to their own printed recycling guidelines.

What the garbageman decides to pick up on a given day depends on his own whims, the tides, and the phases of the moon.

So we try to cram as much as we can into "general garbage". Recycling around here is a joke.

[Lawgvr1955]

I suggest, should you get a chance, to catch the Penn and Teller show "B*llsh!t" on the subject of recycling. P and T argue, rather convincingly, that most all of recycling is a waste of resources, energy and money. They didn't address the issue of battery recycling. It was mostly showing how municipal recycling of different colored papers, diapers, phonebooks and glass was a "feel good" thing imposed by the government that does more harm than good.

They are libertarians and do a pretty good job of slaughtering sacred cows of the left. The show is a bit crude of language, etc., but is most interesting.