California city starts diaper recycling

CNN ^ | 11/9/02

[Straight Vermonter]

SANTA CLARITA, California (AP) -- The city is launching what it says is the nation's first diaper recycling program.

"Santa Clarita has a long history in environmental stewardship and leadership, and we are very pleased to add one more innovative component to our city's overall recycling strategy," Mayor Frank Ferry said Friday.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

". Disposable diapers are almost the petrochemical equivalent of aluminum, with a far higher profitability upon recycling/recovery than other plastics."

To coin a term, BALDERDASH"!!!

Materials that are "structurally intricate" are also (hold on, now) MORE DIFFICULT TO DISASSEMBLE and therefore harder to recycle. That means more expensive. We arte not talking about recycling the crown jewels here- these are plastic and cellulose pads fulll of crap (literally). I stand by my comment that anyone who claims to be profitably recycling junk like this is in fact being subsidized by the taxpayers. Even the "gold standard" of recycling, aluminum cans, is only very slightly profitable- in fact, I am not aware of any honest accounting showing a real profit being made recycling even these.

The whole thing is a scam- it makes liberals feel good about themselves, gives them a little more control over the rest of us, and costs the productive taxpaying citizens big bucks.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

I went to your homepage- it figures that you are from cloudcuckooland there in California. It appears that you are also a Buchananite isolationist. Your opinions on anything else are probably just as worthless.

[Consort]

That means more expensive.

Exactly. The cost will rise excrementally.

[Straight Vermonter]

I work for a big company that his strict rules about using the recycling bins in our office. One day I watched as the cleaning guy went down the hall dumping the trash and the carefully separated recyclables into the same trash bin.

[thtr]

will include about 50 0 participants selected by the city….project is funded by $500,000 in state and local funds

Cost = $1,000.00 per participant? So a city with 1 million participants would cost a half-billion dollars?

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

That was pretty good- you should be working for Leno! (Excuse me, have to wipe up the diet Coke that spewed out of my nose when I read your post...)

[Straight Vermonter]

On top of that, the diapers themselves are complex products that use many distinct petrochemical "fabrics" and cannot normally biodegrade.

Nothing biodegrades in modern landfills. They are so tightly packed that there can be no oxygen for bacteria. I have seen programs on TV where they dig up trash that is years old but looks little different from when it was buried.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

Yes- it's all eyewash and "Look at how green this company is- we are really terrific corporate citizens". It may not surprise you that practically the only cartoon strip I find funny is DILBERT!

[Libloather]

The materials will be reused in nonfood packaging and products such as wallpaper...

A dwelling smelling?

[BureaucratusMaximus]

Joke all you want, but disposable diapers are becoming a serious problem for landfills.

VERY Series.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

Hm... Gray-Out Dufus has been using up too many huggies?

LMAO!

Does he use regular Huggies or "big boy pants"?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[bulldog905]

Why aren't they suggesting cloth diapers?

Good point!

Last February, my wife and I(ages 43 and 46 respectively) had OUR first child together. She suggested we use a diaper service, and I thought about it.

In the end, despite using the disposbable pampers for all the kids in my first family, I went for the idea.

Guess What? Half the price, no nuisance in picking them up and lugging them home.

I can't recommend them enough.

[Consort]

(Excuse me, have to wipe up the diet Coke that spewed out of my nose when I read your post...)

Diet cola? Haven't you heard of ? Check it out here.

[grundle]

Ever since the beginning of human civilization, people have always voluntarily recycled whenever they believed that it passed a cost/benefit analysis. This is why private scrap metal dealers existed without any government telling them to do so.

Government reclycling programs, however, are contrary to cost/benefit analysis. The very figures quoted in the article show that the cost of this program, per household, greatly exceeds any benefit that could come from it.

Landfill space is cheap and abundant. All over the U.S., many small towns have opened up huge landfills, and they are very eager to take in as much garbage as they can from the big cities, because the landfills provide the towns with jobs and tax revenue. These modern landfills are very well sealed, and they do not harm the environment.

In 1996, the New York Times publsihed a very long and well researched article called "Recycling is Garbage" by John Tierney. It explained in great detail why government recycling programs use up more resources than they save.

The purpose of these government recycling programs is not to save resources. Instead, the real purpose of these programs is to satisfy the emotional cravings of the people who belong to the radical left. These progams exist because some people prefer emotion over logic.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

These progams exist because some people prefer emotion over logic.

We have a higher proportion of those here on the left coast!

[Calvin Locke]

... suggesting cloth ...

My guess is that:

1.) water requirements for the wash(ings) in CA,

2.) regulations on the amount of zinc oxide(for diaper rash) in the waste water usually means adding more water to the
discharge to get the PPM (or whatever) down (yea, yea, non-zinc-based stuff is available),

and if their crusade is really a crusade, and iirc,

3.) raising cotton requires a sh!tload of nasty chemicals to keep the pests/diseases at bay. (aka, the SUV of farming.)

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Why am i not surprised.The contents of said diapers have been one of Kalifornia's greatest exports for decades.

[lodwick]

LOL bttt

[Calvin Locke]

A dwelling smelling?

Yep. Santa Clarita is providing the material San Francisco's "homeless" problem.

The construction material, I mean. Not the "homeless" themselves. At least, not that I know of, anyway.

I understand the Streets of San Francisco get washed down with bleach. Keeps the HepC and TB down for the tourist trade.

[Lurking2Long]

Not on MY baby!