BMW Hybrid
#11
Members
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 80
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Originally Posted by subterFUSE' date='Oct 13 2005, 06:45 AM
It's just like recycling.? Recycling actually wastes more energy than it saves.? If the entire USA were to stop recycling, and throw away everything instead...? in 50 years we'd have enough trash to fill a hole with the dimensions of 1 square mile, 150 feet deep.? That's it.? Then, we could fill the hole and build a bunch of golf courses on it.
#12
Contributors
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Winter Park, FL
Posts: 2,298
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2005 545i (SMG)
Titanium Gray
Black Interior, Anthracite Trim
M-tech kit
Sport Package
Premium Sound
Satellite Radio
Active Cruise
Comfort Seats
Navigation
Folding rear seats
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Indeed, a year ago John Tierney wrote a devastating article for The New York Times Magazine titled "Recyling is Garbage." He declared that the emperor had no clothes: "Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America: a waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources."
His points were many. For instance, packaging saves resources, reducing food spoilage. Fast-food meals generate less trash per person than do home-cooked meals. The cheapest way to dispose of garbage is in a landfill. Modern dumps incorporate a range of safeguards and take up a minuscule amount of space.
A. Clark Wiseman of Spokane's Gonzaga University figures that, at the current rate, Americans could put all of the trash generated over the next 1,000 years into a landfill 100 yards high and 35 miles square. Or dig a similar-size hole and plant grass on top after it was filled.
Recycling, in contrast, costs money. New York City's mandatory program spends $200 more per ton to collect recyclables than it would cost to bury them, and another $40 per ton to pay a company to process them. Tierney figures the value of the private labor wasted complying with the rules (rinsing, taking off labels, sorting) to be literally hundreds of dollars more per ton.
Yet there is no environmental reason to recycle trash. Resources are not scarce. In fact, much newsprint comes from trees grown for that specific purpose. Even Worldwatch, a reliably hysterical group that has constantly (though luckily, so far inaccurately) predicted impending environmental doom, now acknowledges: "The question of scarcity may never have been the most important one."
Moreover, making recyclables generates waste. For instance, producing paperboard burger containers yields more air and water pollution and consumes more energy than does manufacturing polystyrene clamshells. It takes more water to recycle newsprint than to make it afresh.
How can such a wasteful practice persist? Tierney concluded: "By turning garbage into a political issue, environmentalists have created jobs for themselves as lawyers, lobbyists, researchers, educators and moral guardians. Environmentalists may genuinely believe they're helping the Earth, but they have been hurting the common good while profiting personally."
His points were many. For instance, packaging saves resources, reducing food spoilage. Fast-food meals generate less trash per person than do home-cooked meals. The cheapest way to dispose of garbage is in a landfill. Modern dumps incorporate a range of safeguards and take up a minuscule amount of space.
A. Clark Wiseman of Spokane's Gonzaga University figures that, at the current rate, Americans could put all of the trash generated over the next 1,000 years into a landfill 100 yards high and 35 miles square. Or dig a similar-size hole and plant grass on top after it was filled.
Recycling, in contrast, costs money. New York City's mandatory program spends $200 more per ton to collect recyclables than it would cost to bury them, and another $40 per ton to pay a company to process them. Tierney figures the value of the private labor wasted complying with the rules (rinsing, taking off labels, sorting) to be literally hundreds of dollars more per ton.
Yet there is no environmental reason to recycle trash. Resources are not scarce. In fact, much newsprint comes from trees grown for that specific purpose. Even Worldwatch, a reliably hysterical group that has constantly (though luckily, so far inaccurately) predicted impending environmental doom, now acknowledges: "The question of scarcity may never have been the most important one."
Moreover, making recyclables generates waste. For instance, producing paperboard burger containers yields more air and water pollution and consumes more energy than does manufacturing polystyrene clamshells. It takes more water to recycle newsprint than to make it afresh.
How can such a wasteful practice persist? Tierney concluded: "By turning garbage into a political issue, environmentalists have created jobs for themselves as lawyers, lobbyists, researchers, educators and moral guardians. Environmentalists may genuinely believe they're helping the Earth, but they have been hurting the common good while profiting personally."
Point is.... it's a tiny amount of space compared to the size of the USA. But you can put stuff on top of landfills, so you don't really lose the space anyway.
#13
Contributors
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: L.A., California
Posts: 1,016
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
My Ride: 2013 535i (White with Oyster Interior. Premium Package, Navigation, Technology Pacakge, Park Distance Control, and Rear View Camera)
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Originally Posted by Scott' date='Oct 13 2005, 04:41 PM
[quote name='subterFUSE' date='Oct 13 2005, 06:45 AM']
It's just like recycling.? Recycling actually wastes more energy than it saves.? If the entire USA were to stop recycling, and throw away everything instead...? in 50 years we'd have enough trash to fill a hole with the dimensions of 1 square mile, 150 feet deep.? That's it.? Then, we could fill the hole and build a bunch of golf courses on it.
It's just like recycling.? Recycling actually wastes more energy than it saves.? If the entire USA were to stop recycling, and throw away everything instead...? in 50 years we'd have enough trash to fill a hole with the dimensions of 1 square mile, 150 feet deep.? That's it.? Then, we could fill the hole and build a bunch of golf courses on it.
Recycling is not just for saving land. Think about how many trees it can be saved by recycling paper. Resource saved by recycling aluminum cans and plastic bags.
US is the worst country for doing recycling compare with other developed countries, also used up most earth resource in the world.
PS. I am not from Green party.
#14
Contributors
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Winter Park, FL
Posts: 2,298
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2005 545i (SMG)
Titanium Gray
Black Interior, Anthracite Trim
M-tech kit
Sport Package
Premium Sound
Satellite Radio
Active Cruise
Comfort Seats
Navigation
Folding rear seats
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Think about how many trees it can be saved by recycling paper.
Yet there is no environmental reason to recycle trash. Resources are not scarce. In fact, much newsprint comes from trees grown for that specific purpose. Even Worldwatch, a reliably hysterical group that has constantly (though luckily, so far inaccurately) predicted impending environmental doom, now acknowledges: "The question of scarcity may never have been the most important one."
#15
Members
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Encino (City of Angels)
Posts: 61
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2006 525i Silver Gray/Auto/Prem/Xenon/Nav/Sirius
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Originally Posted by subterFUSE' date='Oct 13 2005, 06:45 AM
You are simply shifting the consumption of one form of resource to another.? Instead of gasoline, you're consuming electricity, which most likely comes from a coal plant.
#16
Members
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Encino (City of Angels)
Posts: 61
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2006 525i Silver Gray/Auto/Prem/Xenon/Nav/Sirius
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Originally Posted by subterFUSE' date='Oct 13 2005, 04:47 PM
Point is....? it's a tiny amount of space compared to the size of the USA.? But you can put stuff on top of landfills, so you don't really lose the space anyway.
[snapback]183894[/snapback]
Recycling has changed the mindset of a generation. Just having people think about what happens to the crap they generate is a step forward from our resource greedy past.
#17
Contributors
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 2,114
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2005 BMW 545i, Silver Grey, Sport Package, R. Shades, Cold Pkg, Sat. Rad., Prem. Sound.
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Originally Posted by Clevertrousers' date='Oct 14 2005, 04:03 PM
[quote name='subterFUSE' date='Oct 13 2005, 04:47 PM']Point is....? it's a tiny amount of space compared to the size of the USA.?? But you can put stuff on top of landfills, so you don't really lose the space anyway.
[snapback]183894[/snapback]
Recycling has changed the mindset of a generation. Just having people think about what happens to the crap they generate is a step forward from our resource greedy past.
[snapback]184316[/snapback]
[/quote]We can always ship our sh*t into space. Factor that into recycling. Some recycling is meaningful while others are just does not fit the "economy scale."
#18
Contributors
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Winter Park, FL
Posts: 2,298
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2005 545i (SMG)
Titanium Gray
Black Interior, Anthracite Trim
M-tech kit
Sport Package
Premium Sound
Satellite Radio
Active Cruise
Comfort Seats
Navigation
Folding rear seats
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Would you build your house on a landfill, or send your kid to a school built on one?
Recycling has changed the mindset of a generation. Just having people think about what happens to the crap they generate is a step forward from our resource greedy past.
Recycling has changed the mindset of a generation. Just having people think about what happens to the crap they generate is a step forward from our resource greedy past.
#19
Members
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Encino (City of Angels)
Posts: 61
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My Ride: 2006 525i Silver Gray/Auto/Prem/Xenon/Nav/Sirius
![Default](https://5series.net/forums/images/icons/icon1.gif)
Originally Posted by subterFUSE' date='Oct 15 2005, 06:50 AM
Would you build your house on a landfill, or send your kid to a school built on one?
Recycling has changed the mindset of a generation. Just having people think about what happens to the crap they generate is a step forward from our resource greedy past.
Recycling has changed the mindset of a generation. Just having people think about what happens to the crap they generate is a step forward from our resource greedy past.
[snapback]184570[/snapback]