How Green Are you?

Discussion Open Forum
1

I sometimes Recycle

  • I never Recycle
  • I only recycle the easy stuff
  • I always recycle and won’t used hard woods or eat veal

0 voters

I just don’t believe in all this recycling and stuff. I don’t have any kids or any reason to care about the next generation and anyway apparently recycling is less cost effective and it takes up precious time.

When I lived in the UK we had red and blue plastic boxes for different recyclables on trash day and my ex used to use them but I can’t even remember what each box was for.

I guess that there will be some fanatic recyclers on Formosa but is there anyone else like me?

2

I always recycle, but I do eat veal (on occasion). My answer is the two-and-a-halfth choice. You may not have kids, but other people do! As you are undoubtedly aware, the world doesn’t revolve around you. :wink:

Recycling simply reuses stuff so it doesn’t go to waste. It cuts costs: for example, with metals, instead of going through the expense and environmental damage of mining and smelting (and the corresponding expense and environmental damage of disposing of things once we’re done with them), we just reuse the metals we have.

We also have to consider the long-term costs of environmental damage.

3

But surely by not having kids I am doing more than enough to save the environment?

4

Every item you do not recycle you risk breathing in traces of it later as a result of it being incinerated. Or you risk drinking it later as the dioxin laden ash must still be buried somewhere and often leeches into the soil and contaminates groundwater. This is a tiny island with no space for landfills and no room for shirkers.

And no not having children is no subsitute for not doing your part to keep the earth a cleaner place.

5

I recycle the easy stuff, I would do more if it was not so damn inconvenient…

Running after the trash truck, during my allotted 10 mins, right as I am getting home from work, so no time to prepare… Balancing a bag of trash in one hand, pig scraps in the other, uncooked roots or whatever on top of that, and finally paper, cans, bottles, polystyrene on alternative days… give me a break…

Then on top of that the old fart next door who does nothing all day except eat his one lunch box and sit waiting to throw the box and wooden chopsticks into the relavent recycling bins… all the while looking at me muttering so much trash you should recycle more… :fume:

Why on earth they can’t organise some recycling dumpsters so you can recycle at a convenient time of your choosing… of course that won’t happen because people will just dump their regular trash in there to save the few NTD is costs for a bag…

6

By recycling too, you would be doing even more! :wink:

7

oh, but of course there are other lazy, dontbotherme, whybother, short-sighted, consumers like yourself. don’t be silly; you make up the majority of people. recyclers, especially diligent recyclers are the minority, so don’t worry your gluttonous, consumptive little self about it.

i like to think of the earth in the big picture, the grand sceme, the long term.

i am the hard-core “reduce, reuse, recycle, compost” type. i do it because i think “once is not enough”. why waste good resources when you can reuse them many times?

we extract and we extract, we mine and we mine, we log and we log.

we only recycle or reuse a small percentage of this material. most ends up in landfills, burned, or discarded and forgotten.

eventually the earth will reclaim everything in some way, so why does it matter?

it matters not in the long term. in a few million years most things will be reclaimed by the earth.

we can neither create nor destroy matter.

but…i recycle because i think it matters while we are here in the short term of humankinds life on earth. why keep logging forests if recycling can reduce that? why keep mining minerals if recycling can reduce that? give the system some kind of rest. metals, glass, papers will quickly return to the system (by quickly i am talking in geologic time).

plastics are another matter though. plastics, styrofoam, etc are a by-product of petroleum. we’re drilling for the petroleum to fuel our homes, factories, transportation, etc. the by-products are things that are not reclaimed quickly by the earth. they can last centuries. mainly because nothing eats them, and they weather very slowly.

we are going to drown in a sea of plastic and styrofoam. this stuff should be reduced, reused, and recycled as much as possible because it has no where else to go for the next several millenia. this crap is piling up. burning it should be banned because of the dioxins, etc.

eventually we will all be charged by the pound for our refuse. it’s already happening in many places. our consumptive ways are not sustainable, so change will occur over the years, forcing more people to go to the exteme trouble of dropping something in a separate box-oh the horror.

do what you want edgar allen. really it only matters if you think it matters. but you’ll be dead soon; however, your plastic cup you send to the landfill will be feeling the breeze on its’ face longer after you are turned back into soil.

jm

8

John

Thanks for the response, I knew I would illicit some like this. I also questioned myself as to whether this was too close to trawling but I am generally interested in the views of Forumosa users as a whole on this. I thikn the poll will be very informative if enough people fill it in.

I know that my lazy consumptive ass needs a good kick sometimes but then the companies that manufacture/use non degradable products probably need it more than I. I intend to start a retail food business soon in Taipei and will try to ensure that my packaging is “earth friendly” mainly so that others likeme need to worry less…does this rectify anything?

9

[quote=“Edgar Allen”]But surely by not having kids I am doing more than enough to save the environment?[/quote]:lol: Good answer!

<-- not having kids either, but still recycling and cutting waste. It sucks having a conscience…

10

They used to have such dumpsters in Taipei (15 years ago). Big green dome-shaped bins - 3 of them side by side with different colors for different materials. Then one day they took them away…

There’s recycling in MRT stations.

Actually, it’s convenient for us: we put our recyclables into bags, and when they get full we give them to our local recycling lady. Forget the garbage truck - I can never remember which days are for what materials. What a pain… So much easier to give them to the recycling lady.

11

I don’t know about all you city folk that live in fancy luxury apartments, but out here in the sticks, we’re required by law to seperate all the recyclables out of our trash so it’s not exactly a choice. A couple of months ago I got into a huge shouting match and nearly got fined $6000NT because I had a bianstyle-style box buried deep in my bag of trash and the trash guy noticed it.

12

Wow, thats a very Australasian approach. Are you sure it is law and not just a difficult local?

13

well edgar allen,

all i can say in regard to your comment on my post is that the companies that manufacture/use these said materials are not doing so because it smells good. they are not doing it because it’s something fun to do to pass the time on a sunny afternoon; they are producing it because people are buying it. it’s a cycle. they make it, you buy it, they make more; they market it, you buy it, they make more; they convince you your life is better with said product, you buy it, they make more money and keep making more product as well as thinking of new ways to keep you buying it.

if people keep buying crap, they will keep producing crap.

consumers are like blind sheep. they think just because some product is mass produced, cheap, light, disposable, sterile, packaged for their convenience and available on every block that it must be good.

there are alternatives for those with vision, forethought, and consideration for generations to come.

jm

14

Yes John but with some things we “the consumer” have no choice. When you buy a Starbucks or a McDonalds you tend not to think about the packaging. When I set up my company I will endeavour to get more appropriate packaging and thus reduce the evil cycle.

15

edgar allen, oh, my edgar allen,

are you being led into mcdonalds and starbucks at gunpoint?

have you heard of a reusable coffee mug?

do you know what a pile of 365 styrofoam cups looks like? this is the waste one person generates in one year if they go to a joint and get a to-go styrofoam coffee everyday for a year. this is only one persons waste.

compare that to someone who got a reusable (great word and concept) mug and went in to that same joint that same year and compare the difference in waste material.

maybe it’s just me, and the way i think about things,… but when i see a styrofoam cup i see a product that was made to hold a hot cup of coffee for about 20 minutes…but after the coffee is long gone, that stupid styrofoam cup is still there for a thousand years. no one wants to reuse it. few live in a community where it can be recycled. it’s a product with a 20 minute use, but a lifespan that far surpasses the user, or even the users great grandchildren.

there is something wrong with that.

next time you are being forced into a mcdonalds or starbucks just bring your own mug. starbucks actually sells reusable mugs.

16

I don’t drink coffe and I think Starbucks here uses paper cups? The point that I was trying to make is that business can be more responsible and thus force/educate people into less wasteful resources.

Starbucks re-useable cups are a good example although I had never cottoned on that that was the reason for having them. I thought they were just another bit of slick marketing that appealed to the same saddoes who keep a pewter mug behind the bar in UK pubs.

Anyway, I guess I will continue being lazy in my personal habits, but will try to do my bit for the world by a) not breeding and b) starting a business that uses ecologically sound packaging…thats my best offer I am afraid.

17

edgar allen,

big business is big business. they will cater to the whims of their consumers.

many people where i live carry a reusable mug everywhere. it is attached to backpacks like an ornament. it says, hey, look at me, i use my own coffee mug. it says, hey look at me, i’m living in an environmentally friendly town.

there is one coffee shop in town that focuses on providing coffee in very limited containers. they are the busiest bakery/coffee shop in town, but they only serve coffee in their own mugs for those staying, or they will fill whatever container you brought;…but, if you want a coffee “to go” and you didn’t bring your own mug, then you get one size only: the small paper cup. they explain this to every customer: we try to encourage either staying and using our mugs, or bringing your own mug.

in this town of 50,000 people (tiny), almost every local coffee shop offers their own reusable mugs. sure they have their logo on them, but people use them religiously.

i think if a coffee shop in a town of 50K people can do it, then multinationals could too.

anyway,

you have me interested in your business idea.

you claim you can not be bothered with recycling, yet i get the feeling your business idea will cater toward those that do… curious

18

my brother in-law works in a recycling factory and tells us that in every 1 ton bin of glass,if there is a metal cap or a wine cork that went thru,the whole batch becomes useless.
same for jars with sticky stuff that you can’t get rid off,like mayonaise and peanut butter

19

I have been recycling at least paper and plastic since I was in elementary school. When I was in 3rd grade, my gifted program decided to recycle all of its aluminum cans after we did a unit on the environment. We used the money to buy a microwave and a mini-refrigerator so people could bring in reusable containers for their lunches instead of using sandwich bags for room temperature foods. Now in school, most things go into the reuse box first (little drinking yogurt bottles, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, baby food jars, newspapers, and tissue boxes are all hot commodities for craft projects) and if it looks like we don’t need it, then it goes into the recycling bin.

20

If it makes you feel better, recycle. Meanwhile it all goes into the same landfill, and huge plastics and semiconductor companies, as well as small businesses, pour huge amounts of heavy metals and other toxins into the water table.

Far better off lobby government to prevent that and ban 2-stroke engines. Anyone who hasn’t done that has no moral high ground to occupy in the Make Everyone Separate Their Rubbish To Distract Them From The Real Environmental Issues policy the Taiwanese and every other government currently adopts.

You are being misled.