Submitted by RoverTheMonster t3_z56u89 in philadelphia

How much good are we really doing for the planet if our paper bags filled with greasy pizza boxes, discarded mail, and single-use plastic bottles end up spilled all over the street whenever the wind blows — and sanitation often throws recycling into trash trucks anyway?

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uptown_gargoyle t1_ixuhtkx wrote

I'm always entertained by the random things people think belong in recycling bins: old work boots, tree branches, small appliances, etc

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cannibowlistic t1_ixuvdy9 wrote

Dont forget dog poop

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bammerburn t1_ixw7dtt wrote

Mountains of dog poop ossifying, wrapped in thin plastic bags. All being smushed up with newspapers, cardboard, cans, etc.

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scruffygem t1_iy22y51 wrote

I made a guy take his dog shit out of my bin once.

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muffpatty t1_iy24tiy wrote

I'm waiting to catch one still. Lol

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scruffygem t1_iy26cbw wrote

Don’t let their AirPods deter you. Remember they can hear you, and anyone who stands up for themselves is frightening to them.

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bierdimpfe t1_ixuq2ag wrote

Isn't recycling the last rung on the sustainability ladder? We should focus more effort or reducing and reusing.

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hoobsher t1_ixvq9sb wrote

reducing is definitely the main concern, but it's hard when convenience is a major purchasing factor for working parents who just need to make sure they have the shit they need for their families as easily as they can. as long as people are thoughtlessly making babies (and abortion/contraception isn't easily accessible), reducing will be difficult.

reusing is very difficult when just about everything you buy, recyclable or otherwise, comes with cheap single use packaging or is itself cheap and made for limited use. this was easier when glass, metal, and wood were more common packaging material, but now it's all paper and plastic that can be reused, optimistically, a few times for limited applications.

so either we learn to get really good at recycling really fast, or we force companies to make shit that is actually durably, reliably reusable. or we convince people to be more judicious about where they nut

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2019Cutaway t1_ixvz2l7 wrote

Vasectomy is the greenest behavior.

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[deleted] t1_ixwfs8j wrote

[deleted]

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VanVeen t1_ixx4cy0 wrote

Oh no, the economy needs more bodies! Someone, make more meat for the machine!

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collectallfive t1_ixx4j99 wrote

It's not a "thoughlessly making babies" problem. People need more time during the day/week. There is literally no reason anyone needs to be working more than 40 hrs a week, much less 20 hrs a week.

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hoobsher t1_ixxdgaa wrote

i agree. but which is more likely? a massive federal minimum wage hike attached to one of the biggest labor rights advances in the last century, or someone realizing that they shouldn't be dropping kids when their life is already expensive enough?

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throwawaythedo t1_ixyo36b wrote

We force them to be more sustainable by not buying it. Let’s be real, humans don’t need that much garbage.

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hoobsher t1_ixzmb6x wrote

we do when we expect the comforts of modernity. even if we overhaul all commerce to avoid waste, food and medicine still need to be kept clean, and reusing the packaging on that stuff or using degradable packaging is just unsafe

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ForeverAloneGamer t1_ixuf14y wrote

I feel like more accurately we need to focus on materials actually worth recycling like Aluminum and get recycling bins with lids.

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dirtymatt t1_ixuh51z wrote

We have bins with lids. The workers use them as frisbees, or straight up refuse to collect when people use the lids. I stopped using the lid because I got tired of chasing it. My bin is falling apart because the workers just throw it in the street and it’s been hit by cars more than once.

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forgottentaco420 t1_ixv8298 wrote

Our recycling wasn’t touched for three weeks because we were using a big blue bin with a lid with “RECYCLING” written in white all over it….. 🙃

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rhhkeely t1_ixurmzx wrote

Pizza boxes can't be recycled. The lipids from the grease can't be remediated. As others have said recycle metal and glass, the rest is a scam. Frankly I think all the extra trucks on the road create more problems than recycling solves

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Genkiotoko t1_ixv1707 wrote

I've literally watched my trash guys take the box off my trash can and put it into recycling. After that I started to tear them in half, top into recycling and bottom folded into trash.

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TheBSQ t1_ixvf1nz wrote

As best as I can determine, the processing plants assumed the grease would fuck things up, so they wouldn’t take them. But after Dominos pizza kept getting shit for producing so much trash, they paid someone to test it, and it turned out it didn’t cause many problems, and the industry has since come around to the belief that it’s ok, and the majority of plants currently accept them.

https://www.afandpa.org/news/2020/afpa-and-industry-partners-aim-set-record-straight-pizza-boxes-are-recyclable-grease-and

That being said, I think it’s still Philly’s official stance that soiled cardboard should not be recycled.

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FrankGrimesApartment t1_ixyyuqv wrote

Dominos always seems to be on the cutting edge of stuff...they were the OG Doordash when you could monitor your food being made in the website.

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JIMMYJAWN t1_ixueyxy wrote

Metal should be recycled. Everything else is waste.

A long time ago people used to put out food waste in a separate bin and it was collected for pig feed. That sounds cool but I’m not sure how you keep vermin away from it.

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wissahickon_schist t1_ixugzlr wrote

They do this for compost now. The company provides covered 5-gallon plastic buckets for kitchen scraps. I see them on doorsteps in Manayunk often, and have never seen one ripped open or spilled.

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noby126 t1_ixuhzh0 wrote

We use Bennett Compost but I believe there is Circle Compost as well! Have been doing it for two years and never had a problem. Squirrels chewed a bit of the lid once trying to get in and Bennett replaced it for us without even askinf

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ponte95ma t1_ixusovv wrote

Yes, circlecompost.com has been pedalling away our compostables for (checks notes) going on six years now!

... including yesterday morning, when our bucket was crazy heavy with Thanksgiving produce scraps. Thanks to Dave and Michele for running such a great service!

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karenmcgrane t1_ixwpgky wrote

I have been using Circle Compost for about as long and they're great! Dave and Michele really do run a great service.

Composting is good for the environment but it's also just so much more convenient to put produce scraps in a separate bucket versus having them in the trash.

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ponte95ma t1_ixxbl4x wrote

Convenient, and sanitary if you're putting trash out in bags, no bins, as so many households seem to do. (But !remindme after our 🐀🐀 develop the paw strength to pry open the lids on our 5-gallon buckets!)

I didn't grow up with garbage disposals in kitchen sinks, but understand that they receive a fair amount of our compostables ... along with non-compostable refuse that actually clogs up our in-sink-erators and pipes 🤔

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wissahickon_schist t1_ixui6zl wrote

Oh, do they just dump your compost and leave the empty bucket? I always assumed they would collect the buckets and replace with cleaned ones.

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inthegarden5 t1_ixuzz6n wrote

You don't want a clean bucket. Your bucket will develop an efficient microbe population that will keep the bucket from smelling and getting gross.

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Stadia_Flakes t1_ixv37p5 wrote

We are out in the burbs and use Mothers Compost; they line the buckets with compostable bags and just replace the bags.

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felisverde t1_ixv5xzb wrote

Yep. But they all charge$$. Many in Philly who would LOVE to participate - myself included - really cannot afford the extra monthly expense. There used to be a separate garbage pickup-you put your scraps, etc...out in a smallish metal can, they came either day before or day after normal trash collection, if I remember correctly. Thing is, it wasn't the city doing it-it was private farms, mostly in Jersey, who came to collect the stuff. They used it for animal feed & fertilizer.

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changeorchange t1_ixvgrww wrote

If you live in South Philly, the community garden at South Philly high accepts compost items for free. You can place it in the bin over the fence on the Jackson street side. They have a sign listing what they accept.

I’m sure other community gardens do this as well.

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felisverde t1_ixwppg4 wrote

I am in S.Philly! I did not know this!! Thank you!!!

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starchild812 t1_ixwdi1k wrote

You can drop off compost for free at MOM's in Center City

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felisverde t1_ixwpujo wrote

Really? I know they have the bins up front, but I didn't realize they take kitchen type compost as well!

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Fourlec t1_ixusk5m wrote

I looked into this and they charged like 30 a month. Idk why it costs so much money to take my food scraps lol

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CerealJello t1_ixv2ii8 wrote

Bennett is only $18/month I think. Circle offers every other week pickup for a bit of a discount too.

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hethuisje t1_ixvs3lr wrote

Yeah, I do every other week for $12/month. Amusingly, they take away tons of garden waste in big paper bags as well, as long as I let them know in advance, so it's more of a "per pickup" than "by volume" kind of pricing system.

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inthegarden5 t1_ixv0mgq wrote

You need a special permit from the state to compost food waste so there are only a limited number of places that take it.

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iaintthewalrus t1_ixuvm3w wrote

Composting is good but I don’t think food scraps are the problem in anyway. It’s all the non biodegradable, single use items that we need to cut down on because they’re not recyclable like we thought.

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urbantravelsPHL t1_ixvufo9 wrote

Organic waste going into landfills is a huge problem because it has a climate impact.

If your banana peels decompose in a compost heap, they give off carbon dioxide, which balanced by the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plant to photosynthesize and make the banana in the first place.

If your banana peels decompose in the sealed environment of a landfill, they will decompose via a different microbial process, called anaerobic decomposition (meaning no oxygen). This is a slower process and it it chemically different - it produces methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Landfills have to vent the methane that's produced by this decomposition or else they get a bit splody.

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inthegarden5 t1_ixv15gw wrote

Food waste is the largest single component of household trash and we throw out about 30% of the food we buy (some is scrap like cores and peels but some is food we let go bad or just waste). Buried in a landfill it decomposes without oxygen so it produces methane as a byproduct. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas.

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karenmcgrane t1_ixwptuj wrote

The weight and volume of the trash in trucks and landfills matters a lot. More trucks on the road, more space devoted to landfill.

Diverting organic waste to compost provides fertilizer for plants. I use Circle Compost and they pick up with bike trailers.

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karenmcgrane t1_ixwp4u2 wrote

Glass should also be recycled

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joaofava t1_ixyk0i3 wrote

Yes but not in single stream. It just gets smashed up and pressed into the paper and plastic and fucks everything up. Only 40% of single stream glass is actually recoverable.

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felisverde t1_ixv651e wrote

We had smallish metal cans, lids closed pretty tight. (They still sell those things) Critters getting into it was never an issue.

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slowlogius t1_ixuvrbg wrote

If you want to reduce waste, start shopping at places that encourage reusable containers and bulk food purchases. Composting food scraps goes a long way in recycling nutrients back into the soil that would otherwise end up in the landfill. The city's recycling program is just a giant weekly greenwashing event - all for show

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Basique_b t1_ixuwj5y wrote

Where can I shop that does this?

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slowlogius t1_ixux6s7 wrote

I'm a member at Weaver's Way co-op in Mount Airy! You can get pretty much any dry good there - pastas, rice, flours, seeds, nuts, spices, oils and vinegars too. I know there are other co-ops throughout the city as well.

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ryanisntreal t1_ixvrtnz wrote

Nowhere cheap, which is half the problem

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urbantravelsPHL t1_ixvtnp9 wrote

Bulk buying is the cheapest way to shop.

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[deleted] t1_ixwfb9o wrote

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amoryblainev t1_ixwtq7a wrote

I think you’re misunderstanding the use of “bulk” here. Bulk can mean one of two things- buying in bulk, such as large quantities (think Costco) OR buying by the pound, which is what we’re talking about here.

I live alone in a small 1 bedroom apartment. I don’t do the mass quantity bulk buying, because I don’t have room for the stuff and it would take much longer to go through it. I DO shop the bulk bins at stores like MOM’s, whole foods, Riverwards, Good Buy Supply, etc. Which is great for a single person or couple, because you can buy items in as little or large a quantity as you want, which means less waste. And since the items aren’t packaged, that often reduces their price per pound.

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[deleted] t1_ixx7dev wrote

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amoryblainev t1_ixx8g0j wrote

Do you realize how much baking soda a pound is? You picked a very obscure item to price match. And you’re right, online prices often don’t reflect the price in the store, especially if you’re looking at the price through a service like instacart (they increase prices at many stores on their app).

Many people buy those little orange boxes, which are a pound, and if you’re using it for cooking (in vegan baking it’s sometimes used, that’s the only reason I have a box) you never use the whole box. It sits in your cabinet for a year. If you’re using it for cleaning, sure, buy a big pack off the shelf. The point is for most uses you only need a small amount, and buying from the bulk section means you can measure out a small amount, that doesn’t cost $6. And regardless, baking soda often comes in a paper box that can be recycled.

Where bulk bins are especially helpful are for dried foods, like rice, beans, legumes, oats, spices, nuts, seeds, etc. Many stores sell bags of rice that are 3-5 pounds, and the bulk price per pound is almost always if not always cheaper. I buy a lot of dry beans, which are significantly cheaper than canned. And when you buy them from the bulk bin, they’re cheaper than the pre-bagged dry beans.

Last, out of the places I listed, Whole Foods and Riverwards have the cheapest bulk bins that I’ve seen. I listed Mom’s because it’s an option, but I don’t shop there often because the items I can’t buy in bulk are overpriced there. It’s more expensive than Whole Foods.

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_token_black t1_ixwtiey wrote

Would be nice if there was more than the 2 BJs in the city too

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amoryblainev t1_ixwtcg8 wrote

Not true. More places need to offer bulk, but for those that do, it’s often way cheaper. Go to a store that offers bulk and pick an item, like white rice or lentils. See what they charge per pound in bulk, then go find the same item on the shelf that is packaged. Almost always, it’s cheaper per pound when it’s bulk. And, you can adjust the quantity. If you’re never going to use a 5 pound bag of lentils and if it will just go to waste, it’s better to just purchase the amount you need from the bulk section. Which creates less waste. Good Buy Supply sells laundry detergent, hand soap, etc by the ounce and it’s on par with what an average name brand detergent would be.

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[deleted] t1_ixx8fbf wrote

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amoryblainev t1_ixx9i68 wrote

Who said $3-5 per pound for pasta? I buy a lot of red lentils. I just looked up packages of red lentils online, and am finding most average $3-3.50 per pound (on Amazon). I just checked Whole Foods Fresh and the cheapest I saw was $3.49 for 16 oz (1.5 pounds), which comes to $2.79 per pound. From the bulk bin at Whole Foods, organic red lentils are always less than $1.20 per pound. A 32 oz (2 pound) bag of Indian basmati rice (not organic) at Whole Foods is $4.69, which is $2.34 per pound. Again, they sell basmati rice and many other rices in the bulk bins that are always less than $1.50 per pound.

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peachyprince55 t1_ixw8hx3 wrote

Mom’s organic has locations in center city and bryn mawr and they have a variety of bulk options like dry goods, honey, soaps, and nut butters🌱

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menunu t1_ixuzadh wrote

The south philly coop has bulk too.

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JediDrkKnight t1_ixx5mrm wrote

I've been using a refill service for household goods, called "The Rounds". It's supposed to reduce packagjng for common stuff and you can return jars, bottles, and bags for them to reuse. It's pretty good! I don't use it for everything, but I haven't bought toilet paper, oil, cleaners, etc from a store in over a year.

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kellyoohh t1_ixwzyx1 wrote

Riverwards in fishtown has a dry bulk section and Rays Reusables in Northern liberties has bulk cleaning supplies and personal care items (shampoo, soap, etc.) along with a lot of other cool sustainable items!

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RoverTheMonster OP t1_ixwpjj7 wrote

Sort of related: one of the reasons I dislike the soda tax is it incentivizes the city to allow its citizens to purchase single-use plastic bottles — which inevitably become litter — and de-incentivizes any future ban that might help in the War Against Litter

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SgtKetchup t1_ixxz7ke wrote

How does the soda tax incentivize any particular type of packaging? It's applied equally to glass bottles and aluminum cans. The only format that is plastic-only is the 2-litre bottle.

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DelcoWolv t1_ixugdqq wrote

Metal and glass are worth recycling.

Plastics should be collected and incinerated to keep them out of the ocean.

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JIMMYJAWN t1_ixux296 wrote

Glass bottles should be sanitized and returned to the bottling plants. Used to be common in America, is still practiced in many places.

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inthegarden5 t1_ixv09um wrote

The gas needed to drive the bottles back to the plant costs more than making new bottles. Another problem is sorting nearly identical but slightly different shapes and shades of green or brown glass.

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JIMMYJAWN t1_ixv1t9l wrote

Picture this scenario:

You buy a case of beer. They charge you $15 for the beer, $5 deposit for the bottles. You drink the beer, put the empties back in the case as you drink them. You finish said case and want to purchase another. You take the empties with you to the store and the retailer only charges you $15 for the new case because you are responsible and brought your bottles back instead of breaking them in the parking lot or throwing them in the park or whatever.

You were going to the beer distributor anyway so no wasted energy there.

The beer supplier drops off new cases of beer to the store and picks up the old bottles. He has room on the truck because he unloaded new stock first.

He was going to the beer distributor anyway so no wasted energy there.

I could go on but you get the idea by now hopefully.

This is how it worked for a long time and we need to force businesses to be responsible for the waste their products created. Consumers need to play a small part in the process as well.

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inthegarden5 t1_ixw4ufy wrote

You are right that it would work at the consumer level. I can even see businesses set up to handle all the returns instead of the individual retailers. I was referring to doing it at the recycling company level - they aren't equipped to separate all the different products.

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cstar3388 t1_ixusa0w wrote

And paper/cardboard, it's one of the easiest to keep from not dropping down a quality level when recycled. The only problem with paper is slick ads, plastic tape and food contamination. Plastic, like you said, is a joke.

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KSMO t1_ixueiw1 wrote

Many cities across the country have discontinued municipal recycling due the economics of it and reasons you’ve cited, BUT it makes people feel good so it persists.

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uptown_gargoyle t1_ixugvz3 wrote

also nobody in city government wants to be the person who ended recycling. political suicide, regardless of whether there's merit to it

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CerealJello t1_ixv2ll9 wrote

I'd love to end recycling and have twice per week trash pickup instead.

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ten-million t1_ixugwss wrote

This would be a good question for someone who actually knows the subject.

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NiceTryNoah t1_ixuybbc wrote

I work in packaging sustainability and people overestimate their knowledge on the subject all the time. People watch one vice documentary and assume they know more than people that work in the recycling industry. There's a lot of moving parts to it and proper recycling infrastructure and education is a critical part that the US is lacking compared to Europe.

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ten-million t1_ixv2ryx wrote

Yeah, I’ve heard that you want to keep recycling even if they are losing money just to keep people in the habit of doing it. Once you lose the infrastructure it’s expensive to bring it back. There is probably a lot more to the big picture that regular trash producers don’t know. I know I don’t know the big picture.

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changeorchange t1_ixvhne4 wrote

Do you know anything about the TerraCycle recycling programs? Are they actually recycling what they claim to?

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NiceTryNoah t1_ixxemlc wrote

I'm quite familiar with their work. For what it's worth they do actually collect and send hard to recycle materials to get repurposed but there are limits to what they can do, because even though they partner with many large brands, they're quite a small company. There was actually a lawsuit last year that got settled because they didn't have the capacity to collect as much material as advertised.

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slimeyslime6 t1_ixve994 wrote

somewhat off topic, but the other day i saw a women pull her car over and one of her very young daughters got out of the car, threw away a shit tom of trash into the sewer, got back into the car, and drove away. i was disgusted yet also not surprised at the same time.

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changeorchange t1_ixvgze9 wrote

Ugh I see people toss their dog poop bags into the sewer every day in my neighborhood

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amoryblainev t1_ixwrprs wrote

People seem to forget that the saying is “REDUCE, reuse, recycle”.

Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 90s, but I remember this plastered everywhere. Recycling comes LAST, because as you pointed out, in many scenarios it sucks (people don’t do it correctly, which slows down the recycling process at the plants and even sometimes clogs them; in many places only certain materials are recyclable and others have to be thrown away, etc).

Reducing consumer waste is first because it’s so important. Here are some ways you can reduce your waste:

  • bringing your own shopping bags
  • not using produce bags or using reusable produce bags
  • shop the bulk aisles, which cuts down on packaging waste (and many times can be less expensive)
  • buy second hand. You can get almost anything second hand, from clothing to electronics. I bought a certified refurbished iPhone from Amazon recently and it works perfectly.
  • join local “buy nothing” groups and before you buy something, as if anyone has one to share
  • make a plan before you go grocery shopping so you don’t buy things that will just sit in your fridge and go bad
  • switch from single use items to multi-use. Such as straws, coffee cups, rags instead of paper towels, etc
  • if you have to buy something packaged, try to find something that comes in packaging that you know is recyclable
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SammieCat50 t1_ixurlpi wrote

The trash men pull my trash bags out of the barrel & throw it into the truck. If the bag breaks & crap is all the ground , that’s where it stays. I picked up trash all over the street before & it was at the bottom of my barrel in a bag. That bag was in that barrel for weeks before I put it into another trash bag. Yesterday was trash pick up for a street by me. The trash all over the street was quadrupled AFTER they picked it up. It’s so bad it’s baffling

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Scumandvillany t1_ixuxwmc wrote

Recycling is bullshit and has been since the beginning. Metal is the only thing that's working. Think of all the plastic you recycled in the 90s and 2000s. Now imagine some elderly Chinese or Vietnam person wading through your plastic in what was once a verdant river valley or plain. Because that's where it's at. We were fooled and the corpos lied to us.

I only put cans out. Period.

If we had a thorough system for recycling that would work, but what we have now isn't working.

Even the plastic in states with deposits is mostly landfilled

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futurekin t1_ixuzb4r wrote

Rabbit Recycling seems to be doing good work!

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ComoSeaYeah t1_ixvigsu wrote

We don’t even really try in the US. At least not within the Action News viewing area map. I teach English to a non-native English speaking adult from Warsaw and he tells me he’s amazed at how little we give a shit about recycling here. Apparently in many parts of Europe folks are required to separate out all of their various types of recycling trash into cans — like 5 or 6. And people take it seriously. It never really caught on in the states. I grew up in an era where early-adherent environmentalists were criticized as dipshits or unamerican thanks to Reagan and other associated anti-regulation wingnuts. And that mindset has largely carried into modern society which is why we can’t have nice things.

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deep_blue003v t1_ixur43f wrote

I read somewhere that even with all the recycling programs worldwide, only about 5% of human waste is actually recycled and reused. Not really making much of a dent. I'm for recycling but it definitely needs to be more efficient.

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amoryblainev t1_ixwsf5n wrote

Places to shop bulk in Philly:

Good Buy Supply (an entire store dedicated to bulk and limited or no packaging) https://goodbuysupply.co

MOM’s organic market (grains, legumes, oats, 1 brand of laundry detergent, hand soap, etc) https://momsorganicmarket.com/center-city/

Riverwards Produce (I’ve only been to the one in old city, but they have really great prices on bulk grains, legumes, nutritional yeast, etc) https://www.riverwardsproduce.com

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Double-0-N00b t1_ixvb3kz wrote

Or we should educate people and set better standards and do something about how horrible the sanitation is

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TobogganFetish t1_ixvee4b wrote

Check out local-based Rabbit Recycling. Otherwise, you’ll become very mindful of all the single-use plastics you go through in your life.

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AlanTrebek t1_ixvlfgs wrote

The trash in this city is my number one complaint as a resident here. It's horrible here and frankly, embarrassing. You cannot find a trashcan ever, even in center city. So people resort to littering, which in turn emboldens others to litter, "if it's already trashy out here, whats the difference?" There is no civic pride. And yes, lately I've RARELY seen an actual recycling truck, I agree, they usually throw the recycling in the trash. Go to any other city and you can see, it's not too hard to figure out. I visit my family in British Columbia twice a year, and it is PRISTINE up there. The province provides separate receptacles for trash, recycling AND compost, and the guidelines are easy to find and figure out. Even in public there are three trashcans that are clearly labeled. Philly is so stuck in its ways and shuns change, we can't make any progress.

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hoobsher t1_ixvp86m wrote

if we stop trying, they say "see, nobody wants us to bother with recycling."

if we continually bother with it and constantly make it known that our infrastructure and resources are lacking, they say "okay they want recycling so we should address that"

a city like Philly almost certainly can't enforce it alone and would require a massive urban renewal program on a state or hopefully federal level, but there needs to be funding set aside for aggressive resource management. a good start would be subsidies or tax relief for households and businesses that install some kind of well designed recycling bin that any dickhead passing by can't just toss their trash into.

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oboyhereigokilinagin t1_ixvrmv5 wrote

How long do you guys think until the rich commit genocide on the poor in a last ditch effort to save the planet, it's so poetic.

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RJ5R t1_ixvy7j5 wrote

We should go back to glass instead of plastic bottles. A lot less energy intensive to recycle glass, and can be reused. Food companies have deemed too costly. On the topic of plastic bags we 100% eliminated their use in our household over a decade ago. We bought tough canvas bags and they are great (similar to the tough canvas material that beach bags are). The stupid bags sold at stores made out of recycle plastic bottles fall apart and end up in the landfill.

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twtcdd t1_ixx81ng wrote

I want to plug Bottle Underground for their diversion of glass from the Philly recycling system and all of its problems already mentioned by others in the thread. They have several partners like Rays Reusables and Good Buy Supply for drop off if the main location at Bok is inconvenient. Focusing on Reducing and Reusing before Recycling is definitely the best way to work, but if you get to the last R and have glass, it’d be great for you all to utilize this.

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beebyspice t1_ixxawbe wrote

and theres one public trash can every 3 miles

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edmundshaftesbury t1_ixychff wrote

Recycling is a literal hoax. Broke my fuckin heart when I found out. They literally just send everything on a barge to get picked over by Filipino children.

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felisverde t1_ixv6hso wrote

1/2 the time, they just toss our recycling in w/the trash, dep on weather & how far behind they are. & I'm not convinced the stuff doesn't all get unloaded in the same place at the dump either. It sucks. We should be recycling damn near everything ffs...

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urbantravelsPHL t1_ixvvt1c wrote

The Streets Department swears they are no longer throwing recycling en masse onto their garbage trucks.

Now, I don't trust them any more than you do. They said they stopped doing this already several years ago (right after the Inquirer ran an expose about it). Fine. And then the pandemic happened, and there have been so many ups and downs with short staffing and recycling only being picked up every other week, and then they get behind after big storms and the like, so they still did it now and then. Fine. They have supposedly staffed up now and are not as critically short-handed.

If you see them throwing recycling onto a trash truck today, in November 2022, that's something you should document and report (i.e., take a photo so there is a record of the time and date.) Otherwise, you're just recycling (ha) old news to help keep cynicism and apathy alive.

But you're also telling on yourself here:

>our paper bags filled with greasy pizza boxes, discarded mail, and single-use plastic bottles end up spilled all over the street whenever the wind blows

You're not supposed to put out your recycling in paper bags. If you're doing this, you're not holding up your end.

I absolutely think the city makes it ridiculously hard to get recycling bins, and I have to say I don't think I've ever seen one of the lidded bins they supposedly started giving out some time ago. The city is really not holding up their end by making inadequate provision of recycling bins.

But OTOH, most of us can afford to obtain some kind of plastic bin for our recycling. There's no excuse for using paper bags except laziness and/or willful ignorance.

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f0rf0r t1_ixxl7jz wrote

yeah i bought my own cool collapisble recycling bin and they just threw it in the back of the truck

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piper4hire t1_ixwg68d wrote

outside of metal and glass, recycling doesn't really exist in Philadelphia. we do it to make ourselves feel better but it all goes in the same dump.

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_nobodyreally t1_ixwnbe8 wrote

I'm still waiting on Mr. Fusion. stares in the direction that I arbitrarily determined to be where Robert Zemeckis is.

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Disarray215 t1_ixwr96l wrote

It’s not that we should give up on recycling, it’s we need to stop just throwing stuff on the ground because it’s not our neighborhood. I live on an angle and when the wind blows, it blows all the trash onto my doorstep. It’s mainly snacks, junk, and fast food waste. It’s a walkway for people to catch the bus. Doesn’t excuse throwing it on the ground. There was an episode of it’s always sunny where Mac and Charlie buy baseball cards and throw the wrappers on the ground. I thought, wow that is truly Philly.

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JasonLauts t1_ixwxwe9 wrote

Start composting. Circles and Bennett compost do weekly pickups for about $20 a month. Doesn't help with plastic though...

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mat2736 t1_ixxrzci wrote

Metals, newspaper, and cardboard (no grease or wax) are all good. Avoid plastics as it’s mostly trash. Glass isn’t worth much and creates a mess in the process. If you’re not sure, it’s probably trash.

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cracker707 t1_ixymroz wrote

List of things that aren’t recyclable but that my downstairs neighbors continue to throw in our recycling bins despite my previous attempts to explain: pizza boxes (greasy), plastic bags, fast food containers, plastic from any product packaging, glossy magazines, your recycling thrown into garbage bags, old brooms, old vacuums, etc. If you throw any of those things into your recycling bin the assortment center just diverts all that into the garbage. Anyone know how many factories in the US take used plastic and turn it into new products on a mass scale? 1 factory does that here and they only process used water bottles. Clean metal, clean cardboard, and plastic water bottles are recycled, if they even make it to a facility, and everything else is just some 3rd world country’s trash.

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nolandeluca t1_ixvkwmq wrote

Ehhh it's hard to say, I've worked in a few waste transfer stations in philly, all your wastes gets sorted here and what's ever profitable they sell. Most of the time recyclables are just sent to waste to energy plants

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Frankjc3rd t1_ixvvnz3 wrote

Bloody hell, I finally figured out where stuff goes!♻️🤯😐

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mundotaku t1_ixvycjy wrote

I get annoyed when every odd week the trash collectors throw both my perishable and recyclables on the same pile in the same truck.

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butterfly105 t1_ixx7sk2 wrote

I won’t lie, I never recycle because I heard most of the recycling goes to the general trash anyway

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Sir-Jawn t1_ixv4wq9 wrote

Like getting a 6th Covid booster, it gives people the feeling they are saving the world.

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Weekly_Signal6481 t1_ixvy9d7 wrote

the only thing you mentioned that's actual recycling are plastic bottles

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