Yah, I can recycle now.

[Perd Hapley]

The city just gave me my very own recycling container.  Yippee.  I guess I should look at the news-letter more closely.  Should I expect the city is paying extra for this service, or does that get them a discount maybe? 

Oh well, I can always use another trash can around the house. 

[Vodka7]

The market for recyclable goods tanked along with the rest of the economy, but recycling paper, for example, is still (or was, the last time I read about it) about half the cost per ton of having it landfilled.  No idea what the costs are for any other recyclable material.  As for the costs of training garbagemen and buying all new trucks, who knows.

Edited to add: do you have mandatory recycling laws?  Here in Philly and back in Connecticut they actually pay people to walk around picking up your trash bags and jiggling them to try and hear any cans/bottles/etc rattling around.  If they do, you get a nice fat ticket.  Since they just started in your area, expect the trash-police to be coming around soon too.

[RaspberrySurprise]

The market for recyclable goods tanked along with the rest of the economy, but recycling paper, for example, is still (or was, the last time I read about it) about half the cost per ton of having it landfilled.  No idea what the costs are for any other recyclable material.  As for the costs of training garbagemen and buying all new trucks, who knows.

Edited to add: do you have mandatory recycling laws?  Here in Philly and back in Connecticut they actually pay people to walk around picking up your trash bags and jiggling them to try and hear any cans/bottles/etc rattling around.  If they do, you get a nice fat ticket.  Since they just started in your area, expect the trash-police to be coming around soon too.

The things government will think of never cease to amaze me.

[Perd Hapley]

Wow, that's a nice haiku.   

If the trash police start coming around here, I'll just haul my trash in to work, and toss it in the dumpster there. 

[Declaration Day]

The city just gave me my very own recycling container.  Yippee.  I guess I should look at the news-letter more closely.  Should I expect the city is paying extra for this service, or does that get them a discount maybe? 

Oh well, I can always use another trash can around the house. 

We pay for the "privilege" where I live, through our property taxes, just like regular trash pickup.  That leads me to believe that, by the time they send a second enormous, expensive, gas-guzzling truck down every street to pick up a few cans, bottles and newspapers, the net energy savings is in the negative, even though some materials do cost less to recycle than to produce new.   

Though I may be stuck paying for it, I'm not playing into that kind of lunacy.  When I moved to this house, it came with a shiny new blue recycle bin.  It now serves as a nice target stand for .22 plinking at my property up north.  Yep, I recycled it.

[AJ Dual]

We pay for the "privilege" where I live, through our property taxes, just like regular trash pickup.  That leads me to believe that, by the time they send a second enormous, expensive, gas-guzzling truck down every street to pick up a few cans, bottles and newspapers, the net energy savings is in the negative, even though some materials do cost less to recycle than to produce new.   

Though I may be stuck paying for it, I'm not playing into that kind of lunacy.  When I moved to this house, it came with a shiny new blue recycle bin.  It now serves as a nice target stand for .22 plinking at my property up north.  Yep, I recycled it.

+1 the environmental impact of recycling is in most cases is worse than not recycling.

Metals and glass and paper can be efficient, but we don't get the newspaper, glass bottle products are less and less every year, and we don't eat lots of canned food, and no canned soda.

Our main recyclable is plastic bottles, and there's only so much Etrex decking and synthetic fleece the American market can absorb. So in the trash it goes.

[Jamisjockey]

In utah it wasn't mandatory, and the recycle bin was every bit as large as my trash bin.  And there was no separating needed, just tossed cans, bottles, cardboard in there and that was that.

[Vodka7]

Here's some current numbers:

http://www.southphillyreview.com/view_article.php?id=8102

Before the economy took a turn for the worst last fall, the city was making $32 a ton for recyclables and avoiding $72 a ton at the landfill. Now the city is not making anything from recycling as the demand has diminished with the rough economy, but the city still avoiding the extra costs at the landfill, Knapp said.

So, savings of $72/ton here.

[Declaration Day]

Here's a good, fairly balanced article on the subject:  http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/benefit_vs_cost.htm

Here's a quote from the article:  "individuals should keep in mind that it better serves the environment to “reduce and reuse” before recycling even becomes an option."

In other words, being "less harmful" to the environment is not the same thing as being helpful.  I've been trying to explain that point to some people for years.

[ilbob]

there is a lot of disinformation about the true cost of recycling. other than the obvious things like aluminum cans, and chunks of steel, the price being paid for these scrap items is often so low it is not worth the extra cost of collecting it, even figuring in the tipping fees.

we got a notice not to long ago that the local waste collector is no longer accepting recycled cardboard. they used to pick it up and paid us a small amount for it. now it is unwanted.

I suspect an incinerator would be every bit as cost effective and environmentally friendly as recycling, but it does not have that PC crap associated with it, and it does not require hundreds or thousands of extra government employees.

[txgho1911]

I know the price on copper is falling but hauling less than a pickup load of scrap is a wast of gas. A pickup full will attract attention and require a letter from the source of the scrap or a city refuse permit.
This little pile of scrap cable could be better utilized as bait.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i lived in montgomery county md when they rolled out the trash cops. recyclables hada be seperated .  then they dumped em all together in one truck 

in pw county they have bins at the dump  if the price is wrong all that dutifully sorted trash gets dumped in the big hole.