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+--- Thread: Recycle WHY??. or why not? (/showthread.php?tid=13581)
Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Guest - 05-05-2014
Well I have recently chose not to do my part and stopped recycling. All the time of sorting, storing, gas, plastic bags, or hauling here for awhile has stopped. Went the other day to Pahoa to drop off my 4 or 5 large black bags we accumulate every month. Just before I can pull up a large flat bed with well over 50 maybe hundred bags pulls in. (SOMEBeach) I said, then I just dropped and left my bags there, tired of it.
I believe you should be able to bring your bottles and cans back to the place you purchase them, for the same cent you pay extra for them. IS that to much to ask?. On top of that the jobs created by the recycling program should have stayed with the disabled or disadvantaged. OH, I almost forgot, One more issue I have with recycling is the $$money spent to pay for such an inconvenience like this so-called recycling center should not have come from the Puna Geothermal Relocation fund?. (Shame). Just venting a little and only my opinions for now until some can maybe change my mind?.
P.S. Wow a lot easier to just throw it(bottle or can) in the garbage, out it goes every 4th day!.
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Carey - 05-05-2014
Why to recycle?
Main reason is that we are almost out of places to get rid of our plastic bags of garbage (& recyclables). The Hilo dump is already on borrowed time...& I have not seen anything that would indicate that we could get another EPA approved (and safe) 'sanitary' waste dump' here without a very large influx of cash (if not from one source like the GTT, then from other taxes or user fees)...
With or without a new on-island site for garbage, the cost for garbage will have to go up one way or another (without a new site, our county will join many others in paying to 'export' their waste)... I guess some are more in favor of increased taxes, real 'user' fees, or just dumping their waste next door (which was the main way prior to the free dumping options that the transfer stations/dumps allow...
The last county we lived in had to close their last dump while we were there, garbage handling costs tripled the first year...& by the time we left, you were credited for recyclables, but had to pay dearly for each bag or can of non-green waste...and the costs were volume/wt based...if you tried to sneak in non-recyclables you were fined & the fine was added to your property tax... one neighbor had over $1K in fines in one year.... it was a tough learning curve! BTW it was $3 per normal waste bag, yard trimmings had to be in a $1.50 bag/and ANY non-plant trimmings would get you a $50 fine first time, $100 second... So if you would like to live with the export of our waste, get used to that amount of "big brother" 'cause that is the other option!
If you do not recycle every last scrap that can be (not just the HI5 recyclables) then you are contributing to speeding up the closing of our dumps & the much higher cost to deal with our waste.... or are you going to advocated tossing it on your neighbors yard?
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Guest - 05-05-2014
Carey that was a great response. I agree with everything you wrote and can see that side of yours better now. Yes I do throw my green waste, or drag it I should say over to the neighboring lots and leave it their to rot. Quick and fairly easy way of getting rid of my waste, I learned it from my neighbors before me. Now after 15 years of doing this their are volunteer trees and plants that have come up as well as the properties values?. P.S ONE of the worst mistakes I made though was throwing a couple hundred split in half coconuts over my fence on to the other lot. They made for great mosquito breeding grounds so I had to remove them properly (down the road). Nah, I drove them all the way to Hilo??
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Carey - 05-05-2014
Gypsy, perhaps you missed most of what I was talking about, that is the GARBAGE, NOT THE GREEN WASTE...
And many older folks will just scoffaw & blame the EPA, unless, of course they are up on what is happening at the old Kona dump... closed & capped for years. Many ol' timers would think, "Good! no problem with that".... except it has been burning for over a quarter of a century...& the fumes emitted HAVE caused more public distress reports than PGV & citings for violations....
And I am sure that the volunteer plants that you threw out are welcomed NATIVE additions & cared for in your neighbors lot! Already you have given an excellent example of how your discarding your waste into your neighbors became an invasive vector breeding ground...I fairy positive that even more critters have found your green waste dumping to be an excellent home to increase their population in your neighborhood (unless you are sure to take the time & effort to make your waste as non-habitat forming as possible)...
Most people have a very hard time seeing the connections between their actions & the problems they complain about!
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Delta9r - 05-05-2014
I'm all for recycling, reusing, and reducing the amount of waste we generate.
I bought some wire mesh (2"x4" mesh) from Miranda's and made receptacles for my recyclables.
Plastic (HI 5) in one, glass in another, and aluminum in the other one.
Since I noticed that Mr K's (mauka of Kadota Liquors) also accepts non HI 5 items, I've made more wire baskets to include gallon milk containers, laundry soap containers, tuna cans, etc.
This is an island, and all of these items are shipped in but not out.
If we all did what little we can to divert items from our landfill[s] it's at least a step in the right direction.
"Life is labor, and all that is good in life comes from that labor..."
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - fishenjim - 05-05-2014
Kudos D9 all to true not just H.I.but especially H.I.
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Guest - 05-05-2014
quote:
Originally posted by Carey
Most people have a very hard time seeing the connections between their actions & the problems they complain about!
Those words should earn you the Nobel Peace Prize.
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Guest - 05-05-2014
quote:
Originally posted by gypsy69
Well I have recently chose not to do my part and stopped recycling. All the time of sorting, storing, gas, plastic bags, or hauling here for awhile has stopped. Went the other day to Pahoa to drop off my 4 or 5 large black bags we accumulate every month. Just before I can pull up a large flat bed with well over 50 maybe hundred bags pulls in. (SOMEBeach) I said, then I just dropped and left my bags there, tired of it.
I believe you should be able to bring your bottles and cans back to the place you purchase them, for the same cent you pay extra for them. IS that to much to ask?. On top of that the jobs created by the recycling program should have stayed with the disabled or disadvantaged. OH, I almost forgot, One more issue I have with recycling is the $$money spent to pay for such an inconvenience like this so-called recycling center should not have come from the Puna Geothermal Relocation fund?. (Shame). Just venting a little and only my opinions for now until some can maybe change my mind?.
P.S. Wow a lot easier to just throw it(bottle or can) in the garbage, out it goes every 4th day!.
OK, now I admit, I flew here. Was not born here.
But what I have learned about this place, its people and its culture and especially about what "Aloha" really is, your post smacks all of that out the door.
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Tink - 05-05-2014
All "wet" garbage goes into the cinder block compost bin out by the catchment tank, have canvas grocery bags, so surplus plastic bags get spiral cut and braided into bath mat or waterproof one by shed. Paper, depending on type, either in compost, or save for when colder as firewood starter ( damp wood uses more!) tin cans get cut both ends, flattened and into bin. Beer bottles, not many these days, but into the glass recycle tub. One time I threw them all in my little cement mixer with rocks and sand until polished, then used it as exposed aggregate in the concrete. Eventually take to recycler, but sometime project come up and I need tin. (Metal recyclers give u more than general recycle stop). That doesn't leave much for the dump, problem solved for me!
Are you a human being, or a human doing?
RE: Recycle WHY??. or why not? - Carey - 05-05-2014
Just to think about it, each time that each & every one of us diverts a piece that COULD be recycled (mixed, cardboard, metal, even shipping packing is taken at Kens & at many of the shipping places, inc. in Pahoa) equals over 150,00 of those pieces...add the tourists... and you are looking at over 200,000 pieces going into our overburdened dumps at Hilo & Kona..
That is what is amounts to every time each of us thinks it is not worth our effort for this one piece... Staggering? yes! but it is the reality...it is either worth each of our efforts, or we will have to figure another way (which will surely cost much more!)
The amazing thing is how fast we CAN re-evaluate our efforts, things like the waste reduction & reuse efforts during WWII, or high cost, most of us figure out how to do it. Too bad we don't until something as drastic as war or high cost!