"Throw it in the trash" he said,

[Ray,IN]

I phoned the local recycling facility to inquire about empty plastic oil jugs and used plastic pipe. The man stated "throw in in the trash, we cannot accept contaminated material". Even pointed to a 30yd roll-off hopper. Hows that for going green?

[Nick-B]

Yeah - seems stupid as the plastic container is made from petroleum.
"Green" is not always cheap nor simple. I'm not saying we shouldn't do our part but sometimes it isn't as easy as it should be.

[RustyJC]

Funny how things change. When I was a kid (back in the stone age), the county would gather up the used motor oil from service stations and use it to oil the county roads. (If you think about it, what is asphalt made from?)

Now we're told how hazardous used motor oil is, so like a good "greenie" I dump my used oil at the auto parts store when I buy the new oil, but I'm told to drain the old filters into my used oil containers and then throw the filters into the trash.

Rusty

[Elkhartjim]

Cap and trade will solve all of our problems. We won't have money to buy plastics, oil or maybe food. So no more disposal problems. Its starting to make sense (?).

[TXiceman]

I love all of the plastic designer water bottles thrown out along the road. WHy do we need designer bottle water? They need to have a $1.00 per bottle refundable deposit on them and maybe the clowns would not throw them out in front of my house.

We need to learn to recycle properly.

Ken

[Ray,IN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXiceman I love all of the plastic designer water bottles thrown out along the road. WHy do we need designer bottle water? They need to have a $1.00 per bottle refundable deposit on them and maybe the clowns would not throw them out in front of my house. We need to learn to recycle properly. Ken

I'll AMEN that! To top it off, EPA studies show that bottled water if often not a pure as ordinary tap water. There is a guy in NYC selling NYC tap water in bottles. He said he can't bottle it fast enough for demand.

Since I made the OP, my trash company owner told me he had on video, our county recycling center dumping loads at the landfill. The center said they cannot get anyone to come pickup recyclable materials because there is no money in recycling today. Your proposal of container return fees is the only solution to littering.

[dieselclacker]

Hmmmmm, I wonder if I should say anything about rural living, used motor oil disposal, and ground squirrel holes? Going green country style?


Dieselclacker

[Ed-Sommers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dieselclacker Hmmmmm, I wonder if I should say anything about rural living, used motor oil disposal, and ground squirrel holes? Going green country style? Dieselclacker

And how about that Kerosene weed control!

Ed

[dieselclacker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed-Sommers And how about that Kerosene weed control! Ed

Ahhh, another non-city dweller!


Dieselclacker

[RedneckExpress]

Used motor oil has a main use around here, its burned in Smudge pots to keep the blossoms on the fruit trees from getting frozen off.

[Garbageman]

I just want to throw my 2 cents in.

Recycling is when you take a used material and reconfigure it into a new product. The theory is great. Trouble is that manufacturing doesn't want to bother with used materials, for many different reasons. There is so much material collected by recycle facilities and not enough demand for it's reuse.

I own a recycle and garbage service and have to deal with all the Federal, State, and County requirements for collecting recycle materials without any consideration by these agencies as to what I'm supposed to do with it after its been collected. It costs me tons of money to store and then ship these materials, if I find a taker, to an end source. It's not the recyclers fault, we only collect what we have been told we "will" collect. Nobody is telling manufacturing they "will" use collected recycle materials.

Paul

[Ray,IN]

Thanks for different look at recycling Garbageman. My Daughter took some empty milk jugs to the recycling center Tuesday. She was told to take them back home remove caps and labels then wash them. Now that is a paradox, use the most valuable resource on this planet to clean a recyclable product of questionable value.????? To expand on that; nothing humans have invented improves on the earths natural water recycling, we merely speeded up the process by a few months, or years in some regions, to minutes today.

[Noelj]

Same thing in this area, everyone says that they can't find anyone to take recycled stuff. Cheaper to make new ahan to use old.

[Barrier2]

I used own a couple of service stations in the 70s, we had an underground tanks that we drained the used oil into. Every couple of months some guy used to come around to the stations and pump the used oil out. He used to pay me for it but I would have been happy just to have it picked up.
They used to refine it and sell it. I remember reading that used re-refined oil was actually better then new if it was refined properly. I believe facilities now pay to have the oil removed.
What ever happened to that method, I thought as the price went up it would be come economical to refine it again but that does not seem to be the case.
Anyone have any knowledge of this?
Barrier