What the heck goes into the trash can (as opposed to recycling?) Featured

bob haller wrote on Mon, 02 May 2016 19:37:56 -0700:

Shot rats? They shoot rats? How the heck do you shoot a rat?

Seems like you can't shoot 'em inside, for obvious reasons. So, you have to shoot them outside.

If they're outside, they pretty much can go where they want. And if people are around, you can't just shoot willy nilly.

I can't imagine shooting a rat. A deer, yeah. It's big. A dog, sure. It's big too. A cat, well, it's not so bug, but a squirrel, well, it sits in a tree and freezes for you.

But a rat? It isn't gonna sit still and it's small and fast.

I'm amazed that anyone *can* shoot rats.

Stormin Mormon wrote on Mon, 02 May 2016 23:00:12 -0400:

She is a good kid. All kids are good if you let them be so.

Arthur,

They probably wouldn't know, but the rules are there for a reason. I could ignore it and make it someone elses problem, but I try to abide by their wishes.

They send reminders in almost every bill about not putting certain things in the recycling bin. Every few months or so they also send out a big flyer showing what should and shouldn't go in the bin. Just in case you didn't read the big sticker on top of the blue bin. :) So, it's obviously an ongoing problem for them.

I contacted waste management about the frozen food boxes and was told they are treated to hold up to the moisture of the freezer. I'm not sure how that differs from a milk carton that holds liquid (which they do accept), but they have their reasons.

There have been talks around here about banning the plastic bags, but it hasn't happened so far. So, we collect them and take them back to the store every few weeks.

Anthony Watson

You never went down to the dump to shoot rats? Deprived childhood.

You have to remove the "latch" in order for the container to be dumped. Here, folks just put a large stone on top -- which inevitably falls off as the container is lifted above the truck, allowing the top flap to open.

Water is actually a problem in waste containers. Most municipalities are charged by weight (not volume). So, a container that collects and holds rainwater ends up costing the municipality extra -- for some weight that really isn't "stored" in the landfill.

OTOH, putting weep holes in the container allows stuff to get in (insects)

We pay for every gallon (CCF) we use -- *twice*: once for delivery/usage charges and once again for its presumed return via the sewage system (even if we "consume" the water on the premises -- e.g., irrigation)

Until your well runs dry. :> The NEXT gallon then becomes exceedingly expensive!

Or, until your groundwater supply is contaminated.

Here, javelina, coyote, pack rats, chipmunks, etc.

And, of course, "insects". Which, in turn, lead to an increase in scorpions.

We don't "waste" water on a one-time use like that. Likewise, don't "wash" our vehicles -- the commercial car washes recycle the water that they use to wash vehicles.

When I make marinara/bolognese ("spaghetti") sauce, I use #10 cans of ingredients (i.e., essentially the size of your head). Lots of metal to be recycled. Yet, no way to "cover" it so the remnants of the foodstuffs inside would be "sealed in" until arriving at the recycling facility.

As such, I fill one of these. Then, pour it into another. Then back into the first. Then back into the other, etc. Eventually, all of the foodstuffs are dislodged and I can dispose of the dirtied water. Without having to run water for a minute or two until ALL the containers are empty.

(A resource that you don't USE doesn't need to be RECYCLED!)

Ours sits in an easily accessed space. We pile items to be shredded on top of it until the stack is unmanageable. Or, "looks big enough". Then, feed them into it (to cut down on how often it has to run). I htink it will shred something like 20 pages at a time -- or a couple of CD's, stacked.

I try to find new homes for kit as friends and colleagues drop off items that they would otherwise discard/recycle. Often in perfectly good condition -- or, easily repaired to "like new" (for a few dollars and a bit of my time). If I can then find someone else who can use such an item, I consider those few dollars and that bit of time to be "my part" in diverting something useful from a landfill.

As a coarse measure of just how inefficient recycling is, consider a computer is worth about $5-10 in recycle value. Yet sells for...? The difference is essentially (future) profit plus the cost of "reclaiming" those "raw" materials. :<

In my case, disposable razor blades, containers that have vestiges of medicines/salves/creams/other "actives", remnants of soap bars, tissue and TP. Any plastic containers (personal care products) go in the (unsorted) recycle bin -- if the plastic is one of the "approved" types. Tissue and TP get flushed ("But, the BACK SIDE is still pristine!?"). The "cores" to the TP rolls are recycled as paper products (ditto for the cores for paper towels).

Medicines are recycled at special annual recycling events FOR pharmaceuticals.

The rest is just plain trash.

"Spent" toothpaste tubes?

My parents used to bring our waste oil to the factory where they worked. It was burned in the furnaces used to heat treat their products.

The town used to incinerate trash, too.

Times have changed.

Our town heats the garage with waste oil. One of the biggest users of waste oil is Safety Kleen. They charge you to take it away and burn it as fuel in a plant that makes concrete in large kilns.

Remember a few years back the big deal with PCBs in electric transformers? It is a carcinogen but to get rid of it safely it is burned.

I don't have a bill handy to break it all down but the total usually runs between $65 & $70 per month. Just a few years ago it only ran about $30 per month. Before I retired I had a 6yd dumpster at my shop, and no trash was ever picked up from home, just the recycled stuff. So, in that sense I've paid it forward for many years!

Every time you rinse out a food container that residue is going into your septic or sewer system, which in my case with a septic system needs to be pumped out and disposed of in a sanitary manner every few years. In my case that is about $250 per honey wagon load.

It's an old tradition in some towns. I'm not sure what type of gun they use, probably rim fire with short cartridges. Rats got to sit and rest. Possibly while they are eating. So, yes, they do sit still now and again.

The biggest problem here is plastic bags, like shopping bags, that wind up in the recyclables with bottles, cans and other plastic where they don't belong. They clog up the sorting machinery that's used to separate the stuff. You can either put those bags in with the non-recyclable garbage or take them to the supermarket where they accept them for recycling.

And typically you need to use hot water and even soap to get it clean. Mayonnaise is one of the worst. If it's bad enough, I'll just toss it in with the garbage instead of wasting time and energy to clean it. You have to wonder about the economics and environmental impact of having to clean those hard to clean things. I know people who clean even a can or jar until it's spotless. If you go down to the township facility where they accept stuff you bring in, they have a giant dumpster for the recyclables and OMG, what a mess. It's obvious a lot of people aren't cleaning up anything. But even when I tell people what it looks like there, they still want to run the hot water to make every bottle and can shiny.

Arthur Cresswell wrote in news:ng93q1$goc$9 @news.mixmin.net:

Not too much dissolved in it, but lots of crud suspended. Lots of folks burn waste motor oil, but most of them filter it first.

About thirty years ago,when Reader Digest sent paper based magazines, there was a comment clip sent in by someone. The family had a picnc, and she was cleaning up. Paper plates and plastic forks went right into the trash, and then she was rinsing out the various food containers for recycle. "Just look at me! I'm washing my garbage and throwing out my plaes and silverware!"

Candidly, if I have a quart of used oil, say from changing in lawn mower, it goes into the trash. To get it to a recycle center or someone that would take it would require an equivalent amount of gasoline for the round trip.

My mother did not raise me to be a garbage man and I'm not going to store trash so I have enough to take to recycle.

IDK how it works where you are, but here in NJ many auto parts stores accept used motor oil. I have a 5 gallon pail and when it's full take it over when I'm going to be in the area. No need for a special trip.

Did you read the reference?

Cats are the only host in which the parasite can reproduce.

Basically same here but I no longer change oil in cars and lawn mower is only once a year then maybe several years for snow thrower and generator all of which require a quart or less. Rather than clutter garage with container of oil, it gets trashed.

I recall when trash company delivered extra container for recycle asking guy, "Where the f*ck can I keep my cars with these two large containers taking up garage space?"

If state had done it right, all this would not have been required. Ferrous metals are easily removed from garbage for recycling at dump by use of a magnet. Local dump was into recycling but needed extra funds to do it but stopped when they could not get it. State forced recycling with extra taxes but workers at dump still have to sort recycle. If they had just funded recycle and let dump do all then homeowners would not be involved and containers and extra recycling trucks would not have been needed.