But the simplest and cheapest option is usually to bury garbage in an environrnentally safe landfill.

Simples and cheapest, yes. But there is no such thing as an environmetally safe landfill, precisely because you have zero control over what gets thrown away. Lining a landfill only delays the problem - poisonous stuff will seep out.

Burn the stuff in a modern incinerator. That destroys essentially all noxious chemicals, you can profitably recover most metals out of the ash, and you generate energy. What's not to like?

Then you bury the ash, which has a tiny volume compared to the original. Sure, the ash may still contain some heavy metals, but a lot less than the original waste, given the metal recovery process.

I hold no brief for the bin police and regard mandatory recycling as an abomination - indeed I was delighted when we traded a similar scheme in England for freedom to dump in Texas.

Than said, Mr Blevins may have an uphill battle on his hands, given that the USSC has held, in California v Greenwood, that we abandon all privacy rights in garbage the moment that we throw it out.

That's not to disparage the merits of the cause, merely to suggest that there may be more promising methods of prosecuting it.

My brother's town started doing something like this years ago - snooping through people's trash to issue tickets if they didn't have things in the "proper" bin.

Several in the town also fought it and got the same result; no more ripping open bags to see what was inside, the trash collectors could only "guess" what was inside.

The result? More folks than ever use dark, heavy plastic bags that you cannot see through. My sister-in-law now dumps everything into one dark bag because, as she says the trash collectors come along and scoop up ALL the bins into the same garbage truck anyway. So just what good does separating the stuff do?

+1 a_random_guy, and then on top of that - if the heavy metals left in the ash are an issue, then recover them too, since the incineration process has effectively concentrated the ore for you. The term 'heavy metals' is often assumed to mean nasty, dangerous stuff that serves no useful purpose and only exists to poison the trees and kill the baby deer. But the truth is that those nasty 'heavy metals' are generally absolutely-essential to making virtually-everything that we have come to take for granted in civilized society, and they generally have a high value. Used water bottles are worth a dollar or two per ton - copper, tin, lead, bismuth antimony and all the rest are worth a several dollars per pound, and gold and silver are worth many dollars per ounce. Which should we be recycling?

llater,

llamas

"cheapest, yes. But there is no such thing as an environmetally safe landfill, precisely because you have zero control over what gets thrown away. Lining a landfill only delays the problem - poisonous stuff will seep out."

This is part of the zero risk mentality. And enviro hysteria.

All the poisonous stuff in landfills like lead, and arsenic came out of the earth's crust to begin with.

Humans have been coping with trace amounts of heavy metals, and other impurities in our drinking water and food forever.

Evidence is accumulating quickly that we need a lot of this stuff in trace amounts to remain healthy.

Evidence is accumulating quickly that we need a lot of this stuff in trace amounts to remain healthy.

*ding*

I attended a seminar about 30 years ago given by a fellow who was from East Germany. They had conducted an experiment on goats. They removed all the arsenic from the goats food, well, down to the level the could accurately measure it.

The goats bred and had offspring, who were given this diet as well. As I recall, it was the third generation that, while apparently healthy, would simply drop dead. While correlation is not causation, it gives one pause: do we actually need some arsenic exposure?

Incinerating is a pretty good idea, though, since it cuts way down on having to procure new properties for landfill. The city I live in incinerates. The plant pays its own way; the incineration generates steam, which is sold to an adjacent military base for heating and industrial uses. And it gets a little money from extracting metals from the ash.

There's a recycling service that is privately run and entirely voluntary. It only has to accept things that it can make money on. It makes money off of aluminum cans. It makes a little money off of plastic bottles. It quit accepting glass containers and newspapers a while back, because it was losing money on those. It accepts small batteries; I've heard tell that they are actually the biggiest money makers. It also accepts used motor oil. I'm not sure what they do with it, but it must make at least a little money or they wouldn't do it. To me, this is way recycling ought to work -- the economics will tell you if it's efficient or not.

The other thing about city base recycling programs: most of the materials simply do not bring enough money to make it worthwhile doing it, and so those materials are quietly placed into the landfill.

Also, this: food scraps in the same bins as their yard waste, so that the material can be composted. What do they think food scraps will do in the landfill? Give yourself a pat on the back if you said "become compost".

And if you're buying things to improve your soil, here's a free tip: you can recycle your food scraps and leaves back into your yard. The leaves and such are natural, and will be worked back into the ground. If you remove it, you'll need to replace it.

IMO, it's silly to pay people to take such material so they can compost it and sell it back to you.

The goats bred and had offspring, who were given this diet as well. As I recall, it was the third generation that, while apparently healthy, would simply drop dead. While correlation is not causation, it gives one pause: do we actually need some arsenic exposure?

Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie at July 17, 2015 6:36 AM

Yea, Arsenic is one of those essential metals. My cousin is an organic chemist and reads a lot of articles on google scholar.

There are some studies that seem to indicate that small amounts of arsenic in the water actually stops childhood leukemia in its tracks.

As was the case with vitamin D some scientists are starting to realize, it isn't what we are exposed to that *causes* cancer and other diseases, it is what we fail to ingest that protects us.

Lithium is another under appreciated metal. Human populations with higher levels of lithium in the drinking water are statistically healthier than those without.

Hmm, then I want a lock on my trash bin because I have no idea who throws what into my bin as they walk by my home. I have seen people walk by and dump whatever they have in their hand into it. Who knows what goes on at night. I want mine locked and the garbage people will unlock it to dump it into their truck. Even then I dont trust that something illicit was thrown in there by someone.

This PROVES that government tries to create a need for itself.

I think it's very important to separate your recyclables.

Otherwise the man who visits our neighborhood in a newer black Mercedes two-door coupe will have a much harder time digging the returnables out of our trash.

And that would be a shame.

I've never understood buying compost. I just dump my grass into a big pile, turn it every once in a while, and water it if it gets too dry. A year later boom, cubic feet of compost. Plus I didn't have to buy garbage bags for all the grass clippings.

Food waste I just toss. There is usually too much protein to make good compost and it tends to be an attractive nuisance for pests. Also there really isn't enough of it to make a difference.

I can't believe these pantywaists are worried about people getting trash into the right bin.

At my condo association, I'd be fucking happy if people would get their trash into *A* bin, instead of dumping the bags on the ground NEXT TO the bins and still somehow managing to strew loose trash around on the ground inside the enclosure.

In September I am moving to a townhouse where I won't have to share hallways, trash enclosures, or parking lots with ANYONE and won't have anyone living above me, either. People make shitty neighbors, and the fewer of them that live in proximity to me, the better.

For those suggesting that you compost yourself - great idea, but, be aware many municipalities in the U.S. prohibit just that.

And Pirate Jo - I think you and I have the same shitty neighbors.

I am so often picking up trash that fell out of someone's bag as they dragged it to the trash bin. If my trash were left lying around I would be so embarrassed! But, these folks just don't care.

Charles,

Do you know why they prohibit composting? I understand not doing it in the front yard but why prohibit it in unseen areas? Seems as stupid to me as those who mandate it.

Charles,

Do you know why they prohibit composting? I understand not doing it in the front yard but why prohibit it in unseen areas? Seems as stupid to me as those who mandate it.

Posted by: Ben at July 17, 2015 4:58 PM

Because composting of rotting meat, vegetables, and grass smells a lot like the same process that putting it through your large intestine does.

In short, it stinks.

The thing is, many residents of Seattle are all for recycling to this extent. Like to a nutty degree. I moved from Southern California to Washington 6 years ago, and while I love it here, there really are a lot of vegan/green power/hippie/antivax people here. Many of them are the preachy kind. Particularly in Seattle.

For a place with a lot of (supposed) anarchists, they sure seem to be okay with getting up in people's business for their own pet causes.

There is no point in composting meat. It doesn't make good soil, is an attractive nuisance (pests love it), and as Isab points out it stinks. But composting vegetable matter makes great soil and is odorless. It can still be an attractive nuisance if you are throwing away a lot of good food. But once again, why are you throwing away good food?

But google makes it clear there is an issue with idiots composting meat. Specifically on the west coast.