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The Story of Stuff - Cosmetics, Bottled Water...

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Renegade:
STOP whatever you're doing now and relax a bit with an amazingly entertaining and very educational little video:

THE STORY OF STUFF: BOTTLED WATER

There are more there.

Really -- great stuff!

The cosmetics one is excellent. I've already switched to minimizing the number of toxic products I use. My toothpaste can be eaten. Yes. Unlike other toothpastes that recommend you go to a poison control center (hospital), I can eat my toothpaste. And it's nutritious and good for you!

Cap & Trade - Again, excellent.

It's all done extremely well. (Even if it uses Flash. :) )

...

Now, back to my cynical, ranting self... :)

That kind of stuff is why I simply refuse to give a s**t about anything anymore. There is no hope...

I refuse to put in any more than the absolute minimum amount of effort to recycle. It's moronic. Most materials end up in dumps anyways. Most "recyclables" cost MORE energy to recycle than they save. The ONLY exception is tin cans (metal in general). I'll recycle if it takes zero effort on my part, or if it is actually more convenient to do so, but I'm NOT going to turn my brain off and follow a mindless crowd.

The 3 R's are:

REDUCE
Reuse
recycle

They're in that order for a reason. I'll do the first 2, but not the 3rd.

And... More ranting...

I'm SICK of being preached at by a bunch of hypocrites. Don't want the sermon. Don't need the sermon. No longer care.

Then again, I just have general problems with being told what to do by fools. I have no problems taking advice/orders/whatever from people that truly know what they are talking about AND have the right motivations (a rare combination).

nudone:
i agree.

tomos:
Great videos thanks!

> Most "recyclables" cost MORE energy to recycle than they save.
I'm curious about that - it's often said but I'd like to see 'proof'

Plastic bottles now have a 25c deposit on them here - I wonder what happens to them when you bring them back...

> That kind of stuff is why I simply refuse to give a s**t about anything anymore. There is no hope...
Your choice. I disagree :p :-)

There is a huge apathy about recycling in general I find - and I'm not talking about informed apathy, although I suppose this kind of info does filter down.
For example it's not that difficult to separate food stuff for the compost bin (if you have one). I'm shocked though when I see what people actually put in there - high salt/ cooked or processed foods/ etc. etc. etc. You may as well not bother really cause you're just wrecking the compost and wrecking other peoples efforts.
This in the (supposed) land of recycling (Germany).
Ironically, although germany 'recycles' the most, they are also (I've read) the biggest producers of rubbish in Europe. I reckon that's why they had to start recycling in the first place ;)

Is there not a problem with where landfills go in the states? Maybe because it's so big there's lots of space for landfills? Location of new landfills was a major problem in Ireland over the last while. The population is well spread out in the countryside & no one wants a landfill in their backyard...

Renegade:
Great videos thanks!

> Most "recyclables" cost MORE energy to recycle than they save.
I'm curious about that - it's often said but I'd like to see 'proof'

Plastic bottles now have a 25c deposit on them here - I wonder what happens to them when you bring them back...

> That kind of stuff is why I simply refuse to give a s**t about anything anymore. There is no hope...
Your choice. I disagree :p :-)

There is a huge apathy about recycling in general I find - and I'm not talking about informed apathy, although I suppose this kind of info does filter down.
For example it's not that difficult to separate food stuff for the compost bin (if you have one). I'm shocked though when I see what people actually put in there - high salt/ cooked or processed foods/ etc. etc. etc. You may as well not bother really cause you're just wrecking the compost and wrecking other peoples efforts.
This in the (supposed) land of recycling (Germany).
Ironically, although germany 'recycles' the most, they are also (I've read) the biggest producers of rubbish in Europe. I reckon that's why they had to start recycling in the first place ;)

Is there not a problem with where landfills go in the states? Maybe because it's so big there's lots of space for landfills? Location of new landfills was a major problem in Ireland over the last while. The population is well spread out in the countryside & no one wants a landfill in their backyard...
-tomos (September 17, 2010, 07:23 AM)
--- End quote ---

My opposition to recycling is the massive push on it while at the same time there's an even bigger push to consume MORE instead of reduce. The bottled water video points that out nicely.

It's just a sanity-check thing for me. Preaching to me about saving the environment out of one side of the mouth and screaming at people to destroy it with the other just doesn't sit well with me. Being the stubborn twit that I am, I am compelled to spew my cynical venom.

I am reducing where possible. But I'm not going to feel guilty for a broken system that I didn't create.

That being said, I do not have the best attitude. Just because there's a huge amount of hypocrisy doesn't mean that I should not try to be part of the band-aid solution on the cancer. Something is better than nothing. Sigh... No hope...

For proof, I've seen documentaries. It's out there somewhere.

But the videos are really well done! I wish them the best and all the success in the world. It would be a better place.

tomos:
But the videos are really well done! I wish them the best and all the success in the world. It would be a better place.
-Renegade (September 17, 2010, 09:11 AM)
--- End quote ---

Absolutely.

And I take your points - I didnt mean to give you a hard time btw Renegade (well not too hard a time anyways). Was just writing my rambling thoughts, etc. and I was complaining more about uninformed apathy as opposed to informed, eh... what shall we call it - disgust with the system - I guess covers it...

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