Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

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

<< < (4/4)

JavaJones:
If you can find an economically viable way to auto-sort trash I reckon you've got a nice little startup business on your hands! :D

- Oshyan

4wd:
We already have a reasonably efficient recycling service in place here, (Yarra Ranges, Victoria, Australia) - throw any paper, cardboard, cans, glass and recyclable plastic in the recycling bin and it's sorted at the depot, (mostly automatically - coloured glass is hand sorted).  The whole recycling centre is in a large warehouse probably 60m x 30m x 12m, (WxDxH) - including where they dump the recyclables.  The only plastic not recycled is plastic bags.
The recyclables are loaded onto a conveyor by a frontend loader, fans separate the paper and cardboard out, magnets pull out the steel cans/tops, electro-magnets kick aluminium cans/tops off the belt (induced currents), glass is hand picked off and tossed into appropriate bin (clear/brown/green) and what's left is generally plastic.

The local tip allows free dumping of recyclable material into specific areas so you can drop off any steel, fridges, washing machines and other defunct white goods for free, used oil can be left also for recycling for free.

In my area we get two bins: non-recyclable rubbish and recyclables, (no green waste bin because in my area burning off is still allowed - bushfire danger area, so fuel reduction is allowed).
Pickup is with just two trucks: rubbish and recyclables.

In other areas, they get a green waste bin for organic waste - no burning of rubbish anywhere in the metro area.

In Devon, UK, where I've spent a bit of time, (18 months), I really can't understand what cretin designed their recycling collection - you get:
1 (small) bin for Glass jars or bottles, cans (Al/Steel), cloth, plastic (but only plastic milk or soft drink bottles!) and paper, (I think but no cardboard).
1 (smaller) bin for organic kitchen scraps (introduced this year).
1 (large) bin for non-recyclable rubbish.
The recycling truck has a bloke in the back hand sorting the contents of the bins collected by the two outrunners.

All other recyclables have to be carted by you to the various points in the county:
1) Paper or glass to the local supermarket where they usually have large bins - you have to sort the coloured glass yourself.
2) All other plastic (and possibly oils) have to be carted miles away to the local recycling "centre" which is nothing more than another load of bins being watched over by council workers to make sure you sneak nothing into the wrong bin.

And there was talk of even more bins being introduced for householders to better sort the stuff themselves - considering a good portion of people in the UK live in flats/terrace houses with no front yards or anywhere to really store these bins....well....it seems to me to be the height of inefficiency on the part of the council.  (There was talk in some local papers about the possibility of residents having to cope with 5-9 bins.)

PS. Sorry if you live in the UK but honestly, your rubbish/recyclable collection system just seems to be backwards to me.

cmpm:
With all the colleges and universities we have, I've often wondered why they have not applied their minds and resources to find answers to the trash/garbage problem.

It's almost like the oil business here in the US. Big money involved in trash collection...

JavaJones:
4wd, our system is similar - 2 bins (actually 3, one for compost/yard waste). So yes we can auto-sort recyclables. But they want containers to be more or less clean, for example. Gunk, rotting stuff, etc. is the kind of thing harder to deal with for sorters and why regular trash is a lot harder to sort (note in my original reply I said "auto-sort trash", not "auto-sort recycling" - I know *that* can be done). Trash has all kinds of bad stuff in it that can mess up sorting systems/machines, so it's a much harder problem than just general recycling.

A while back there were claims that thermal depolymerization would be a "cure all" for this sort of thing, but it appears to be focused on meat processing waste at present, suggesting that notions of handling generalized trash, including metals, were a bit unrealistic.

- Oshyan

4wd:
(note in my original reply I said "auto-sort trash", not "auto-sort recycling" - I know *that* can be done).-JavaJones (November 19, 2010, 01:04 AM)
--- End quote ---

Sorry, I missed the distinction.   :-[

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page