Recycling does not save energy

[CrysisMcGee]

and other lies you've been told to sway your thinking.

The amount of energy used to collect and recycle material is much greater than the amount used to create a product from scratch. We aren't running out of land either. If the US had a 30x30 mile landfill, 900 square miles, it would last for a long ass time. Possibly 1000 years. That's a rough calculation. As for metal, don't recycle it. Sell it.

What I'm asking you is for an example where you were told a lie to get you to do something. Something major that is, something that is popular.

 

[James Raynor]

It saves resources.

 

[Ekibiogami]

Well Duh. Thats why Reduce and Resuse Come FIRST on the list.
To bad most environuts Dont understand this.
Its still Wise to Recycle things with Toxic parts, Like Batteries.

 

[superbleeder12]

Using recycled glass reduces the energy requirement of glass production by as much as 30%

>As for metal, don't recycle it. Sell it.
and what will the people be doing with the metal they bought? RECYCLING IT!

>If the US had a 30x30 mile landfill, 900 square miles, it would last for a long ass time. Possibly 1000 years.
If the US consolidated all of their landfills into one gigantic landfill, say in the nevada desert, how much do you think it would cost the state of maine to move 1 ton of waste there? The money saved by recycling in a situation like this would be drastically less than if they were to ship everything to the super landfill.

Admittedly, Landfill size in the US has been reduced by some 70% in the past 15 years, but that is due to better technology which speeds up the decomposition process and creates useful materials from the landfill, notably compost for crops.

 

[James Raynor]

Its still Wise to Recycle things with Toxic parts, Like Batteries.

Or metals, after all most are valuable.


Recycling happens usually because it helps save resources after all, the world only as so much that can be mined out before we gotta start sifting through trash.

 

[mornal]

I was never told that recycling saved energy, just preserved our limited resources.

And as to the landfill, why would you want trash just laying around for "possibly 1000 years"?

 

[phatty500]

lolz everyone missed the point of this thread

 

[Low Key]

And as to the landfill, why would you want trash just laying around for "possibly 1000 years"?

You do know trash decomposes, right? It wouldn't just be laying around.

 

[James Raynor]

And as to the landfill, why would you want trash just laying around for "possibly 1000 years"?

You do know trash decomposes, right? It wouldn't just be laying around.

Very slooooowly.

 

[Grand_Arcana]

And as to the landfill, why would you want trash just laying around for "possibly 1000 years"?

You do know trash decomposes, right? It wouldn't just be laying around.

Only organic trash does, for the most part. The point is that if you have 900 square miles of trash, most of it reusable, why go through the trouble of drawing more raw material when we've already made all the metal/ paper/ plastic that you need. Why waste it? It may cost more energy, but there is only so much raw material on this planet. We'd have to start recycling anyway.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

Thanks. I feel enlightened now. You have shown me the light. Changed my life. For the better. You made a difference. Saved the planet. Awesome show. Great job.

You really are psychotic aren't you? Anyway, you do realise if we do KEEP making landfills then eventually we will end a with every city being like detroit. Smelly and filled with guys on crack.

 

[Timotei]

and other lies you've been told to sway your thinking.

The amount of energy used to collect and recycle material is much greater than the amount used to create a product from scratch. We aren't running out of land either. If the US had a 30x30 mile landfill, 900 square miles, it would last for a long ass time. Possibly 1000 years. That's a rough calculation. As for metal, don't recycle it. Sell it.

What I'm asking you is for an example where you were told a lie to get you to do something. Something major that is, something that is popular.

Recycling doesn't save energy. It allows us to reuse valuable resources like plastic which contains petroleum. It's also a lot cheaper to reuse metal than to spend time, money and potentially risking some one's life blowing the fuck out of a mountain to obtain more. And if we didn't recycle metals then the computer that you are using now would be more expensive.

And yes, we are running out of land since we realized not too long ago that only about 30% of this planet is above water. There are also a lot of bureaucratic hoops to jump through to get a grant for even the slightest speck of land. And a land fill would only cause environmental problems and fuck up the ecosystem around it.

Next time you have an idea that you wish to channel through your fingers, stop and think about it for a second before potentially making your argument sound half-baked and empty.

 

[Low Key]

And as to the landfill, why would you want trash just laying around for "possibly 1000 years"?

You do know trash decomposes, right? It wouldn't just be laying around.

Very slooooowly.

Not 1000 years sloooowly. Not even close.

And as to the landfill, why would you want trash just laying around for "possibly 1000 years"?

You do know trash decomposes, right? It wouldn't just be laying around.

Only organic trash does, for the most part. The point is that if you have 900 square miles of trash, most of it reusable, why go through the trouble of drawing more raw material when we've already made all the metal/ paper/ plastic that you need. Why waste it? It may cost more energy, but there is only so much raw material on this planet. We'd have to start recycling anyway.

My post had nothing to do with what you are talking about. I was simply stating trash decomposes and doesn't just lie around.

 

[LordFisheh]

Isn't the point of recycling to save production materials and waste disposal, not energy? Anyway, imo, reucing energy use isn't enough, we'll just kill everything slower - we need new energy sources, imma looking at you, fusion.

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

And as to the landfill, why would you want trash just laying around for "possibly 1000 years"?

You do know trash decomposes, right? It wouldn't just be laying around.

Very slooooowly.

Yes as slow as roughly 1000 years... Or less.

 

[megapenguinx]

lolz everyone missed the point of this thread

They are more concerned with your first post it seems.
Oh and little known fact: Energy is constant so you can't really save it. What you can save are resources, so in which case people should recycle.

 

[Iskenator67]

It saves our resources.