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Sat 17 Mar, 2012 11:43 am
Grossly oversimplifying: Here recyclable trash falls into one of two categories: redeemable and not. The former, mostly bottles and aluminum cans are so labeled. The latter comprises certain other bottles, steel cans, foil, plastic, paper, and for some obscure reason metal coathangers. Anyone who might have the insights:
1. What makes some bottles redeemable but others not
2. Why aren’t food cans redeemable
3. What’s so special about the coathanger
4. Objects not redeemable beside your friendly local supermarket one at a time can be redeemed at your roadside “metal recovery recycling center” which incidentally accepts bottles and plastic as well. But why not soupcans too
Incidentally somewhat OT but for those of us entertaining insights, although the roadside facility doesn’t pay as well as the code reader it accepts aluminum cans crushed, thereby saving you an enormous amount of space and drastically curtailing the number of times you have to consolidate those redeemables
Besides it strengthens your hands for that inevitable moment when you'll have to throttle that home invader
@dalehileman,
Remember what they say: a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Clearly, your rules were written by a committee.
@roger,
Indeed Rog but consider for instance Illinois, where they have 5 categories instead of just two. I’ve been advised that back there they don’t observe the rules very assiduously
@dalehileman,
That's probably because they can't figure out what rules they wrote.
@roger,
Rog that’s absolutely true, In fact I have a thread under consideration detailing this complexity. It’s appalling as I mentioned that half the time we’e tossing the object into the wrong can
@dalehileman,
For whatever its worth, in my my past 3 residences (Mass, NY and now FL), they all accept in recycling bins the rinsed=clean tin (steel) cans used for canned veggies and soup.
Just as a guess (re the different issue of non-collection of coat hangers), I think it might be something about the shape and/or the difficulty of collecting and separation of materials such as the paint or coating on the wire. Maybe it's the low percentage of stell in the hanger?
Also, I bet a handful of coat hangers must be a nightmare to handle by a machine as well as a human.
Here's in-depth info on recycling of clothes hangers:
http://earth911.com/recycling/metal/metal-clothes-hangers/
@Ragman,
Quote:coathangders….. (Mass, NY and now FL), they all accept in recycling bins
Yea, puzzling why they don’t here also
Quote:(re the different issue of non-collection of coat hangers),
Rag you might have misunderstood as I readily concede the comment wasn’t a model of clarity. I was musing on why they
are recyclable when so many other metallic objects aren't
@dalehileman,
Sorry I misunderstood.
In the case of why in some states some items are accepted as redeemable when other states won't - it could be that recycling agency or municipality has found a resource that finds that material profitable...(e.g. has a source that can use the material).
@dalehileman,
I'm not sure if you misunderstood or were just in a hurry posting: my comment about what material was accepted in those 3 states referred to steel (tin) food cans...not wire clothes-hangers. However, that being said, almost every state accepts aluminum cans. It's shocking how expensive aluminum cans are to make, as far as energy-consumption (carbon footprint).
@Ragman,
Aha I see, and yes they are
@dalehileman,
Another thing: While one such facility doesn’t care, another asks you pleasenot to crush the aluminum can
Why
@dalehileman,
I would say that for some carriers-handlers could reject crushed cans as either they may have sharp edges or are harder to transport as the shapes taken up more take more cubic space.
That is a good question which you may want to post to a recycling facility.
@Ragman,
Indeed Rag next time our No. 2 Son visits to convey the recyclables I’ll have him inquire
I’d have supposed the crushed cans to occupy less space not more
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