Ok RM. What are your thoughts about these things ? We have one in front of the Reasors that I shop at.
http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=12769092
Seems like a waste of electricity and time to me.
Just between me and my wife, I have to drive to the recycle dump on elm twice a month with a trunk load of recyclables. I'm not going to waste my time spoon feeding a shredding machine for some dinky rewards.
I think they are great. It will just encourage more people to recycle, especially if Reasors has some good rewards offered for enough points.
If Oklahoma ever really considers a bottle deposit/redemption law, these machines could also spit out nickels.
Quote from: RecycleMichael on July 08, 2010, 10:31:18 PM
I think they are great. It will just encourage more people to recycle, especially if Reasors has some good rewards offered for enough points.
If Oklahoma ever really considers a bottle deposit/redemption law, these machines could also spit out nickels.
I can remember when I was younger (elementary school; early/mid seventies) my mom taking bottles up to the grocery store (Red Bud at Adm/Mingo..now the center of that God-forsaken flea market mess) to get deposits on.
Quote from: RecycleMichael on July 08, 2010, 10:31:18 PM
I think they are great. It will just encourage more people to recycle, especially if Reasors has some good rewards offered for enough points.
If Oklahoma ever really considers a bottle deposit/redemption law, these machines could also spit out nickels.
Mike. What happened to Oklahoma and the bottle deposit ?
I used to collect those things, dirt clods and all from trash cans, ditches etc. That was my TG&Y candy money.
Pro: It encourages recycling and helps a good cause
Con: It only does aluminum cans and plastic bottles and it is not as convenient as curb side recycling or going to MET recycle center.
Currently I put my glass, plastic, aluminum, and paper out for curb side recycling and I take my books and cardboard to MET recycle center. I take my old printer cartridges, batteries, and electronics to Best Buy to recycle. http://www.bestbuy.com/recycle
I have said it once and I will keep saying it: Tulsa needs to get on board with RecycleBank http://www.recyclebank.com/
Quote from: DolfanBob on July 09, 2010, 08:25:56 AM
Mike. What happened to Oklahoma and the bottle deposit ?
I used to collect those things, dirt clods and all from trash cans, ditches etc. That was my TG&Y candy money.
Those were the returnable bottles that the bottlers would re-use to re-sell product. I remember the return racks next to soda machines. And yes, that was our TG&Y money or Steve's Sundries money ;) Great memories!
The bottle deposits in other states are for recyclables and aren't a reward from the bottler for returning them, far as I know. One of the funnier Seinfeld episodes was Newman and Kramer hi-jacking a mail truck to take bottles and cans to Michigan on a money-making scheme.
We never got a hearing on the deposit law in the legislature. We died in committee for the sixth or seventh time int he last two decades.
I thought we had a chance this time. The glass bottle industry hired a lobbyist and we had republicans author the bill. Unfortuinately, the beer and soft drink industry got together with the convenience store lobbyist and killed us dead again. Maybe the machines will make them feel differently in the future.
I like RecycleBank as well. I am friends with the guys who started it in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, they charge a premium. The cost to Tulsa trash customers would be over $500,000 a year. That is just not practical at this time.
Quote from: RecycleMichael on July 09, 2010, 10:42:54 AM
I like RecycleBank as well. I am friends with the guys who started it in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, they charge a premium. The cost to Tulsa trash customers would be over $500,000 a year. That is just not practical at this time.
Hopefully it will be practical soon. Tulsa needs to charge more for normal trash service, make it once a week, and charge by weight. They also need to make recycling manditory with weekly pickup.
How do you make recycling mandatory?
Quote from: Gaspar on July 09, 2010, 04:13:55 PM
How do you make recycling mandatory?
city ordinance
Quote from: custosnox on July 09, 2010, 04:25:34 PM
city ordinance
Let me rephrase. . .How do you enforce?
Quote from: Gaspar on July 09, 2010, 04:27:23 PM
Let me rephrase. . .How do you enforce?
I don't think you can. If there was a way to impose a penalty on the utility bill, though, it might empower people to start thinking about doing it.
Quote from: Hoss on July 09, 2010, 04:40:45 PM
I don't think you can. If there was a way to impose a penalty on the utility bill, though, it might empower people to start thinking about doing it.
You can't unless you have full time officers writing tickets for recycling and trash violations like they do in NYC. What I was more implying with my "manditory" comment was to charge everyone for recycling and give everyone bins. If you would rather only use trash you can but you will be charged more for having more weight in trash.
I don't think it is right that I have to pay the same as my neighbors with 18 kids that trash everything when I am 1 guy that recycles 80% or more of my trash.
Recycling is only mandatory in a couple of places in America. They usually make the trash guy be the initial enforcer. If he sees a milk jug or a soda can on top of the trash, he is instructed to leave all the trash on the curb. When the person complains about the missed trash, the city would explain the violation.
It just makes the non-recyclers hide their bottles and cans in the middle.
Mandatory pay is found in the vast majority of places that offer recycling and trash services. It is just included in the bill and the single charge covers all solid waste services, trash collection, recycling collection hazardous waste, tire and e-waste collection events or facilities, green waste sites and litter cleanup.
Some cities also include services like roadside mowing and graffiti removal in this single line on a utility bill.
Quote from: OpenYourEyesTulsa on July 09, 2010, 06:26:45 PM
I don't think it is right that I have to pay the same as my neighbors with 18 kids that trash everything when I am 1 guy that recycles 80% or more of my trash.
I agree with the sentiment. We could get away with trash service every other week most of the time, and I'm not even that good about recycling. But we do get a discount, since we use little enough water that we get charged the low generator rate.
I'm all for limiting the amount of trash that one gets to set out for the initial fee, but I don't really like a per pound charge. Not only is volume more important than weight when it comes to trash, it's just a nightmare to deal with. I'd like to see the city go to cart service citywide. If you can use the regular cart, great. If not, you get to pay extra for a bigger one. If that's still not big enough, then you get into paying for special bags. It's just much more practical to have broad classes of service than a literal per pound charge.
I do find it funny when people get recycling bins for no charge and refuse to use them. A friend of mine over in Arkansas refuses to use his new recycling bin. I laugh at him. It's not as if it's any harder to rinse a soda can or whatever and toss it in the bin than it is to throw it in the trash can.
I don't recycle, it's more hassle than it's worth, it costs money to recycle, and "going green" is not cheap everything about it is expensive. Some states like Michigan, Iowa, have a deposit on soft drink cans "N' bottles of 5 cents and 10 cents that you get back when you return the empty bottle, it's alot of hassle it's supposed to prevent bottle trash more than recycling. BTW I heard a interesting way to make electric cars go long distances, what you have is "battery exchange stations"- the station has batteries on charger racks and you "fill up" by putting your worn battey on the charger and taking a fresh charged battery from the rack and going on to the next battery exchange charge station when your battery runs low and you'll be charged only for the cost of the electric used to charge the battery. The problems with it though is that in time you'll have millions of worn out used up batteries full of toxic chemicals that need to be disposed of. The article about battery exchange stations was in a issue "Popular Science" Mag.
Jesus Christ kraut, if you're real, you're a freaking idiot. Over.
Actually the battery exchange station is not a system where you just toss out your battery and put in a new one by hand. It is actually a system that you drive up on and it automatically changes the battery. The depleted battery is then recharged and put into stock to be placed in the next car. Please try actually reading the article instead of glancing at it. Hell, if you would have read the discrption that goes with the graphic on the article you would have more of an idea what was going on with it. I'll let eveyone else explain how idiotic your comments on recycling is not worth it are.
Quote from: Townsend on July 10, 2010, 03:49:06 PM
Jesus Christ kraut, if you're real, you're a freaking idiot. Over.
+ eleventybillion
I respectfully disagree with you saurkraut.
Recycling saves money, especially if you factor in avoided costs like landfill fees and long-term monitoring and closure. In Tulsa even the customers are charged less. The City of Tulsa charges $1.70 every time the trash truck comes to your curb and only $.92 every time the recycle truck comes to your curb.
Recycling saves energy. A single pop can recycled saves enough energy to run your TV set for three hours.
Recycling creates jobs. I employ over a hundred workers with disabilities and Oklahoma has over 5,000 jobs in manufacturing of companies that use recycled materials as feed stock.
Then there is that whole argument about collecting natural resources. I wish we would be less reliant on virgin oil and more on using recycled plastic to make new plastics. Maybe we could have avoided a spill or two. You can also look to Tar Creek superfund site in Oklahoma as to the long term effect of mining metals out of the ground instead of using recycled metals. And don't forget logging to make simple paper instead of making it from recycled paper.
As to your comment to the electric car...I actually own one. I would love a system that exchanged batteries as needed while traveling. My car can run about twenty five miles on a full charge and it takes about two hours to fully recharge when power is low.
Quote from: sauerkraut on July 10, 2010, 03:14:20 PM
.... The article about battery exchange stations was in a issue "Popular Science" Mag.
Knowing you, likely it was Issue 1
Quote from: Hoss on July 10, 2010, 08:41:18 PM
Knowing you, likely it was Issue 1
heh, actually it was within about the last year, give or take. It was an eco themed issue with a lot of concept designs, which this was one of. While a pretty good idea, I don't really see it taking off, at least any time soon. If you really want to know, I still have it, I just have to look through them and find the right one.
Quote from: Townsend on July 10, 2010, 03:49:06 PM
Jesus Christ kraut, if you're real, you're a freaking idiot. Over.
Actually, he has his head so far up a certain part of his anatomy he can watch while he flosses his teeth.