Up here in Canada the leaders of each political party are selected by conventions. And each party exerts complete control over any candidates who associate themselves with that party. If you do not toe the line and vote on party lines, you get booted out, losing a lot of benefits. The leader of our Liberal party is Trudeau, he was selected by one of those conventions. But past that point, he is at the mercy of the voting citizen. He represents the riding of Papineau (in Montreal) and his fate is decided by (by 2015 standards) 78,000 ordinary voting citizens.
I look at the President of the USA, and there is no direct link between that office and the average Joe on the street.
There are a couple of places that go around picking up specific plastics from commercial locations, and in many retail stores there are bins where you can return the plastic grocery bags to be recycled. THAT⌠IS⌠IT. Joe Citizen out here has no place to take his plastic waste to be recycled. Sure, there MIGHT be a few such locations in a couple of different states, but Iâm not planning to drive cross-country all the way out to California just to drop off a few plastic bottles and containers.
Good one! That is hilarious! Youâre a funny olâ bastard sometimes! ⌠Oh, wait⌠⌠You were being serious? Uh, wow⌠In that case, there is something you need to know. Last time I voted, I looked all over the ballot and could not find the name of a single industry leader or multi-billion dollar corporation CEO anywhere on it. You know, the people who CONTROL our politicians? In case you didnât get the memo, our âvoting systemâ here is a joke. It is in place simply to give people the DELUSION of having a choice. âWe The Peopleâ no longer have control of our country. We are now just along for the ride and trying to hold on as best we can.
Unfortunately when it comes to plastic recycling, you will never get anywhere in America because it flat out isnât profitable for big business, and any small fish will get gobbled up by foreign competitors who down cycle and ultimately everything ends up in the heap anyways
Itâs a time consuming labor intensive practice that cannot be scaled up efficiently. Unless there is some revolutionary new tech that can scale, it will never happen here.
Itâs time to start looking at compostable items, especially for single use items that have a short shelf life. Again though this is a massive costly change in tooling and equipment. Then again, WHERE do you compost all of these items?
There are no short easy answers to these problems. All we can do is try and try again.
Glass has many of the same issues. The stuff just isnât usable. I am also really down on paper and I do not trust the supposed research that is being pushed on the public. All paper ends up in the land fill or burned. The fact that it is now reused doesnât really matter. (Itâs a long story⌠I donât want to get into it now.)
We need a better solution. Recycling is not working. The university I worked for was paperless; however, we still used a lot of paper (books, tests, and such.) All administrative stuff was dealt with over the university moodle. Paperless industry would be a step in the right direction,.
The company I worked at previously used Kaokao talk to communicate to all employees. You have message trail just like on paper as long as you save messages. What we resented was 24/7 access to the teachers, and no compensation for our phones. They are our phones after all, not the schoolâs. Management would get all bent is someone didnât have their phone on them. LOL - I told them to Email me. (True Story). Of course, I didnât answer to the managers though they sometimes thought that I did. (I was special.) Just like mommy said⌠(Yea, I know. When she called me special, she didnât mean it in a good way. But Iaways pretended she did.)
So many food products in âpaperâ⌠I think more about our forests and woods. Recycling does reuse MATERIALS so there is some benefit to the environment. It may be expensive - may use some extra energy resources BUT with billions of people on earth, WE do need to RE-USE what we can.
When I first got to Korea, every public toilet I went to was a squatter. Now Koreans are Bidet crazy. I have not seen a squatter in years but even bus stations have Bidets. (Toilet paper was not provided when they used squatters. Everyone carried toilet paper with them.) Now that Bidets are everywhere, all the stalls also have toilet paper in them? LOL⌠Go paperless and use more paper.
Those are interesting studies, but I would like to see published data on what exactly is left behind from these microbes and bacteria? There are almost always byproducts from any chemical reaction that an organism produces. Sure they may be insignificant in testing, but what happens at scale? Bacteria and microbes most often emit CO2 or methane as a byproduct. Also the food source, how polluted or mixed can it be with other products or waste? Or even the possibility of the opposite, how much food is too much? Itâs like when I make wine, I have the potential to make 18% alcohol, but the yeast start to die at 12% alcohol because they are living in their own waste. Itâs all very plausible but is it scaleable to size we need?
Iâve read great things about fungus eating oil and removing it from soil. The issue is even after the fungus eats the oil, what other additives and chemicals are left behind? Also the soil is still nutrient deficient for decades if not mended by human processing. I wish these solutions were silver bullets, they might be but theyâre still a long way off from practical use.
I think you just made my point for me. That the USA is a third world country in terms of sustainability and recycling.
In my State we have bottle recycling (10c refunds) in every suburb ( local govt run). Charities and pensioners like me love it.
We have a composting bin for organics collected every week. we have a âyellow binâ for card. paper and recyclables, then a small red bin for landfill (anything that donât go in the others).
In addition we have recycling points in every suburb/township for aerosols, and another for batteries and electronics.
We have made great strides in the last 5 years, It took effort, lobbying, VOTING and scaring the blue fuck out of the deniers in power when they started losing their seats in local and State government.
What else? we have just started a âloan Bankâ for things like party flags, Tools, cutlery, plates and pans anything that might otherwise be bought then trashed.
We also have (where I volunteered) a monthly Repair Shop where household items were repaired for free by qualified or gifted amateur volunteers. Anything from replacing zips, to toys (me) electrical goods. That saved a few tonnes from landfill.
Fuck the CEOâs you can do it yourself. There is an appetite nowadays for these conservation activities and a groundswell of support.
See what you can do with your obvious skills in your communityâŚthat is where change really starts.
Mate, the only way to cure that is to vote for the politician that stands for sustainability etc etc. Our last election delivered a punch in the face to the âpowers that beâ by electing Independents all over what used to be two party territory. Not just electing them but by thumping majorities and swings away from their traditional âownersâ.
There is hope, you just gotta get out there, campaign, volunteer, make noise and lobby. Whinging is not an option unless you want nothing to change. Be active, MAKE A DIFFERENCE, it wont be just you.
Even in buck-fuck nowhere I drive into town to recycle about every 3 months. I have a bit of a âcompostâ; my animals eat a lot of leftovers;
I reuse about everything and anything till it has to go to the garbage.
Old or outgrown pjs and towels become rags (etc). Egg cartons get reused profusely (vedg/plant starter: paint or glue holder, etc).
@Tin-Man I didnât even think that in this day and age, recycling wouldnât even be close to you.
Ugh⌠⌠You are not paying attention. What part of âOur voting system is a fucking jokeâ did you not understand? Sure, in maybe a few local city counsel, or small-town mayor, or maybe even upwards of some county public official elections you might get a fairly legit public servant into office. Fine. Great. But they control NOTHING beyond their immediate microscopic portion of the entire monster machine that has become our government. ANYBODY trying to strive beyond some local office position has to learn how to play the âCorporate Gameâ in order to advance their âpolitical careerâ to a position where they could actually make a big difference. Because it takes HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars and âendorsementsâ from high-ranking âimportantâ sponsors to even have a remote chance on the âcampaign trailâ. Meaning, by the time they reach that level of âpublic officeâ they are OWNED by those corporations and/or independently wealthy billionaires who have their own agendas they want pushed. And the media sells these sock puppets to the public like a fucking used car salesman at the local car lot.
So, please, explain to me again how this voting stuff works.
Politicians/shock jocks jump on the environment. Youâll get all sorts of mis-information and dis-information - which can play a big part in a personâs view.
A recent example is here in Alberta. The Fed Govt (Liberal) has set a goal for a 30% reduction in fertilizer to be met by 2030. The Conservatives are using this as a âforcedâ food reduction and unattainable etc.
Living here I can tell you first hand that most farmers that are family run are fine with it. Theyâve already invested in alternatives and they are getting PAID to reduce (by the Feds) harmful, extra fertilizer spread.
The ears that the Conservatives are getting is the BIG corporate farms (Hutterite Colonies). They buy up huge swaths of land. They donât pay their workers (literally a communist set up) BUT they take all family âbenefitsâ (CCB, GST rebates, Climate refunds) - no personal property ownership, no food choices (meals are communal and preplanned), no freedom of movement or outside information. Under educated with NO outside social training (ie opening a bank account)⌠high religious control.
They DO NOT believe in SCIENCE at all! Dinosaurs did NOT exist. Pregnant women HIDE their pregnancies from children. BUT they have all the regular human abuses - murder, rape, spousal abuse, child abuse, alcoholism/drugs etc BUT very little outside investigating or accountability.
ANYWAY ⌠itâs these big farms that are really kicking up a stink in Alberta over fertilizer goals.
Like I said, we recycle aluminum cans and scrap metal. All scrap food goes to our dogs, or to the large compost areas over by our gardens. Absolutely nowhere around here to take plastic other than the landfills. And I do use old t-shirts and such as cleaning rags and various other things. My wife makes fun of me (in a good-natured way) for hanging on to what she calls âjunkâ, but eventually the scrap pieces of whatever tend to get used in some project or another. (Matter of fact, the playset I just built for my grandson is largely made from scrap materials.)
Do not vote on party lines but vote for the candidate that offers viable solutions. Even if their political agenda appears distasteful to you, they have the solution. And let all candidates know that is what you base your votes on.
I believe that until our elected officials can stand there and say the constitution and rule of law is first in ther decision process, not a religion first, weâre screwed, just bouncing between crisis guardrails.
But this is how it has been forever, or close to it. People buy what they are sold, people are always looking for the easy way, until they are whacked with a immediate problem.
But by all means vote. If for no other reason then to vote against the American Taliban,
Donât diminish your impact on things just because it feels insignificant to you. Sure we all want to be the scientist or activist that fixes some huge problem, but thatâs not reality.
I think about the price of every piece of produce I grow, all the time. Any piece of produce I donât buy equals a surplus, and if there is a surplus, price goes down over time. Is it an immediate and noticeable impact? No. Yet if every person with a yard would get rid of their stupid overly manicured waste of earth and plant any kind of food, we do a lot of damage on global food scarcity.
Obviously thatâs pie in the sky thinking, but what other option is there? I always tell people at work, You can either laugh and enjoy it, or cry and hate it. So if we are looking at a hopelessly impossible hurdle, whatâs the shame in trying our hardest to jump it? It wonât matter in the end anyways, and maybe just maybe we barely flop over that bar like that moronic fan trying to catch a fowl ball head first 15 feet down to a thud on the field? Iâm ok with any landing I can walk away from.
Start at the city levelâŚthat is what we did. We have/had the same problems with politicians being bought by predominately fossil fuel interests and even bilionaires spending millions to influence electionsâŚthis time it just did not work for them
So, tell me again how this activism works?
Only you and like minded people can make it work. Commitment, and starting from the ground upâŚtry it you might be surprised. Why dont you try setting one of these up locally? I could not believe how popular ours became starting in cafes/diners on Sunday mornings once a month. . Been going (with a hiccup for Covid) 5 years now. Just got our own permanent premises. https://www.repaircafe.org/en/about/
Wow, just got done checking out the repair cafe idea. As a maintenance mechanic this is something that interests me deeply. I spend all my time fixing up and keeping dinosaur old equipment running for a living. I guess why not try to do it for a better cause?
It is amazing how many âunfixableâ things I have fixed over the years. I have machined parts for machines that are 87 years old, and still running!!! I called a supplier for a replacement part, he said we havenât made that part for 20 years. Well bust out the vertical mill and the lathe itâs part making time!
I just wish everyone could experience fixing a complex electromechanical machine. Itâs like an epic journey from start to finish.
⌠You were being serious? Uh, wow⌠In that case, there is something you need to know. Last time I voted, I looked all over the ballot and could not find the name of a single industry leader or multi-billion dollar corporation CEO anywhere on it. You know, the people who CONTROL our politicians? In case you didnât get the memo, our âvoting systemâ here is a joke. It is in place simply to give people the DELUSION of having a choice. âWe The Peopleâ no longer have control of our country. We are now just along for the ride and trying to hold on as best we can.
?
MATERIALS so there is some benefit to the environment. It may be expensive - may use some extra energy resources BUT with billions of people on earth, WE do need to RE-USE what we can.
that was appealing and could be easily accessible worldwide (& cheap???)
about every 3 months. I have a bit of a âcompostâ; my animals eat a lot of leftovers;