Are landfills the best solution for rubbish

[Jeff Rosenbury]

You've lost me here. Government policies to work for free where? At your place of work?

Policies such as forcing people to sort their own garbage rather than having a company do it. Another example is forced community service as a form of punishment. Another is the use of prison labor to manufacture stuff. So prisoners manufacture the garbage, people sort it for free, then those guilty of minor crimes clean up the recycling center. Honest citizens have to compete with this free labor.

But at least it's not racially motivated slavery. (I'm not claiming it is racially unbiased though.)

I think the Green movement tends to be run by upper middle class people with little understanding of the costs they incur with simple plans built on their justified outrage. But perhaps I'm wrong? Does anyone have data?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Policies such as forcing people to sort their own garbage rather than having a company do it.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Here in San Diego, everyone is supplied with a recycling bin along with their trash bin, but actually using the recycling bin is completely optional.

Is it mandatory to recycle where you live?

 

[Jeff Rosenbury]

Russ, it's easier to look at uber-rich than rich. Further they have more input on social decisions than the rich, at least individually (though probably not as a group). Tracking the rich is harder.

Would you accept a list of the richest counties? These can be compared to a map of deaths per state from coal. I would note that the large plant near D.C. (and all those rich counties) is actually a gas fired plant though it still retains its coal capability for emergencies. Meanwhile Californians are dying to air pollution other than direct coal burning.

Looking at the map in your link, there is a lot of risk in the East. Excepting a few counties around Washington and other large cities the mortality effects are much higher. Examining the list of rich counties, it seems to match the counties with low risk of mortality. Still, not all rich people live in rich counties.

But let me be clear, I'm not arguing against burning coal. There are costs to not burning coal such as not having power for hospitals and the like. Nor am I arguing against rich people. I believe some people provide more value to society than others and deserve more money. But I also believe that everyone is of some value, and we shouldn't ignore people just because they work lower paying jobs in poor areas. A fast food employee serves her fellow humans as much as Donald Trump, even if Trump has a larger economic impact.

We should promote economic policies which help everyone, not just rich people. Giving free labor to rich people seems churlish to me.

 

[Jeff Rosenbury]

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Here in San Diego, everyone is supplied with a recycling bin along with their trash bin, but actually using the recycling bin is completely optional.

Is it mandatory to recycle where you live?

No, but I've lived places where it is.

 

[zoobyshoe]

No, but I've lived places where it is.

I just checked and, ironically, San Diego does, allegedly, have mandatory recycling. I say "allegedly" because I have never seen, or heard of it, being enforced.

 

[wolram]

In the UK we have three bins one for rubbish one for garden waste and one for recycling, i think the bins are not checked for proper usage. it is up to the user, but obviously if the collectors saw a branch sticking out of the recycle bin they would say some thing.

 

[Jeff Rosenbury]

In the UK we have three bins one for rubbish one for garden waste and one for recycling, i think the bins are not checked for proper usage. it is up to the user, but obviously if the collectors saw a branch sticking out of the recycle bin they would say some thing.

I've heard stories from the U.K. It seems the local authorities vary quite a bit in trash rules and enforcement. The stories I've heard were of authoritarian excess, but they probably were the worst of the worst.

 

[wolram]

There are extremes, like this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-dumping-wrong-items-wrong-bin-scrapped.html

I think there was good and bad in this argument, things should be sorted into the correct bins, the to early dumping is okay.