Materials and Waste 📍

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For Most Things, Recycling Harms the Environment | AIER

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For Most Things, Recycling Harms the Environment | AIER

For recycling to be a socially commendable activity, it has to pass one of two tests: the profit test, or the net environmental-savings test. If something passes the profit test, it’s likely already being done. People are already recycling gold or other commodities from the waste stream, if the costs of doing so are less than the amount for which the resource can be sold.?

Voluntary “recycling” like scrap iron or aluminum businesses will take care of that on their own. The real question arises with mandatory recycling programs — people recycle because they will be fined if they don’t, not because they expect to make money—or “voluntary” recycling programs such as those at universities or other communities where failure to recycle earns you public shaming.

EPA investigates toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in pesticides | TheHill

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EPA investigates toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in pesticides | TheHill

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating the presence of toxic chemicals in pesticides, which may be coming from their plastic containers, it said on Friday.?

The agency said in a statement that its testing showed that the chemicals, belonging to a family of substances called PFAS, were "most likely formed" by a reaction while fluorine was being put into the containers, and then "leached into the pesticide product."

The agency said it was still early in its investigation, and that it will use "all available regulatory and non-regulatory tools to determine the scope of this emerging issue."?

Fucking garbage

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Going through those drawers I was thinking how much fucking garbage there is… 🚮

Just random things that I’ve used for one project or another, to repair a broken thing or improve something else. It’s the $5 purchase here or there at Lowes, a tool that worked for a while but then broke and stuck in a drawer, or the thing I might need for a future project but not now. I am starting to go through it and get rid of the things that are truly useless, but so much of the crap can’t be easily recycled or even burnt, it really has to go to the landfill. I don’t buy a lot of things online — been really six months since I ordered anything online — and try to refuse free gifts whenever possible, but things just seem to accumulate in our consumer culture with so much cheap stuff everywhere. It’s really obnoxious.

Focus on waste reduction, not recycling – Resource Recycling

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In My Opinion: Focus on waste reduction, not recycling – Resource Recycling

The survey found that three out of four respondents think the United States is doing too little to protect natural resources like water, air, wildlife and land. Seventy-four percent of respondents think the average American consumes too many natural resources, and three out of four say they are willing to reduce their personal consumption by buying only what they need.

While the vast majority believe society has a moral responsibility to prevent wildlife extinctions and they acknowledge a connection between consumption patterns and environmental impact, nearly half of all respondents said they think they consume fewer resources than the average American.