Materials and Waste

Recycle !

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I was listening to the NPR story about what is recyclable and what isn’t at the grocery store. 🍱Honestly I think it’s too much work for the consumer – waste disposal needs to be convenient if you want people to dispose of waste responsibly. ♻ Disposable materials need to be non toxic and recyclable or compostable. I don’t think people should have to spend tons of time scrubbing out containers or figuring out which bin 🚮 to put things in. It should be easy and sustainable.

There really should be more national leadership on waste management, it shouldn’t fall on the consumer. One good thing is that toxic, smelly burning PVC has fallen out of use for disposable packaging, as has glass, which can’t be burned, often breaks as litter, and is difficult to recycle ♻ even if it in theory it’s fully closed loop. ➰

Recycling

Plastic Bottle Litter

Smolders

Sand Dune, Fence, Landfill

After a trash truck dumped a fiery load, dozens of mobile homes burned and an 89-year-old woman died – Los Angeles Times

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After a trash truck dumped a fiery load, dozens of mobile homes burned and an 89-year-old woman died – Los Angeles Times

The Sandalwood fire, named for a street near the mobile home park, began last Thursday around 2 p.m. and burned more than 1,000 acres over five days. It started when the driver of a garbage truck dumped a “hot load” — a pile of burning trash — along the side of 7th Street, said Capt. Fernando Herrera, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Garbage trucks often haul a dangerous cocktail of combustible items — batteries, pesticides, paint — and it’s not unheard of for drivers to dump a simmering load, Herrera said. Many residents of the mobile home park said it seemed unnecessarily reckless to drop the load next to a canyon of dry shrub backing up to the park. Ultimately, the fire destroyed 76 mobile homes and killed Arvickson and a second victim, whom officials haven’t yet publicly identified.