Recycling Taking Aways Peoples Jobs?!

So says my father! I don't beileve it one bit! I don't know to much about recyling but I do know that to my knoweldge of things that are a renewable resource I will recyle them! My dad says I'm a b1tch becuase I'm taking away our neighbors jobs. He says that people dig through the garbage and pick out things that can be recyled. I did know that, but what I also know is they can't get everything out of the trash. Who wants to be a garbage picker anyways?! Another thing he says is when I use water to clean out the cans/plastic bottles that have sugar in them I'm wasting water. Which means I'm not recylcing in the first place! I'm just dumbfounded about these remarks that my father is saying. I live next to a semi-busy road and people through garbage out their car windows where I walk my dogs, so I go out and pick up most things that I can-when I come home my father says that its disgusting. I don't want my momma looking disgusting though, and isn't helping the enviroment beautiful in the first place, and garbage laying on the ground disgusting? Give me some advice on what to tell my father please, I'm not sure of what to say to him

 

That's rubbish. It think it's just some lame-ass excuse so that he can justify not recycling stuff. It sounds like you may need to educate him a bit. Try looking on Wikipedia or Google - type in something like "The benefits of recycling" or "The effects of rubbish on the environment". Maybe those are a bit too specific for Google, but they are guidelines. Maybe someone here can be more specific, but it sounds as though you're in a bit of a pickle.

 

When he comments about you picking up roadside trash, just say "I'm keeping America Beautiful" (Its an old anti-liter slogan)

 

they wash everything at the recycling plant.
so you are wasting water there.
you also end up creating more carbon dioxide through the whole recycling apparatus (trucks, people, recylcing plants) than you would if you just manufactured it....

recycling is one of those things that people do because if they feel like they can easily make the world better, than the problems aren't so hard. it's a logical fallacy.

 

I hate it when people criticize me when I pick up garbage and recycle and such! A friend told me the other day that she'll throw garbage bags full of stuff out the window on the highway, because, "If I don't litter, people on community service will have nothing to do."
Isn't that the biggest bunch of horseshit you've ever heard?

 

As if a handful of garbage makes pavement worse.

 

Picking up garbage in NW PA doesn't mean picking up garbage off of pavement. It means picking it up out of mother earth. Should have made the distinction.

 

it depends on what you're recycling, actually. somethings recycle easily and produce less wastes, and somethings are just a waste to recycle.

but far better than recycling is just not using so much crap in the first place.

 

I agree you should try and use less in the first place but IDK if you have ever been to a dump you can see the piles of EVERYTHING. SO you dont think recycling or reusing, upcycling whateva you want to call it or say about it is a good idea? I seen in the dump thousands of computers and parts. If people had taken the time to donate the computers to places or heck just paid to have it taken away and disposed of properly I think it would help save our mother earth. I know that we have a place that if you pay them they take back your computer parts and almost anything electrical, tvs dvd players you name it for a minimal fee and then they take the stuff and make it into stuff that they resell that works just fine. I am about to buy a redone laptop from them right now. I know that some people say its a waste but I have seen people upcycle there old keyboard keys and made them into necklaces on etsy and its so cool. What about that alternative?

Im not sure if its more of a waste then what its worth to wash your bottles and things before they go to the recycling place or not but I know that our MOSA will not take anything that has food in it and that has not been cleaned out yet. THey will just junk it into the regular garbage pile.

I do however think that instead of throwing away your garbage like your bananna peels and such you should think about using them to make a compost bin, you can even use human hair in there I dont throw anything out and I feed a few racoons we have here the rest of the meat and things so I never throw any food away in the garbage. Im sure some of you are goin to comment that throwing the meat out to the racoons will make them dependant on humans but Im very doubtful of that plus they would just get into the garbages outside someway or somehow. So I just check the eggshells I have an meat and stuff out to them...........

 

recycling may be "taking away other people's jobs" but its also giving others new jobs... also, i must add... picking through garbage isn't necessarily a job unless you're told by some sort of manager to do it. whatever the reason, there are still garbage pickers picking through the garbage ignorant people don't bother to recycle in the first place.
recycling may be "a waste of time" or whatever anyone else would like to say but what would happen when we run out of stuff all your precious food products and other merchandise come from?
how would it be when you can hardly breathe because they cut down all of our trees?
cutting down trees is pointless, honestly, we can get more of a paper resource from being allowed to grow hemp in our farms [which they were working on that] and yes... hemp AKA the male cannabis plant.
please recycle.

 

Sounds like your dad is an ass that likes to push your buttons.

I've heard the arguments of: Don't stop clear cutting forests - people will lose jobs! Don't stop clubbing seals, fishing cod - people will lose jobs! Don't start driving greener cars - people will lose jobs!

I gotta admit, " Don't recycle - the homeless won't have profitable garbage to sort through!" takes the cake though. I mean, that's so seriously weak I don't know if I'd even bother arguing or convincing the person that said it. S

So I suppose that's my advice - Nod and smile when he starts in on you and keep doing what you're doing. Maybe he'll lay off once he sees he's not getting a rise out of you.

 

Tell him you could give two shits about a few people's jobs, when you can do the "work" yourself, thus ensuring a better future for your children and his grandchildren.. if he followed in your footsteps and looked in to helping instead of hindering.

The only thing you can really do is educate him, even if its as subtle as leaving information around the house or bringing home an informative movie or educating yourself in order to have informed conversation with him about these topics. Don't take anyone calling you a bitch either, especially your father.

 

is garbage picking really a job?

 

Recycled aluminum saves 95% energy vs. virgin aluminum; recycling of one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours (Reynolds Metal Company)

Recycled glass saves 50% energy vs. virgin glass (Center for Ecological Technology) (EPA)

Recycled paper saves 60% energy vs. virgin paper (Center for Ecological Technology)

The county has curb side recycling here and people still go through it the bins before the county truck comes by. Although, its not the homeless people. One person I saw going through it was driving a brand new Lexus so I'm not sure what that means. People are making money of recycling, so the jobs may be changing but overall, everyone is benefiting from it.

 

that is truely with out a doubt fucked up!! I would have to smack her up if she did that!

 

So what's beautiful and trash free scenery worth? Sometimes it's not about "wasting time" and it's not about money. Sometimes it's just the right thing to do. I pick up roadside trash constantly. I pick it ALL up and I get some spare change for the recycled stuff - so that's my pay. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with going thru people's junk. I know of someone who built their ENTIRE 3 room home out of stuff they found in the town dump. Even the nails, the furniture and dishes. Everything.

Taking away people's jobs is horseshit! If all we can do is pollute and add to the growing trash problem then it's time to find some new jobs that contribute to making the earth a cleaner and better place. I HATE that idea that it's OK to toss out the trash along the road so it gives someone else something to do. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that's just a lame and stupid excuse for being trashy.

Now comes the hard to swallow part. "Mother nature" does not give a rats ass if you throw your bottles and cans and stuff out on the roadsides. She covers it up with dirt and leaves, the bugs and snails and small crawly things like mice make homes in the containers. Bottles become interesting terariums. And if there is ENOUGH trash laying around the rats and cockroaches can live high on the hog. So, I guess us humans just need to realize that if we are out there trying to clean up the mess, we are doing it for EACH OTHER. We are HELPING the human race to have a prettier place to live.

If you are worried about wasting water, put some buckets out under the eves and collect some rain water.

There is NEVER anything wrong with doing right! Your dad should be old enough to know better.

 

It disgust me that people litter and throw garbage on this beautiful earth but I also understand someone makes a living cleaning that mess.

 

Is there an occupation that does that?....I don't think so if you have trash put it in a can. The elite sometimes think there are lowly individuals just waiting to pick up their trash.

Someone picks it up because some of us just can't stand the trash. But no one is making a living off picking up your trash because you are lazy.

 

Bag ladies... I've seen several poor people picking up soda cans and such to take them in to a plant and get like 5 cents a pop for them... But money is what motivates them.

 

So why not bag your cans and give them to the bag ladies? Perhaps you wouldn't want to get that close to them. But throwing your trash out is a charitable act. Praise be!