In the past few years, one of the core pillars of the environmental movement — recycling — has fallen on hard times. News dispatches reveal hundreds of cities and counties scaling back their recycling programs because of the high costs associated with processing recyclables and the lack of demand for the materials. A new conventional wisdom is gaining ground suggesting that recycling may not be worth the effort.
But is that true? And has recycling ever gotten a fair shake? After decades, less than a third of municipal solid waste is recycled — and much of that is contaminated with garbage, which diminishes or destroys its value. Almost 50 years after the first Earth Day, are we really ready to admit defeat and return to the “Mad Men”-era ethos of the “throwaway society”?
The root of the crisis starts with the way recycling has been presented to the public. There are thousands of confusing recycling instructions on bins throughout the country, which makes people skeptical and apathetic about recycling, and projects the message that recycling is unimportant. And the inconsistent labels on bins lead to millions of tons of garbage being thrown into recycling bins. The contamination is extremely expensive to try to pull out of the recyclables during processing, which makes the recycled commodities less desirable to manufacturers — and, therefore, makes it less cost effective to recycle.
Some of the biggest and most dominant recycling companies in the U.S. are owned by landfill companies. Therefore, when recycling doesn’t work well, the landfill side of their businesses becomes more profitable. You’ll notice in many news articles, the recycling professionals that are providing the excuses why recycling isn’t profitable or isn’t worth it right now are often working for or funded by the landfill industry, the virgin materials industry or the waste-to-energy incinerator industry.
When there is this type of conflict of interest at such an influential level in the recycling industry, it becomes clear why the simple issue of public confusion at the bin wasn’t resolved. Because when recycling is highly contaminated and too costly to process, then the landfills generate more revenues, the virgin material industries sell more virgin materials and there is a stronger appetite for building incinerators that burn waste to create energy.
Which are really cool and cute Japanese dog breeds. Let me introduce you to these other cool and cute Japanese dogs, which I think deserve equal attention.
The Kishu Inu:
The Hokkaido Ken:
The Kai Ken:
The Shikoku Inu:
I just really love dogs, and look how cool they are! Dogs!!!
Yeah I love them all, but there’s just something about the Shikoku…
Hey, I can’t believe I need to say this while the Holocaust is still in LIVING MEMORY but Jews, including white Jews, are not “allies” in the fight against Nazis, and if you think they are and that Jewish concerns shouldn’t be centered at anti-Nazi rallies, you need to look up what a Nazi actually is.
occupations i’m considering: -the witch who lives in the cedar tree down the street -an entire pack of wolves -one of those cichlids who live in shells -dryad
The valley reopened Tuesday after being closed since July 25 due to the deadly fire burning in nearby forestland. It was a surreal scene as thousands of visitors streamed into the nearly empty park, passing by the flames and surveying the iconic vistas shaded by a smoky haze.
Yosemite is one of several spots across California to be altered by a hellish summer of fire and heat that has left 11 people dead and destroyed more than 1,000 homes from Redding to San Diego.
The Ferguson fire has been burning for more than a month, starting July 13 from still undetermined reasons, and has scorched 96,606 acres throughout the Sierra National Forest and in Yosemite National Park. While the fire never reached the landmarks of Yosemite, the smoke was so intense that the valley had to be closed during the peak of the summer tourist season, not only wrecking travel plans but also starving local businesses.
The blaze, which has claimed the lives of two firefighters, was at 86% containment Tuesday, with the last active spot being a region between Wawona Road and the Merced River — essentially the steep, rocky hillside that visitors see when they enter the park on El Portal Road.
Visitors streaming into the valley Tuesday from Highway 140, which becomes El Portal Road once inside Yosemite, were greeted with a sign warning them they were not allowed to stop for the next seven miles, an effort by park staff to keep people from gawking at the firefighters still at work. A few lookout points nearest to the flames were cordoned off with yellow caution tape and orange cones.
Helicopters with buckets full of water from the Merced River flew over cars entering the park.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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