An interesting observation?

Question

I was finally forced this morning by my loving wife to clean out some of the ‘old junk’ from the garage and take it down to the local council dump on pain of no Sunday roast until it’s done :). To get in to the dump I had to wait in a queue of cars about a mile long coming from both directions, all with there engines running, pumping out tons of pollution by the minute.

What surprised me more than anything was that about 85% of the people in this queue fell into to categories. The first was the people who could not store there household general rubbish and food waste in this heat for two weeks until the council collected it. The second was people whose cars were full of grass, plant and tree clippings after doing their gardens.

Now, I ask you? Is this helping to lower anyone’s carbon footprint? Is this really better for the environment or is actually MORE damaging to the environment as I suspect it is?

Answer 1

I don't believe half this crap about damaging the planet. I think the planet gets hot and cold by itself whatever we do.

Answer 2

I guess a lot of people neither know nor care what a carbon footprint is. Ignorance breeds ignorance as well as contempt.
Garden waste can be taken advantage of by making a compost heap, a very useful and ecological addition to any garden, and I'm surprised the people who run the dump don't know this and inform people. Maybe you could suggest it to your local council, thereby reducing everyone's carbon footprint, including your own by getting these people out of the traffic queue.

By the way, and with apologies:
'There' = not here
'Their' = belonging to them

Answer 3

they are idiots who cannot get it together to make a compost heap.

COMPOST

bones,treetrunks,cardboard,egg... clothes(if they are organic),poop,leaves,kitchen waste,foodscraps,newspaper,
your mother inlaw and kitty litter
and even the dead cat

All can be put on the compost heap

as long as you seal it with a covering of leaves .or put a piece of plastic on top ,
keep it moist and in the shade ,it will then get hot enough to kill all parasites

the worms will devellop,and take care of everything ,the moisture helps decomposition

the plastic keeps in the moisture and protects the worms from predators .like chickens ,birds armadillos,and even dogs .i have seen going in to eat my worm culture

you could add a bit of lime now and again
to make the process more potent

HOW
make the compost in a shallow hole ,so that it retains more humidity,
about 2 square meters is good ,and have it under a tree or put a little roof over i t,which does not have to be water proof ,so a palm thatch is enough,

and makesure the garden sprinkler gets there or spray some water on it ,at least once a week,dont have it water logged or the worms will drown or leave


Organic waste is responsible for 70% of contamination in Land fills if it goes out with the trash ,so please do not do this

Burning is the worst you can do.
trash includes plastics ,and worst of all styrofoam ,
the smoke from this is pure poison for the air one of the greatest factors towards airpolution like burning tires

and leaves are the trees way of making top soil
one should never burn leaves but place them around trees to add to their food
or use them to make compost

RECYCLING
Cardboard is also acceptable for recycling

so is glass if you classify it in colors,and
aluminium cans

Answer 4

You should never take yard waste to the landfill. most places have compost programs that you should drop off yard waste at. If they don't, it is the city council, who are not doing their job, combined with local companies who use plenty of compost, but aren't thrifty enough to start their own composting program to acquire cheaper material. And its really sad, to see people that concerned about their yards, not composting, which leads me to believe they are using chemical fertilizers, which is wasting their money, and in some cases far worse for the land that they are applying it to.

the long lines of cars with their engine on, is very wasteful. not only is it adding more pollution to the problem, but its very wasteful on the part of the person leaving their car running. they are not only wasting their own money, but wasting their time they used to make the money, and wasting resources.

i to, have made the same observations, but what really sickens me, is when you get up there to toss in the small amount of stuff you have, you notice a bunch of the stuff can be recycled or sold at garage sales.
I usually end up leaving with more stuff that i brought, at these city-wide clean up programs, slap a small price on some of it for the garage sale, and recycle other material.
alot of that stuff that people dump at those things, can be donated to charities, or recycled, it just comes down to the fact, that some people are to lazy or feel they are above donating to charities and recycling.

I once found a huge oak table someone threw away. the detail on it caught my eye. so i pulled it out and loaded it up.
It was in great shape except for varnish was water damaged, looked like it had been sitting out in the rain for a while. but the wood was surprisingly in great shape.
I took it home stripped it and stained it. i liked it, so i was going to keep it. One day at a garage sale, a guy noticed it in the back of my garage, and asked me if i wanted to sell it.
I was thinking...yeah if he wanted to give me $50-60 bucks i would let him have it, so i asked him what he was offering.
He ended up giving me $475 for the table. not bad for something i got for free, and prevented from sitting in the landfill for decades.

Answer 5

Maybe you should of had a yard sale with a lot of free to a good home stuff. Or put an ad for someone who does flea markets to come get the stuff.

Answer 6

having to visit a local dump for certain waste can be more damaging yes .........our council will not take glass, garden rubbish(biodegradable )....with re/cycle collections .....so its either try to put out with general waste or a trip down the tip..!!!

Answer 7

i think for the household waste the counicl is to blame, i think the gardeners should learn how to use compost bins.

Answer 8

as long as man continues to breed without control adding more and more people to this smaller by the minute earth then no matter what measures are put in place there will be no improvement what so ever...people will always want want want!!.....think about it!

Answer 9

Sounds like your local tax dollars are hard at work.