Guy:
"Which is better, composting or recycling?"
Me:
no solid answer, but here are some pros and cons of each. composting seems like a clear winner, until you get to the part where recycling actually reduces the production of NEW materials, which is always a very good thing.
composting -
- material is handled locally, reducing GHG/costs associated with transportation
- output is an organic soil amendment
- keeps organic matter out of the landfill, where it would be producing methane
- the program can be expensive to implement and maintain
- may falsely encourage people to be less conservative in creating green waste
- some materials are transported a long distance to be processed (plastic & paper are sent to china, for example). however, often times these materials are loaded into container ships that might otherwise be returned completely empty
- output material replaces virgin materials, which is less environmentally and energy intensive
- keeps materials out of the landfill where it may produce methane while biodegrading, or leach toxins into groundwater supplies (in the case of some plastics & batteries)
- cost to municipality varies greatly with the price of recyclables
- some materials - like glass and metal are truly recycled - some plastics are severely downcycled into products that are not as useful
- may falsely encourage wasteful products since it is "recyclable" after a single use
also, i'm not an expert. i'm pretty darn educated on the topic, but this would be a better discussion with actual numbers to back up each of the points.
guy:
Wow, I'm not going to lie to you, that was a much more detailed response then I expected. How about this (you gotta dumb these things down for me) if I have a clean napkin should I recycle it or compost it?
me:
compost
-------------------
If it had been a clean piece of paper, I would have said to recycle. But a napkin? That's not going to be recycled into a piece of writing paper. Maybe into tp? I'm not really sure. If anyone cares to comment, I'm definitely interested in learning!
2 comments:
you KNOW I can't read that and not comment. :) Truth is, there is the common misconception here. Composting IS recycling. No really, it's the same thing, but different process for different materials. Bottles, recycled one way through one process, paper, recycled another way through another process, and organic materials recycled a third way through composting. Composting is recycling organic materials back into the organic matter from which they were created. I get that there are some things that are confusing, but really, no process is better than another. Napkin? Compost, food soiled paper is always composted. If it were a clean sheet of paper, the higher use is recycling
I agree that it's semantics, but people see three (incl landfill) and want to know what to do with their stuff. I like the idea of going with the "highest use" concept. (where's S with his incineration???)
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