Re: [ECOLOG-L] Recycling in any place that alleges recycles (e.g. colleges, universities, high schools, etc.)
Several years ago a student political group on our campus was spreading that rumor, that contents of recycle bins were just thrown in the trash (even though it was not true) in an effort to discourage recycling as they viewed it as supporting a particular political ideology. I have no idea how common this is, but you might be interested in including such behavior in your study, as well as be sure to verify any claims of it happening that you receive. On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 11:56 AM, Jorge A. Santiago-Blaywrote: > Recycling in any place that alleges recycles (e.g. colleges, universities, > high schools, etc.) > > Dear Colleagues: > > A few weeks ago, I posted a request for cases of (alleged) recycling in > colleges and universities where the recyclables are actually *not* recycled > (e.g., turned in with the regular trash and/or incinerated). Now, having > received an indication of a high school that "recycles" and the recyclables > are turned in with the regular trash, I would like to expand this request > to include any place on Earth that alleges recycles (e.g. colleges, > universities, high schools, etc.) and does not. > > Please, email me at blayjo...@gmail.com > > Apologies for potential duplicate emails. > > In gratefulness, > > Jorge > > Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD > blaypublishers.com > > 1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in *LEB* > http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/ > > 2. Free examples of papers published in *LEB*: http://blaypublishers. > com/category/previous-issues/. > > 3. *Guidelines for Authors* and page charges of *LEB*: > http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ *.* > > 4. Want to subscribe to *LEB*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/ > > > http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/ > http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm > -- Peter Beck, PhD Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Policy Director, Professional Science Master's in Environmental Management and Sustainability St. Edward's University Box 775 3001 S. Congress Avenue Austin, TX 78704 512-428-1249
[ECOLOG-L] Recycling in any place that alleges recycles (e.g. colleges, universities, high schools, etc.)
Recycling in any place that alleges recycles (e.g. colleges, universities, high schools, etc.) Dear Colleagues: A few weeks ago, I posted a request for cases of (alleged) recycling in colleges and universities where the recyclables are actually *not* recycled (e.g., turned in with the regular trash and/or incinerated). Now, having received an indication of a high school that "recycles" and the recyclables are turned in with the regular trash, I would like to expand this request to include any place on Earth that alleges recycles (e.g. colleges, universities, high schools, etc.) and does not. Please, email me at blayjo...@gmail.com Apologies for potential duplicate emails. In gratefulness, Jorge Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD blaypublishers.com 1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in *LEB* http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/ 2. Free examples of papers published in *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/. 3. *Guidelines for Authors* and page charges of *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ *.* 4. Want to subscribe to *LEB*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/ http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/ http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm
[ECOLOG-L] recycling
Dear Colleagues: I am looking for data-based papers explaining (ideally worldwide, but if not, at least in the USA), the proportion of materials intended to be recycled that are actually recycled (vs. actually not-recycled. If you know, please feel free to email me directly: blayjo...@gmail.com Sincerely, Jorge Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD blaypublishers.com 1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in *LEB* http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/ 2. Free examples of papers published in *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/. 3. *Guidelines for Authors* and page charges of *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ *.* 4. Want to subscribe to *LEB*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/ http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/ http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm
[ECOLOG-L] Recycling rates correlates
Dear Ecolog-L: Do you know of studies that correlate recycling rates with, say, economics, education, type of government, geography, race, etc.? If you wish to direct me to papers in this subject, please email me directly: blayjo...@gmail.com Gratefully, Jorge Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD blaypublishers.com 1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in *LEB* http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/ 2. Free examples of papers published in *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/. 3. *Guidelines for Authors* and page charges of *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ *.* 4. Want to subscribe to *LEB*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/ http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/ http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm
[ECOLOG-L] Recycling and the poor who do it
When I saw this in yesterday's paper I wondered about posting it to the list, since there is so much discussion about recycling. Then on the TV this morning there was a story about waste collectors in Cairo who are being devastated by government policy - they are members of the Christian minority who feed pigs on waste and sell them as a large part of their income, and the government had all the pigs killed to halt swine flu even though there was no evidence of infection in Egyptian pigs. As a result, the edible garbage is piling up in the streets and the vermin population is exploding. And the children of the waste collectors are suffering from malnutrition because the poverty of their families has gotten much worse. The two stories point up a little-known aspect of recycling, that it is largely the domain of the poorest and most despised members of society who are at the mercy of forces beyond their control and subject to arbitrary from government and from economic pressures. Yet they form an essential component of the human ecosystem and play a vital role in recycling and thus in resource management. I suspect that the members of this list know more about dung beetles and other detritivores than about the humans who have the same function. In Addo Elephant Park there are signs all over the place warning drivers to slow down and look out for dung beetles, but I have never seen any evidence of similar concern for people who struggle to keep our cities clean. Maybe they deserve some thought and attention. Bill Silvert August 5, 2009 NY Times Op-Ed Contributor A Scrap of Decency By BHARATI CHATURVEDI Delhi, India AMONG those suffering from the global recession are millions of workers who are not even included in the official statistics: urban recyclers - the trash pickers, sorters, traders and reprocessors who extricate paper, cardboard and plastics from garbage heaps and prepare them for reuse. Their work is both unrecorded and largely unrecognized, even though in some parts of the world they handle as much as 20 percent of all waste. The world's 15 million informal recyclers clean up cities, prevent some trash from ending in landfills, and even reduce climate change by saving energy on waste disposal techniques like incineration. They also recycle waste much more cheaply and efficiently than governments or corporations can, and in many cities in the developing world, they provide the only recycling services. But as housing values and the cost of oil have fallen worldwide, so too has the price of scrap metal, paper and plastic. From India to Brazil to the Philippines, recyclers are experiencing a precipitous drop in income. Trash pickers and scrap dealers in Minas Gerais State in Brazil, for example, saw a decline of as much as 80 percent in the price of old magazines and 81 percent for newspapers, and a 77 percent drop in the price of cardboard from October 2007 to last December. In the Philippines, many scrap dealers have shuttered so quickly that researchers at the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines didn't have a chance to record their losses. In Delhi, some 80 percent of families in the informal recycling business surveyed by my organization said they had cut back on luxury foods, which they defined as fruit, milk and meat. About 41 percent had stopped buying milk for their children. By this summer, most of these children, already malnourished, hadn't had a glass of milk in nine months. Many of these children have also cut down on hours spent in school to work alongside their parents. Families have liquidated their most valuable assets - primarily copper from electrical wires - and have stopped sending remittances back to their rural villages. Many have also sold their emergency stores of grain. Their misery is not as familiar as that of the laid-off workers of imploding corporations, but it is often more tragic. Few countries have adopted emergency measures to help trash pickers. Brazil, for one, is providing recyclers, or catadores, with cheaper food, both through arrangements with local farmers and by offering food subsidies. Other countries, with the support of nongovernmental organizations and donor agencies, should follow Brazil's example. Unfortunately, most trash pickers operate outside official notice and end up falling through the cracks of programs like these. A more efficient temporary solution would be for governments to buoy the buying price of scrap. To do this, they'd have to pay a small subsidy to waste dealers so they could purchase scrap from trash pickers at about 20 percent above the current price. This increase, if well advertised and broadly utilized, would bring recyclers back from the brink. In the long run, though, these invisible workers will remain especially vulnerable to economic slowdowns unless they are integrated into the formal business sector, where
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Recycling and the poor who do it
Actually, in the U.S. we have what is termed Environmental Justice incorporated into environmental policy. It requires the federal government to consider such minority groups as you describe to be given just consideration. In fact, a decision such as this, if made in the U.S., would certainly be challenged under the auspices of environmental justice, especially considering that there is absolutely no evidence that government policy is supported by science. However, this would be a federal policy and not a state or local policy. Therefore, unless states or local entities are tied to this policy through agreements, or have similar policies of their own, the action could be implemented by these lower levels of government. Malcolm McCallum On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 5:57 AM, William Silvertcien...@silvert.org wrote: When I saw this in yesterday's paper I wondered about posting it to the list, since there is so much discussion about recycling. Then on the TV this morning there was a story about waste collectors in Cairo who are being devastated by government policy - they are members of the Christian minority who feed pigs on waste and sell them as a large part of their income, and the government had all the pigs killed to halt swine flu even though there was no evidence of infection in Egyptian pigs. As a result, the edible garbage is piling up in the streets and the vermin population is exploding. And the children of the waste collectors are suffering from malnutrition because the poverty of their families has gotten much worse. The two stories point up a little-known aspect of recycling, that it is largely the domain of the poorest and most despised members of society who are at the mercy of forces beyond their control and subject to arbitrary from government and from economic pressures. Yet they form an essential component of the human ecosystem and play a vital role in recycling and thus in resource management. I suspect that the members of this list know more about dung beetles and other detritivores than about the humans who have the same function. In Addo Elephant Park there are signs all over the place warning drivers to slow down and look out for dung beetles, but I have never seen any evidence of similar concern for people who struggle to keep our cities clean. Maybe they deserve some thought and attention. Bill Silvert August 5, 2009 NY Times Op-Ed Contributor A Scrap of Decency By BHARATI CHATURVEDI Delhi, India AMONG those suffering from the global recession are millions of workers who are not even included in the official statistics: urban recyclers - the trash pickers, sorters, traders and reprocessors who extricate paper, cardboard and plastics from garbage heaps and prepare them for reuse. Their work is both unrecorded and largely unrecognized, even though in some parts of the world they handle as much as 20 percent of all waste. The world's 15 million informal recyclers clean up cities, prevent some trash from ending in landfills, and even reduce climate change by saving energy on waste disposal techniques like incineration. They also recycle waste much more cheaply and efficiently than governments or corporations can, and in many cities in the developing world, they provide the only recycling services. But as housing values and the cost of oil have fallen worldwide, so too has the price of scrap metal, paper and plastic. From India to Brazil to the Philippines, recyclers are experiencing a precipitous drop in income. Trash pickers and scrap dealers in Minas Gerais State in Brazil, for example, saw a decline of as much as 80 percent in the price of old magazines and 81 percent for newspapers, and a 77 percent drop in the price of cardboard from October 2007 to last December. In the Philippines, many scrap dealers have shuttered so quickly that researchers at the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines didn't have a chance to record their losses. In Delhi, some 80 percent of families in the informal recycling business surveyed by my organization said they had cut back on luxury foods, which they defined as fruit, milk and meat. About 41 percent had stopped buying milk for their children. By this summer, most of these children, already malnourished, hadn't had a glass of milk in nine months. Many of these children have also cut down on hours spent in school to work alongside their parents. Families have liquidated their most valuable assets - primarily copper from electrical wires - and have stopped sending remittances back to their rural villages. Many have also sold their emergency stores of grain. Their misery is not as familiar as that of the laid-off workers of imploding corporations, but it is often more tragic. Few countries have adopted emergency measures to help trash pickers. Brazil, for one, is providing