this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
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I'll start.. toilet paper, tampons, and QTips...

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[–] MushuChupacabra 78 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] Kbobabob 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Didn't you usually have to grind the source material into dust completely destroying it to remake it into something better?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Even then it's a little dicey.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

That's only half the story they told you. After you dice, grind and melt the original material. You have to use some virgin materials as binder to get all that stuff together. The amount of virgin materials can sometimes surpass even the amount of old stuff and render the whole recycling process moot for those nasty material. That's why you should have better just burn them all in a furnace or just bury them back in the ground where they belong.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Everything that can be composted.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Isn't composting a form of recycling?

[–] over_clox 3 points 4 months ago

Reduce, reuse, recycle, and let's add compost.

I'm all for it when possible, I agree. πŸ‘

[–] OhmsLawn 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Why is that?

If I have the choice between composting or recycling paper, would it not be better to recycle than compost?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Pretty sure you’re right - there’s the concern of the resources / energy needed for recycling but also, recycling decreases the need for new materials enough to offset that.

That said, AFAIK paper and cardboard are the only thing that can be both composted and recycled, so the advice of the person you replied to is still generally good.

This is the guidance I’ve seen on the topic:

Recycle:

  • clean, dry paper
  • clean, dry cardboard

But compost:

  • soiled and wet paper/cardboard
  • pizza boxes and other similar things
  • paper towels
  • paper/cardboard egg cartons

Don’t compost (throw away if unsuitable to recycle):

  • glossy paper
  • paper with plastic attached
  • anything (e.g., paper towels) with cleaning chemicals or other substances unsuitable for composting on it
[–] chaospatterns 1 points 4 months ago

Things that can be composted are usually food waste or food spoiled papers not treated with chemicals. Paper is hard to recycle because it can only recycled into lower quality paper, frequently gets contaminated, and it's hard to seperate out from everything else.

Thus if something is compostable I believe it's better to compost than to recycle that same material.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Anything that can be reused. Containers and packaging material should have a significant return deposits.

[–] over_clox 6 points 4 months ago

Okay, fair enough. Not exactly where I was going with the question LOL, but legit answer regardless. πŸ‘

[–] kat_angstrom 17 points 4 months ago (2 children)

My mother in law's stories. She keeps repeating these stories over and over but we've all heard them a dozen times before and then when we say, "oh, we've heard this one" she takes it as encouragement to keep going

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

My grandmother is like this. Then occasionally she tells some new story and we are all like, this is way more interesting why hasn't this been part of your repertoire for the past decade?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Cherish even the repeat stories, she won't be around forever.

Also consider recording as many as you can. I regret not doing so.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Also consider recording as many as you can. I regret not doing so.

Don't worry, you still have time to record their grandma's stories!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Some recording programs can do transcripts as well. They're not perfect, you have to tidy them up, but it is nice to not need to go back and do the transcribing manually.

[–] over_clox 2 points 4 months ago

I totally get you. I've been told many times that I should stop repeating the same old stories.

Like WTF, those are my experiences in life, what am I supposed to do, make up another false one for shits and giggles?

My response.. "If I'm all out of stories I haven't already said, then let's go make a new one. What's the adventure today?"

[–] BlackAura 16 points 4 months ago (3 children)

That's right OP, the correct order is to reduce, reuse, and then recycle.

If you feel you can reduce use, or reuse any of the things listed. Please try that first!

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)
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[–] normalexit 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Things that can't be recycled.

[–] over_clox 2 points 4 months ago

Let's state the obvious why don't we?

I mean hell, if we can refine dirt into raw chemicals, then theoretically we should be able to refine our trash into raw chemicals, and start the whole process over again.

I mean fuck, when you break it all down, it's all atoms and molecules right?

What makes used toilet paper any different than the carbon based molecules it's made of?

Also, Poo Paper actually exists...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eLxi7uGfZ84

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Human Centipede begs to differ.

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[–] spittingimage 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

MDF pallets, according to our pallet recycling guy. Apparently normal pallets get fed into an enormous shredder and turned into garden mulch, but the glue holding the layers of MDF together gums up the works.

[–] over_clox 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not exactly a palette expert (I'm guessing many other readers aren't either), but what's the difference, and how can we average fools tell them apart?

[–] spittingimage 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The MDF ones are made of many layers of plywood, glued together. Lots of different wood shades. Looks like a sandwich. The others are actual wood, with one shade, grain and often rough edges because they're not sanded down.

[–] over_clox 2 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Ah, I totally get you now.

I've never seen any palettes made of plywood, but clearly they exist then. I guess that basically means that no plywood is good for compost or proper recycling, unless perhaps grinding up into particle board..?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Pizza boxes or anything that is dirty, but would otherwise be recyclable

[–] over_clox 4 points 4 months ago

Pizza boxes can be a bit more tricky to recycle, but contrary to popular belief, they actually can be recycled.

I just learned this today actually...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=C1YkuKawB14

[–] Kbobabob 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Pizza boxes are usually good if there is that paper liner under the pie. Toss the paper though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Usually there is cheese and other food on it. I've never seen one that can be recycled.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Piza boxes are a great way to contaminate other perfectly good cardboard. I wish municipal composting was more common.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Depends where you live, but in my area pizza boxes go with the cardboard.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

It's fucked that the plastic symbol being in the public domain was cooped when plastics were required to be labled

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Paper coffee cups.

Composting is controversial too. There is an Australian standard but I don't know what it says about the PFAS.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Lots of types of plastic. Sure you might be able to hand them off to someone else, but there's no guarantee they are not just headed for a landfill.

[–] over_clox 2 points 4 months ago

It saddens me that many types of plastic cannot be recycled in any economic or environmentally friendly manner. ☹️

Like hell, they told us that plastic in general should last like 400 years. Well phuck, I'm only 42 years old and my fucking hairbrush is already obviously degrading.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

pissy TP and paper-core cotton Q-tios can be composted, FYI

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] over_clox 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I've cleaned my weed pipe using a couple used cigarette butts and rubbing alcohol, but yeah generally speaking they don't have much of any other valid use.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Desperate times hahaa

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