Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (6639)	8/4/2001 6:02:42 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

<I don't know about New Zealand but in the US recycling is good for the economy as well as the ecology:> Bunkum. Recycling is religion. How much do you get paid for your rubbish? If zero or you don't get paid and have to add effort to sort rubbish, it shows that recycling is a waste of time. The ecology couldn't care less about a mountain made of rubbish. If a big enough pile can be made, people could go skiing in San Diego [in summer]. I'm aware of and my job included recycling. I was responsible for re-refined oil in BP Oil New Zealand at one time. Actually, you are wrong, motor oil does wear out - it gets oxidized. The additives also 'wear out'. A good portion of the oil can be recovered and recycled, but it's an economic waste of money. It only works because of tax distortions. The best use of waste oil is as fuel oil [for the most part] - which uses all the muck as well as the remaining oil to make energy and avoids the relatively expensive reprocessing costs. Transformer oil can be cleaned up quite effectively and that is usually done here - it's economic in its own right without tax distortions. On recycling aluminium, we don't measure economics in energy, though some wacky people tried that in the early 1980s. We use dollars. It is irrelevant if recycled aluminium uses only 5% of the energy involved in getting it from bauxite. It's the total cost which matters. The best place to sort rubbish for recycling is after it's collected by trucks. It can be tipped onto a conveyor belt and hundreds of sorters used to pick out the good bits. They could do an expert job instead of a bad job. That's the way to fix the alleged problem of rubbish. The other way is to charge people for having their rubbish collected rather than having the communist idea of just putting rubbish out for free collection. Slobs put out heaps and leave the thrifty to pay. Mqurice