Re: [ECOLOG-L] Recycling in any place that alleges recycles (e.g. colleges, universities, high schools, etc.)

[Peter Beck]

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-Blay  wrote:

> 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.)

[Jorge A. Santiago-Blay]

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

[Jorge A. Santiago-Blay]

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

[Jorge A. Santiago-Blay]

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

[William Silvert]

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

[malcolm McCallum]

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