Nestle wants to bottle water from Florida's Ginnie Springs -- for free

[Manatee Diver]

Perhaps we cold buy other nations plastics and use it to make roads but that still does not eliminate the source of the problem. And as a side thing what would people take to the beaches to drink from. the plastic was shifted to to avoid glass. I dont know what is done with recycled plastics that are collected. I suppose they are being dumped in the oceans and that has to stop. Just like haz mat dumping in teh oceans by manufacturers is wrong the problem of eliminating it is a daunting one.

You can buy all the plastic you want, but that is like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic, Ghost Gear is the largest source of waste in the oceans. I've seen different numbers but the consumer plastic in the ocean ranges from less than 1% to as much as 5%. So even if you bought all the plastic from countries in South East Asia you aren't going to make a real dent until you tackle ghost gear.

 

[NAM001]

You can buy all the plastic you want, but that is like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic, Ghost Gear is the largest source of waste in the oceans. I've seen different numbers but the consumer plastic in the ocean ranges from less than 1% to as much as 5%. So even if you bought all the plastic from countries in South East Asia you aren't going to make a real dent until you tackle ghost gear.

ghost gear is certainly a contributer to it. but again you can make any legislation you want but it will be unenforcable. As tehplasstics issue goes the UA is a very minor player in the problem. Other nations are probably too poor to do anything but dump at sea which is wrong.

 

[Stoo]

As an aside, Tobermory adopted curbside garbage pickup a few years ago and it's done by a contractor now. I put my recycling Blue Box out last Monday morning, and one small under the counter size bad of garbage. I was still in the yard when the truck stopped and I watched as the dude tossed the garbage and the contents of the Blue Box in to the same door on the truck! WTF?

I've sent a note to the township to ask if they have ever verified that the contractor deals with the waste and the recycling appropriately. I'm hoping that what I witnessed was an absent-minded error, but I have my doubts.

 

[michael-fisch]

As an aside, Tobermory adopted curbside garbage pickup a few years ago and it's done by a contractor now. I put my recycling Blue Box out last Monday morning, and one small under the counter size bad of garbage. I was still in the yard when the truck stopped and I watched as the dude tossed the garbage and the contents of the Blue Box in to the same door on the truck! WTF?
.

Perfectly normal situation. Most garbage contractors rely on active elves inside the back of the truck who do a great job of sorting the garbage. Since the elves are organized union employees "World Federation of Recycling Elves", the occasional contract dispute cannot be ruled out and thats what you saw. Hopefully the current dispute between Tobermory City Council and WFRE will quickly be resolved, making everybody happy.

Michael

 

[Joneill]

As an aside, Tobermory adopted curbside garbage pickup a few years ago and it's done by a contractor now. I put my recycling Blue Box out last Monday morning, and one small under the counter size bad of garbage. I was still in the yard when the truck stopped and I watched as the dude tossed the garbage and the contents of the Blue Box in to the same door on the truck! WTF?

I've sent a note to the township to ask if they have ever verified that the contractor deals with the waste and the recycling appropriately. I'm hoping that what I witnessed was an absent-minded error, but I have my doubts.

Even if they don’t mix it, what happens with what you stick in the recycle bins is not as straight forward as folks think:

Is Recycling Worth It? Why Many Things You Toss End Up In A Landfill.

 

[RyanT]

I was still in the yard when the truck stopped and I watched as the dude tossed the garbage and the contents of the Blue Box in to the same door on the truck! WTF?

Even if they don’t mix it, what happens with what you stick in the recycle bins is not as straight forward as folks think:

@Joneill, I was going to mention this, but the article you posted was even more informative!

 

[kelemvor]

Even if they don’t mix it, what happens with what you stick in the recycle bins is not as straight forward as folks think:

Is Recycling Worth It? Why Many Things You Toss End Up In A Landfill.

Typical BS. Instead of recycling the recyclable things people put in the bin, the government is complaining that people shouldn't put it in there. Why? Because it's supposed to be taken to a separate recycle bin? WTF? Some heads need to roll in solid waste.

 

[Joneill]

Typical BS. Instead of recycling the recyclable things people put in the bin, the government is complaining that people shouldn't put it in there. Why? Because it's supposed to be taken to a separate recycle bin? WTF? Some heads need to roll in solid waste.

You've obviously never been to a MRF - I have and the whole recycling process is way more complicated than most think. There are economics involved and catering to just making it more convenient for folks adds huge challenges that can make it more cost effective to just bury it all. Consumers need to do their part to facilitate the process if they want it to work efficiently and make sense financially for recyclers.

 

[kelemvor]

You've obviously never been to a MRF - I have and the whole recycling process is way more complicated than most think. There are economics involved and catering to just making it more convenient for folks adds huge challenges that can make it more cost effective to just bury it all. Consumers need to do their part to facilitate the process if they want it to work efficiently and make sense financially for recyclers.

I thought the consumers did their part by paying the taxes which fund the facilities and wages. Governments tried to turn it into a business, which worked when someone wanted to buy our trash. Now that nobody wants to buy garbage, it's got to go back to BAU. Governments aren't supposed to be businesses. They're supposed to be what happens when citizens get together as a group in order to accomplish something they can't easily accomplish on their own... such as recycling.

The point of recycling is not to make money, that was just a nice benefit whose time has passed. The point was to actually reuse the material.

Back on topic, I think Florida water bottlers should be required to use desalinization and filtration rather than sucking up the aquifer. Alternatively, they could hit the road.

 

[Joneill]

I thought the consumers did their part by paying the taxes which fund the facilities and wages. Governments tried to turn it into a business, which worked when someone wanted to buy our trash. Now that nobody wants to buy garbage, it's got to go back to BAU. Governments aren't supposed to be businesses. They're supposed to be what happens when citizens get together as a group in order to accomplish something they can't easily accomplish on their own... such as recycling.

The point of recycling is not to make money, that was just a nice benefit whose time has passed. The point was to actually reuse the material.

Back on topic, I think Florida water bottlers should be required to use desalinization and filtration rather than sucking up the aquifer. Alternatively, they could hit the road.

Who said anything about making it a business? Unless, you want to pay even more taxes, people need to have more skin in the game to just make curbside recycling a break-even enterprise. It’s a far more complex topic than you seem to want to suggest - if we are truly serious about fixing issues, we might all need to be “inconvenienced” a bit...

I do agree with the issue here though - why people use so much bottled water in this country is insane to me! Let Nestle figure out a different way to get the water they want!