It’s past time for some honesty and communication about what is getting recycled, what sometimes is, and what isn’t. I think the notion that consumers have – I was the same until reading about it in more detail this year – that all these plastics and other materials are getting recycled, it frees their conscience to use (and not to reuse) more and more of these packing materials, whereas maybe they’d think a little harder about some choices if they knew they were just getting landfilled or dumped in the ocean.
I’ve heard it called “wishcycling,” the delusion consumers have that all these tons of waste they generate are okay because they’ll get recycled, when in fact much of it will not. The delusion is not mostly their fault, I don’t think, when cities and counties are actively encouraging people to put these items into “recycling” bins. Why wouldn’t people think that they’re going to get, you know, recycled?
The well-known mantra “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” is constructed in hierarchical order.
But as Chris notes far too often we embrace the latter two practices in vain attempt to absolve our sins of overconsumption.
Rather than debating whether styrofoam can be reused or recycled we should be thinking about how to curb our demand for insulating materials.
That may mean buying wine from your local shop or simply not buying from out of state producers or retailers who use it.
Of course that notion stinks for wine berserkers like me who simply must have a certain bottle that sits outside L.A. even though I already have enough wine to last 20 years.
I’m no angel but I’m trying. And as Chris notes, it’s all a bit of rationalization. Taking one single plane flight across the Atlantic eats up the benefits of driving a Prius year-round. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t drive a Prius.
So yes, we have gone through expense and hassle of installing solar panels in our home to supply electricity. Yes we capture our runoff onsite to augment water supply. But, but … we still eat too much meat, we use Amazon too frequently, etc.
And there is some value in so-called virtue signaling by retailers, like Greg’s example with the plastic straws.
It starts a conversation and gets people out of their complacency and addiction to convenience. The customer is forced to think about how her consumption habits may be affecting climate. It’s a gateway issue that may get them thinking about bigger changes — taking public transit, eating less meat, etc.
My advice to David … completely unasked for … is to tell Bedrock you won’t buy their wines anymore if they insist on using Styrofoam. Power of the purse is very powerful. That’s assuming this issue is truly important to you.
The ‘problem’ in many cases is cost and expectation here, folks. Folks that have zero problems spending $150+ on a bottle of wine complain that it’s gonna cost $75 to ship that case to them across the country using temp controlled trucking - and that’s with the winery basically covering costs or losing money on the transaction in some cases. Styrofoam, according to most, is a better CYA for the winery and the third party shipper to ‘ensure’ that the wines are ‘better handled’ during the process.
A couple of other things:
Has anyone reached out to Bedrock to ‘complain’ as this appears to be an issue with them and one that has been happening for awhile? My guess is no - or they probably would have switched things up or had their third party shipper do so.
Would you pay more knowing your wine was being shipped in ‘sturdy pulp’ but at the same time as your wines would have been shipped using styrofoam? In other words, taking all ‘risks’ of mother nature switching stuff up and your wines possibly being exposed to 80+ degree temps, even when they are not supposed to be, would you do so?
I’d love to hear more from consumers on this. I ship pulp and have had zero complaints - but will ship stryo when shipping temp control or with ice bags to ‘ensure’ fewer issues occur . . .
Glass is a major issue fore recycling as (a) it is heavy, so transportation costs are high, and (b) mixed glass (brown, green, clear, blue, etc.) collected in blue bins is not easily turned into new glass in a cost-effective manner. (There is some differences when a state has a bottle and can redemption program (“Bottle Bill”) where bottles are sorted by distributor.)
In some states, they have state-wide sponsored programs to use crushed glass (known as processed glass aggregate or PGA) as a replacement for natural aggregate in road beds, and some asphalt. The Federal Highway Administration also provides some technical support for use of PGA for road projects.
There are some developments in using PGA to make insulation too, which could be a big help to the recycling industry.
The economic analysis should be on whether it is less expensive to collect glass and turn it into PGA or to dispose of the glass in a landfill. Generally speaking, landfill disposal is often more expensive.
For so long, the public has been led to believe recycling is free or that it makes money for the municipalities/processors that support “recycling.”
Recycling still costs. You need to look at whether it costs less - taking into account the externalities of environmental benefits or environmental costs.
Like most things it boils down to risk vs. benefit. The environmental risk due to a single individuals actions are usually extremely low in relationship to the benefit derived by the activity when looking at the micro, individual level. Much of the environmental messaging attempts to get individuals to understand and consider the collective macro risk vs. the individual benefit derived from an activity. Unfortunately, celebrities, politicians and those in the environmental movement consistently sabotage the message via hypocritical actions and virtue signalling. Will I continue to accept styro shippers? Yes. Do I do what I can to re-use them and hopefully reduce the risk impact? Yes. Bravo to those who are willing to shift the perceived risk-benefit equation on an individual basis for the macro good.
Can we use non styro in winechecks tho? that’s the best use of 12 pack styros for me… to use in my winecheck… i usually don’t bring them back empty so i ditch the styro after a trip.
Although I never see them any more, the styro shippers where the bottles laid flat seem to be the most durable. I watched a 15 pack of my wine get tossed about 6 feet onto an airplane conveyor and it arrived in good shape.
Anyway, where I used to live the county dump took styro but before I left it looked like they were taking less and less of it. Never found out where it went.
David -off topic- but what is the name of this system? May need to replace one in the near future and always looking to cut down on energy use. PM me if you don’t want to answer it in public.
But it is partly the consumer fault, because they throw it in there. There could be better outreach and information provided by the agency or company collecting the material and it could be much better presented to show the types of materials they take. But people on all sides don’t wish to learn or to train themselves. It also doesn’t help that it changes from municipality to municipality, and even then can change over time so it is difficult to maintain a consistent message. And then manufacturers of the materials think by including a number inside a triangle they are off the hook, even though many items other than a plastic 1, 2, or 5 get recycled. Partly it is also the single stream mentality, which assumes everything goes in together and comes out sparkly new. No wonder our recycling rates are so low! Earlier this year I was reading about a town in Japan which has an extremely high recycling rate even by Japanese standards (which has a very high recycling engagement level). I think it was around 95% or so. It’s an isolated town where the costs to landfill wastes are very high because it needs to get trucked out and there is no where close by to bring it to. These people have to learn about sorting and the sorting is not easy: even for paper there are about 5 or so grades to distinguish between. But the town helps people out with visuals and education, so you absorb it and it becomes second nature. I cannot see that happening here in the US, but even here, more plastic gets recycled when you put a cost on it: the states that have charge deposits on beverage bottles have better plastic recycling rates because of this. Much better rates.
Agree with all this, but merchants and producers need to step up and develop and utilize more eco-friendly packaging. The waste issue is a collective problem and everyone needs to do their part (assuming they care) to make a real dent. Putting it all on one or two members of the waste stream ain’t going to work.
It’s a Bosch on-demand system. So far (since the heat has not run much) we have saved 50-60% per month over our old hot water heater. We’ll see how we do with savings over our old (1991 edition) boiler as the winter goes on.
Agree!!! I have been getting bottles shipped to me using ‘Spirited Shippers’ and they are amazing!! Wish all wineries would make the switch, however I do understand the need for some type of extra insulation to protect from external temps…I know, how about we only ship when it’s cool out?
I’m assuming it’s going to take liters of citrus oil to dissolve these things? In what type of device do you do this? Are the fumes noxious if you use acetone?