I Do Take Newspapers To Recycle Bin, But I Admit I’m Not Convinced They Really Are Recycled
I do take my old newspapers and other paper products to my local recycle bin.
(All people should take a daily newspaper at home.)
(Above–My local recycle bins.)
Yet I admit, I’m not convinced what I drop off really gets recycled.
I can’t get past the notion that it all gets hauled off to the city landfill.
I know I’ve read stories about stuff like that happening. When I worked for a city councilmember in Cincinnati, there was another councilmember who was just convinced that waste product was simply dumped in the landfill.
I don’t feel I’m prone to believing conspiracy stories, but I’m just not sure what I leave to be recycled really gets recycled.
Anybody have any thoughts on this subject?
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Texas Liberal is a blog of politics and political history.
My name is Neil Aquino. Here is my profile.
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Texas Liberal 
Yes, it’s recycled. Putting a commodity like paper in a landfill is crazy. It is more expensive to have waste taken away than paper by cubic yard.
Paper is regularly resold and recycled. It has been since the 1920s when paper became a commodity. You have to pay to dump something in a landfill, but someone will pay you for your paper. Not much, but something.
The only virgin pulp you see are certain kinds of envelopes and high-end books. Everything else is, or is mixed with, recycled paper. Office and non-premium press paper is at least 30% recycled. The newspaper is already on its third or fourth time through. Toilet tissue is all recycled and all on its sixth or seventh trip. “Seventh Generation” actually mixes their heavily recycled TP pulp with 1/2 generation PCW to put something on the label.
The most heavily recycled things in your home are all those boxes everything comes in. You may have noticed they all seem to be the same stuff. They are. “Cereal boxes” are on their tenth or more trip through. The reason they used to not be recyclable is because the fiber is so very rough it would just contaminate the slurry. Now they just wash away and back to nature.
and don’t get me started about soy inks.
Neil,
I would like to think so. Being that these bins usually are to benefit the
schools, churches which they are in the parking lots of. (In most cases)
Maybe it’s just to get you to donate to a cause. But are we???
I used to take our papers to Vista Fibers with the other recyclables, then thought why not give the paper to the Elementary school my kids went to and let them benefit from the donation. But Are They? Now I need to research this.
Thanks….
I was just thinking about this today! Where we live, a private company does trash/recycling pick-up, and they come around once for the trash and then again for the recycling boxes. The truck for the recycling looks exactly like the trash truck. I’m tempted to look at the license plate to see if it is in fact the same truck…
All–Thnaks for these comments. I think Stan’s comment holds up and i’m going to go with that now as my view on the matter.
it could be the same truck and it could be that it ends up in landfill but my guess is that they have to pay by the pound to enter the landfill and are paid by the pound by the people that recycle paper so my logical guess is it is actually recycled in most cases.
I am looking for these exact bins! I moved from Sugarland to the Galleria area and I can’t find where I can do my recycling again??? I have looked at local schools but haven’t seen them anywhere does anyone know how you can find these bins??? Website??? Anything?
😉
Melodie–Poked around online and did not find a good list. However, the phone number on the bin above seems to be 713-723-6397. Or 6387. Maybe.
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