Quote:
|
Originally Posted by bigoldalphamale
recycling is the approximate equivalent of a complete and total waste of time. pump the same dollars spent in recycling into R&D and develop more environmentally friendly packaging. wrappers made of material that completely breaks down in a landfill within a few weeks. bottles/containers that can be burned away without toxic emission. recycling was a start in the right direction and raised awareness of how we are destroying our environment, but the actual act of recycling is useless, on any scale.
|
(a) Environmentally-friendly packaging:
It doesn't matter how environmentally friendly the packaging is, it still requires natural resources to make them. Natural resources are a finite quantity.
(b) Things that do not generate toxic emissions when burned:
Not practical, there is no such thing, nor could there ever be. The process of burning something will always end up creating CO2, CO and NOx at the very least. That's basically what burning something is. You convert Carbon and Oxygen into CO2. You can force organic compounds to completely burn away, but that requires more fuel, resulting in more CO2, CO, NOx.
Beyond that, there is the general feeling from many here that we shouldn't recycle because it may cost more than just using virgin materials. Sorry but that is total bullshit. It's a common practice these days to pass our problems on to future generations. You see it with energy needs, government spending, and in this case, resource management. Although nobody knows when it will happen but if we keep going down that path, someday our future generation will be stuck on a planet with diminished resources, overburdening debt, a fucked up environment, and no remaining hydrocarbons to use to make energy. Will they say, "damn this sucks for us, but at least our forefathers were thinking of the bottom line and investor dividends?" Doubt it.
I do agree that H2 fuels are probably not an answer. You always hear about how hydrogen is the most abundant element in the world, but most of it is in the form of water. Breaking water into H2 and O2 and then using that H2 and O2 to make water in order to power an engine uses more energy than it releases. Therefore, what is the best place to get H2 from? You guessed it, oil.
Oh yeah, and FUCK WAL-MART!