- EarthQuest Theme Park ‘Not Dead,’ Claim Developers; Supposedly Have New East Montgomery County Location in the Works [The Humble Observer; previously on Swamplot]
- Kroger May Be Interested in Buying Randalls Parent Company Safeway [Houston Business Journal]
- Nearly-Vacant Shopping Center at Post Oak and San Felipe Up for Sale, Likely To Be Torn Down [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Morgan Group Developing ‘Pearl at the Mix’ Apartments Down the Street from Pearl Midtown [Houston Business Journal, previously on Swamplot]
- Houston Building Permits Issued for Year Ending in January Hit Record $6.2B [KUHF]
- Put the ‘Astro’ Back into the Astrodome [Gizmodo]
- Port of Galveston To Invest in Design for New, Third Cruise Terminal [Houston Chronicle]
- Environmental Groups Urge City To Trash ‘Flawed’ Single Bin Recycling Plan [Houston Chronicle]
- Curious Sights Encountered on Bike Rides Across Houston [Houstonia]
Photo of yesterday’s demolition of Westcreek Apartments, 2021 Westcreek Ln.: Jack Miller
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When I first heard about this!might thought they were protesting the green bins for commingled waste. They aren’t. It’s the idea that we could all just throw everything into black bins, dump the waste into a “Dirty MRF” and claim we’ve “recycled”, even though the rcyclables come out contaminated and aren’t as useful.
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Personally, I think they should do both. Keep the green bins for those of us who are responsible enough to use them. But run garbage from the black bins through the machine to try to salvage recyclables that were erroneously dumped in there. It would enhance what we’re already doing instead of making it less effective.
Recycling is a non-solution to a non-existent problem. It’s a feel good exercise in futility.
Consumer recycling makes nearly zero impact on overall trash numbers. The land used for landfills is extremely exaggerated by the greeny weenies and modern land fills can actually be used as biogenerators to collect natural gas and eventually can become golf courses or parks.
@commensense
You’re right. It’s a huge conspiracy. Did you also know that ‘complete streets’ is just a UN plot called Agenda 21 to take over america?
I mean, come on. One can argue the costs of recycling and if the market created around recycling is working as effectively as it should, but to call it a ‘non-solution’ to a ‘non-existent problem’ is asinine. And BTW, the natural gas is created by decomposing biological waste (and some paper) and not the breakdown of metals or plastics.
I can’t tell if you actually believe half the stuff you post or if you just get your rocks off trolling.
@commonsense “non-existent problem” lol that’s a new one! That should win the BS comment of the day, Anyways. Sure the recycling plan is a more of a win-win for the companies who will build and operate the facility but it will benefit the city in many ways. I think @zaw has the best idea…..just do both. There is technology coming online that will use microwaves to turn carbon based products back into oil. And to give @commonsense SOME credit….yes we can get BioGas from landfills. The only problem is that NOBODY WANTS A LAND FIELD ANY WHERE NEAR THEIR HOMES OR BUSINESSES i.e. Hempstead. We live in EastWood and have had the GREEN bins for a couple of years now. My only complaint is Solid Waste only picks it up every 2 weeks, every week would be perfect. And yes everyone of my neighbors who either moaned and groaned or said they didn’t want the hassle….waves at me on Monday morning while rolling out a full GREEN bin. Recycling is COMMONSENSE. lol peace
ZAW: Good idea. Sort of bugs me that our recycle bins are picked up every two weeks while trash is every week. Maybe if that was flipped, it would cause people to recycle more (or think about their waste and consume less? That might be a stretch…)
To be fair, SimplySid, not many people want a recycling transfer station near their homes of businesses either. Look at the furor over the Ruffino a Hills.
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Or do they? I don’t see why oil refineries, with all their flairs and chemical “burps,” would mind being next door to a landfill. Steel mills and other heavy industry – same thing. They already generate odors, noise, and ground pollution: why would they care if their neighbor was a landfill. In these cases I think it’s the environmentalists who block it. They don’t want that much pollution in one location. So they wind up pushing landfills into commercial and residential areas where they raise the ire of neighbors.
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I confess, this is just my understanding of what happens. I would welcome insight from someone closer to the industry.
Landfills tend to look for very inexpensive dirt with low regulatory overhead, so that usually takes them into poor rural areas on the unincorporated fringes of a city that wouldn’t even be especially desirable for single-family development. By contrast, areas with lots of heavy industry tend to be closer-in and have infrastructure that makes land price way too high.
However…commonsense is partly correct. The amount of land allocated to landfills is actually very very small in the grand scheme of human impacts on land use and they can be reused for beneficial purposes once they’ve been filled to capacity. Biogas potentials are nil for recyclables, though, so that point of his is irrelevant. He is correct, however, that recycling can be more expensive and energy-intensive than simply making something from scratch and that oftentimes its tilting at windmills; the efficacy of recycling varies by material, of course.