Community Chat

[ms traditional]

i have been meaning to bring this up for some time.

when i look at what comprises my trash, i see so much of it is packaging for this product or that.  i am all for tamper proof packaging where needed and good packing to preserve contents, but somehow i feel we have gone overboard. and the landfills continue to grow - even with recycling.

what about you?

[Burnsite]

I agree, ms. traditional.  Sometimes I feel as if I am breaking into Fort Knox, with all the sealed-tight plastic.  Perhaps they could simplify the packaging by putting in chips that could be deactivated as a product is purchased.  The clamshell packages are virtually impossible to break into.  Even if it is just a wand of mascara.  This seems so wasteful.

[kittyloo]

thats why my kitchen schears are a must for me.  I am horrible at opening any packaging it seems. 

The landfill thing....I always put my recycling out curbside to be picked up. As of last week, they are no longer picking up ANY plastics. Not even soda bottles with a deposit on them!

  This really chaps my hide, but bad.  Also no more paper of any type, unless its couragated cardbord. No more recycling phonebooks ect. 

 I am someone that hates going to those nasty, disgusting machines and feeding my cans and plastics in there. I would rather put them in my recycle. Cans i can still have picked up, but i guess the plastic bottles are going to the landfill. grrrrrr

[x Hedge]

I guess you're too young to recall when that began. Vile people altering or contaminating contents of packages lead to deaths, and the demand for ever-increasing tamper resistance in packaging of virtually everything.

[ms traditional]

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@x Hedge wrote:

I guess you're too young to recall when that began. Vile people altering or contaminating contents of packages lead to deaths, and the demand for ever-increasing tamper resistance in packaging of virtually everything.

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@x Hedgei certainly remember the Tylenol scare.  i am just wondering if we can't come up with a better way to handle the problem with new technologies. by solving one problem we seem to have created another one.

[Spurt]

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@x Hedge wrote:

I guess you're too young to recall when that began. Vile people altering or contaminating contents of packages lead to deaths, and the demand for ever-increasing tamper resistance in packaging of virtually everything.

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@x Hedge

Your right, and then there's the people that don't watch their kids, so they have to add child proofing too... (cant people just put them in a place where kids can't reach????)  Both of these issues caused additional precautions and added packaging.....

[Spurt]

Worried about the environment.....well here's something to really worry about....

What about all the phones ...as soon as there is an upgrade everyone "has to have" the newest phone, and what happens to the old ones....

The Environmental Protection Agency says Americans dispose of 130 million mobile devices annually; of that, only 8 percent gets recycled.

The turnover in phones continues to increase as new early-upgrade plans allow consumers to change models even more frequently. In 2014 Americans bought an estimated 152 million smartphones, according to estimates by the Consumers Electronics Association.

All that potential waste adds up. For every million cellphones recycled, 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered. Phones contain toxic chemicals that, when placed in a landfill, may ultimately go into groundwater and poison the water in surrounding areas. Most Americans say they know that recycling is important, but statistics show they don't always act accordingly, an EPA spokesperson explained to CBS News. 

[proudlyfromNJ]

The Tylenol scare was when some sicko opened a Tylenol bottle and put poison on one of the tablets. A Mother had a sick child (her only child) and gave her a Tylenol. Guess which one?? Guess how that Mother felt. It was not a case of watching your children.

If I recall correctly a number of people were murdered by the same person putting poison capsules in the bottle. It was a huge news story!

[jlkz]

In addition to putting out recyclables, I have been taking newspapers, junk mail, cardboard and telephone directories to two local churches that have several large recycle bins for this purpose.  They get money and the pickup company gets to use the materials in construction products.

well, this week the bins are sealed: the pickup company has been called and called to no avail.  The bins had been overflowing. So, no more recycling for them.  I can put all the stuff I used to take there in my recycle home bin...I already pay for it but it was good to donate in this way even though it meant a special stop during my errands.

[CatsyCline]

China no longer wants our waste. Its not clean enough for the environment.