NationStates Jolt Archive

I was just out on a run around the town, as I usually do before midnight, and the moment I opened the door, I realised that the monthly night of environmental shit has come around again. :mad:

See, last year the local council had a great idea. They would give everyone an extra wheelie-bin for their vegetable / garden waste, and collect it once a month. During the autumn and winter it was not much of a problem, but with spring came rising daytime temperatures, with the result that when every street wheels out a bin full of liquifying vegetable matter fermented at 15 deg C for a month, the whole town stinks of human excrement.

I would really love to take the people who came up with this policy on a forced run for a couple of hours, taking in the dripping sights and putrid smells of the rotting fruits (and vegetables) of their policy.

Local council environmental officers, you suck. :upyours:

i guess they want you to hold your nose...

OR!

you could get one of these! http://img308.imageshack.us/img308/4663/23653ln.jpg

Lol. That's funny. Why not just have neighborhood compost heaps to deposit the stuff in? It'll still stink, but the stench will be localized instead of everywhere.

So did they take in to account the massive amount of global-warming inducing methane formed by the decaying vegetable matter when devising this scheme?

Since you're a mod, I will agree with your every word in order to get in your good graces.

YOU ARE CORRECT AS ALWAYS, WISE ONE!!

So did they take in to account the massive amount of global-warming inducing methane formed by the decaying vegetable matter when devising this scheme?
I doubt it. :rolleyes:

I think it's one of those things where people decide to seperate organic waste from everything else, in the belief that it somehow makes a difference.

How exactly is this environmentalist? Unless I know their reasoning for doing this, I’ll have to call it plain idiocy as much as I’d like to insult the ignorant and unreasonable philosophy that is environmentalism.

How exactly is this environmentalist?
They said so in the letter they sent out last year, but I recycled it without reading it properly. Now I'll never know how stinking up the town with shit one night a month is saving the planet. :(

My city has done that too. Except that they collect once a week, which is good as the stuff doesn't have as long to decompose in the bin.


But they accept meat products in it too... so it still gets stinky.

But it all goes to the compost heap instead of the landfill, so that's a good thing. :D

My city has done that too. Except that they collect once a week
I can see how that would help. I can't wait for the June and July collections. :rolleyes:

My city has done that too. Except that they collect once a week, which is good as the stuff doesn't have as long to decompose in the bin.


But they accept meat products in it too... so it still gets stinky.

But it all goes to the compost heap instead of the landfill, so that's a good thing. :D

Of course, it would probably decay in a landfill too.

Of course, it would probably decay in a landfill too.Yes, but it wouldn't really be recycled there.

You lucky bastard. My town is semi-surrounded on the west-end by farms. Pretty soon they are going to start mauering their farms again.

What are they seperating the waste for? Can it be recycled or something? :confused:

Yes, but it wouldn't really be recycled there.

We generally let plants recycle compost. Or are there new top-soil recycling factories around?

Of course, it would probably decay in a landfill too.
It doesn't decay as well in a landfill for one thing, and for another, compost can be reused for garden soil later on. It also drastically reduces the amount of garbage in a landfill, meaning we don't need as many landfills.

I was just out on a run around the town, as I usually do before midnight, and the moment I opened the door, I realised that the monthly night of environmental shit has come around again. :mad:

See, last year the local council had a great idea. They would give everyone an extra wheelie-bin for their vegetable / garden waste, and collect it once a month. During the autumn and winter it was not much of a problem, but with spring came rising daytime temperatures, with the result that when every street wheels out a bin full of liquifying vegetable matter fermented at 15 deg C for a month, the whole town stinks of human excrement.

I would really love to take the people who came up with this policy on a forced run for a couple of hours, taking in the dripping sights and putrid smells of the rotting fruits (and vegetables) of their policy.

Local council environmental officers, you suck. :upyours:

That's the problem with great ideas- they usually aren't. Especially if they're supposed to help someone or something- in that case, they most often aren't.

I can see how that would help. I can't wait for the June and July collections. :rolleyes:
Eew. That will be gross.

But yeah, given that there are meat products in these ones I don't think they could do once a month collections, can you imagine the maggots? I'm already concerned about maggots for the once a week collections...

Since you're a mod, I will agree with your every word in order to get in your good graces.

YOU ARE CORRECT AS ALWAYS, WISE ONE!!

*chant* All hail TG.... All hail TG....

If anyone's agrued with me, I have a very lefty view on things.


See, last year the local council had a great idea. They would give everyone an extra wheelie-bin for their vegetable / garden waste, and collect it once a month. During the autumn and winter it was not much of a problem, but with spring came rising daytime temperatures, with the result that when every street wheels out a bin full of liquifying vegetable matter fermented at 15 deg C for a month, the whole town stinks of human excrement.


If your yard is big enough (doubt it), make a compost pile in the very back.
Can't smell it, and it's good for the soil. Attracts bees too.


They said so in the letter they sent out last year, but I recycled it without reading it properly. Now I'll never know how stinking up the town with shit one night a month is saving the planet.

Sad man.

I don't see a problem with environmentalism as an agenda. Woe is us if we use up all our resources before we're ready. However, much of the environmental movoement is held captive by special interest groups who frighten and scare us at whiles to push a particular agenda. They make people install scrubbers to clean the enviroment when simply buying and burning cleaner coal works better. The impose nasty hefty enviromental restrictions on only NEW plants so that old plants won't lose their jobs, with disastrous results for the environment when the old plants continue to put out hazardous amounts of waste. Enviromental groups use an essentially fictitious endangered species to shut down the lumber industry of Oregon. There is a lot of BS in enviromentalism, that does not serve the movement well.

So did they take in to account the massive amount of global-warming inducing methane formed by the decaying vegetable matter when devising this scheme?

That would probably happen anyway. The best we can hope for is that they'll burn it. Then maybe 3% of the carbon will end up as landfill ash. Burning won't be efficent with all that water in it, however. Perhaps they should put a little covered fan in the top of every wheelie bin to help it dry out? Then you could burn it for power or heating. It would be very cheap compared to say, burning antique furniture.

So did they take in to account the massive amount of global-warming inducing methane formed by the decaying vegetable matter when devising this scheme?
Methane isn't produced under aerobic conditions. For what it's worth, a properly run compost doesn't smell (or rather, doesn't smell that much). You're most likely doing it wrong. Go ask one of the people at a local cooperative extension from a university to tell you what you're doing wrong.

Methane isn't produced under aerobic conditions. For what it's worth, a properly run compost doesn't smell (or rather, doesn't smell that much). You're most likely doing it wrong. Go ask one of the people at a local cooperative extension from a university to tell you what you're doing wrong.

I personally don't compost; recycle, yes, but no composting other than grass and lawn waste. You have to get permission, and most of the time the CC&R don't allow it...it's too much work relative to the benefit.

That community seems to be doing something wrong when they compost; I guess it makes sense to tell people how to do it properly before making them do it.

That would probably happen anyway. The best we can hope for is that they'll burn it. Then maybe 3% of the carbon will end up as landfill ash. Burning won't be efficent with all that water in it, however. Perhaps they should put a little covered fan in the top of every wheelie bin to help it dry out? Then you could burn it for power or heating. It would be very cheap compared to say, burning antique furniture.

Biomass power is a lot better option for disposing of waste; however, a lot of the new plants (like the one that will be opening in Florida sometime soon) produce their biomass on site, creating a self-sustaining process. We could save a lot of landfill space if we used it for power; as an added benefit, it doesn't pollute anywhere near as much as burning it conventionally or leaving it out to decay. It doesn't even pollute as much as natural gas most of the time.

I know this is tangental to the topic at hand, but as long as we're bitching about environmental policies, let me just say that I loathe low-volume toilets.

I was just out on a run around the town, as I usually do before midnight, and the moment I opened the door, I realised that the monthly night of environmental shit has come around again. :mad:

See, last year the local council had a great idea. They would give everyone an extra wheelie-bin for their vegetable / garden waste, and collect it once a month. During the autumn and winter it was not much of a problem, but with spring came rising daytime temperatures, with the result that when every street wheels out a bin full of liquifying vegetable matter fermented at 15 deg C for a month, the whole town stinks of human excrement.

I would really love to take the people who came up with this policy on a forced run for a couple of hours, taking in the dripping sights and putrid smells of the rotting fruits (and vegetables) of their policy.

Local council environmental officers, you suck. :upyours:

Meh!

What was that you said about "just deal with it"

Any city council with sense would make sure that especially biowaste is collected at least once a week, especially during the summer.

Which town idiots got elected?!?

Up till then it's http://www.xbox360source.com/forums/images/smilies/smiley%20-%20gasmask.gifhttp://www.xbox360source.com/forums/images/smilies/smiley%20-%20gasmask.gifhttp://www.xbox360source.com/forums/images/smilies/smiley%20-%20gasmask.gif for you!

I know this is tangental to the topic at hand, but as long as we're bitching about environmental policies, let me just say that I loathe low-volume toilets.

:headbang: :upyours: I humbly agree

:headbang: :upyours: I humbly agree

Both of you just need to cut down on the fiber.

Our collections alternate weekly - one week garbage, the next recyclables and compost (in a green wheelie-bin as TG described). Those green things are the pits. I flatly refuse to use mine, though I'm tempted to adapt it for use in the garden, maybe as a wheeled handtool caddy.

Personally, I think they've got this garbage-sorting thing thought out completely wrong: the onus should not be on the residents to sort their refuse, instead municipalities should build sorting stations where all the city's garbage could be sorted manually by municipal employees.

Hey, it wouldn't be a great job, in fact, it'd probably be a pretty awful one, but... y'know, someone would do it. Maybe the type of people who're really keen on having everybody else sort their garbage (though I somehow doubt that).

Both of you just need to cut down on the fiber.

lol imagine trying to take a crap in tubawear... thats what it feels like but ill get off this topic:p

The Romans were great architects. They invented this thing called a sewer.

Your environmentalist council should look into that. It's pretty nifty.

The Romans were great architects. They invented this thing called a sewer.

Your environmentalist council should look into that. It's pretty nifty.

I'd be scared of a giant hedge clippings/human poop blockage and being asked to go down there and clean it out. Throw in a bit of comic book abiogenesis and you could have a walking talking dancing poop blockage which would be just too much to bear.

Personally I don't see why we don't grow wheat in our front yard and then pay some wheat farmer in the country to grow lawn and gardens. Think how much money we would save on transportation costs!

Wait, I have a better idea. Remote controlled sheep.

Our collections alternate weekly - one week garbage, the next recyclables and compost (in a green wheelie-bin as TG described). Those green things are the pits. I flatly refuse to use mine, though I'm tempted to adapt it for use in the garden, maybe as a wheeled handtool caddy.

Personally, I think they've got this garbage-sorting thing thought out completely wrong: the onus should not be on the residents to sort their refuse, instead municipalities should build sorting stations where all the city's garbage could be sorted manually by municipal employees.

Hey, it wouldn't be a great job, in fact, it'd probably be a pretty awful one, but... y'know, someone would do it. Maybe the type of people who're really keen on having everybody else sort their garbage (though I somehow doubt that).We alternate too, but on a different system. Garbage is collected every week but you also have two other containers in the unincorporated areas, one for mixed recyclables and the other for green waste. Those are collected on alternating weeks along with your garbage. In the incorporated areas you just put you green waste in a pile at the curb and it's collected by a scoop equiped vehicle weekly, one of the reasons we have to deal with alternate side of the street parking.

And shame on you for thinking sorting your own trash is beneath you. Hey, your a resident of this planet, take a minimal amount of responsibility for maintaining it. Sure we could hire people to "do it for us", but if the idea of raising taxes to pay for those people were brought up the same lazy slobs who can't be bothered to sort out their recyclables and put them in a seperate can will likely be the first to scream about the cost.

Hey, if it's weekly, you can probably just refrigerate most of the waste until mid-week and then chuck it in the bin, for less smell.

I was just out on a run around the town, as I usually do before midnight, and the moment I opened the door, I realised that the monthly night of environmental shit has come around again. :mad:

See, last year the local council had a great idea. They would give everyone an extra wheelie-bin for their vegetable / garden waste, and collect it once a month. During the autumn and winter it was not much of a problem, but with spring came rising daytime temperatures, with the result that when every street wheels out a bin full of liquifying vegetable matter fermented at 15 deg C for a month, the whole town stinks of human excrement.

I would really love to take the people who came up with this policy on a forced run for a couple of hours, taking in the dripping sights and putrid smells of the rotting fruits (and vegetables) of their policy.

Local council environmental officers, you suck. :upyours:

Your town obviously sucks if it only picks it up once a month. Our city collects it and the recycling once a week, every week. So it does not stink at all really. The fact that our bins have covers that flip down over the top also probably contributes to there being no noticeable odor. It is the same with all the pickup bins. Here is a picture of the garbage, organic waste, and recycling bins in my town:

waste disposal bins (http://www.alamedacountyindustries.com/images/alameda/customer_center/carts_mow_strip_photo.jpg)

The grey one is for garbage. The green one is for yard trimmings and other plant waste, and the blue one is for recycling. Notice that the covers are normally down unless you go to put something into it. Also, meat products aren't allowed in the green bin. It's only for plants.

Your town's first cholera epidemic should make the good city fathers rethink their options...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera

Point out this possibility to a few of your neighbors and it's possible that you could get things to change *before* the first epidemic. ^_^;;;

Our city has nothing at all like that.
They have large self-sort bins at various malls throughout the city, with the idea being that you put all your recyclable trash in your car, trundle out to the mall, and then throw it into the appropriate bin: Glass, Newspaper, Mixed Paper, Metal, Hard Plastics, and Plastic Bags.

Needless to say, not a huge number of people really bother.

Instead, most of it just winds up in the garbage can, with residential garbage pickup once per week and all carted off to the landfill.

My household actually pays a private firm to come out once per week and take our recyclables, though apparantly our recycling guy is getting worried because the city has been floating plans to start their own residential pickup.

My household actually pays a private firm to come out once per week and take our recyclables, though apparantly our recycling guy is getting worried because the city has been floating plans to start their own residential pickup.

In the good old days (ie. drop dead from cholera days) people used to pay you for recyclables. Make-up companies used to pay for old deep fry fat but they don't do that anymore. I guess when people found out that their make-up was made out of old cooking fat it grossed them out.

Well, I guess they were actually makeing soap out of it.

They said so in the letter they sent out last year, but I recycled it without reading it properly. Now I'll never know how stinking up the town with shit one night a month is saving the planet. :(It isn't environmentalist. A whole month? They've got to be kidding.

It isn't environmentalist. A whole month? They've got to be kidding.

Yeah, ours is picked up weekly. I've never even heard of only monthly pick-up before now.

Yeah, ours is picked up weekly. I've never even heard of only monthly pick-up before now.

Me too. But then I lived on a farm and once had a job that was next to the local landfill(used to be called garbage dumps). I guess my sense of smell is worst then other people. ;)

All of the leaves/grass clippings that I can use in my garden compost go to the town's recycling center. They have a large area where they heap it into long mounds and cultivate it on a regular basis, turning into topsoil.

All glass/plastic/metal is recycled too- it gets seperated and they sell it to companies. We get a statement twice a year that itemizes the sale of each product and how much it reduced our taxes.
Corrugated cardboard seems to be the biggest money maker.

The place is just a few miles away, so if I have stuff that I dont want out in front of my house waiting for pickup for a few days, I just bring it there myself. The kids like to see the operation and I brough the scouts there when we had a recycling project. Now-when we collect litter, we seperate it to different containers and deliver it to the recycling center.