Edit to say - I’m really glad I asked my stupid question. I was so jaded by the con artists in recycling I forgot that when done right there’s so much good - and still loads of consequences to not finding a place to reuse the paper products. I’m not huge with using packaging - and thanks for all the thoughtful answers :))
I found myself wondering this as I got annoyed at the plastics industry and their stupid propaganda, as I do everytime I go to recycle something. But anyway, I had been thinking I’d heard something about people going to ‘mine’ landfills for metal because people weren’t recycling and it’s ‘bad for the environment’ and 'filling up ‘landfills’
Bitch Please. I can see the dollar symbols on your pupils from here.
So it made me think, paper and the such breaks down quickly. Food too. The huge drives for community composting efforts and cardboard drives for schools etc - It’s really all a matter of the fact we can re-use it all easily. Metal is worth money, used again and again, as it was straight from the earth. Just that plastic. Which is all but unrecyclable, save some clear/semi-clear containers.
But without the cardboard, my bin is pretty empty. It’s like recycling exists just to pretend plastic can be.
Edit - I should add in my area if the recycling the plant receives is tainted in anyway they just toss it. The whole load. So unrecyclable plastic? Dirty? Wrong material? Gone.
I don’t know much but I’ve heard that landfills are so dense and thick that there is not enough oxygen to break down organic matter like did waste. I don’t know for sure about that and I don’t know how it applies to cardboard but that’s what I’ve heard and read and seen videos about.
I hope someone with more knowledge could give a better informed comment.
RemindMe! 2 days
Did your remind me work? I think you need @remindme@mstd.social 2 days
From what I’ve watched and read you are correct. It also creates excess methane which is captured and sometimes used for things like energy.
Wait, hold the fuck up, do we have the RemindMe bot here now?
I never even considered that in the first place, so thanks for speaking up anyway:)
I wonder if that has anything to do with the methane torches that burn from the landfills
A quick search found this small page that summarizes what you said
I compost at home, and I “toss” my pile at least weekly to get more oxygen in the pile and accelerate the breakdown of greens and browns into compost. As I understand it, everything in my pile would EVENTUALLY break down if just piled up, but composting is done semi specifically to take advantage of prime conditions for the breakdown process. All that to say, it definitely doesn’t breakdown as quickly/effectively in a landfill due to lack of oxygen