Y'know....

[johnridley]

When you run the hot water for 1 minute to rinse out a yogurt container so you can recycle it, you're not really saving the planet. I just saw someone in the kitchen here at work do this. Buddy, the planet would thank you to just throw that away. Better yet, take it home and wash it at the end of your dishwater, so you're not really using any extra water to clean it. THEN recycle it.

I tried to tell something similar to the "green team" here at work - I've seen many people running the hot water for 2+ minutes to rinse out the reusable plastic company mugs that they gave out so that they could save the planet by not using styrofoam cups. Not Really Helping.

Comments

[jvanhare.livejournal.com]

Yes, I concur. I noticed the irony years ago in my terminally hip days. Kind of like the volume of trash scattered on the ground after the speakers, live music and audience have left. Nowadays I temper the whole green movement revitalization with the question, what is sustainable, what really works, and what will Joe Sixpack do/buy? I believe that if windmills were cheap enough and saved a lot of money on the electric bill, and when this happens, not if, your average middle class American will then buy into it. Warehouses stacked to the ceiling with unsold recycled newspapers and cardboard seem like a big fire hazard to me if no one is going to buy recycled paper towels, etc. because they cost more. We can't save the world by driving a Prius, recycling paper plastic cans and bottles and running compact florescent light bulbs. It's going to take a lot bigger and more integrated world view and some real solutions to the problems confronting us today. All those things help to a degree, but where are the big thinkers and paradigm shifters? Where is this generation's Einstein or Hawking? We need a gamechanger like a breakthrough in fusion technology (it's only 50 years away....still). So, yeah don't dump 3 gallons of water down the sink and spin the turbines a little faster to wash out a yogurt container or soup can.

another point of view

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

FWIW, John, the recycling service in Grand Rapids requires containers to be rinsed.

http://www.grand-rapids.mi.us/index.pl?page_id=436

I don't believe it is required in Kalamazoo.

Hot water might make the rinsing go faster than cold. Certainly higher pressure would work, but that is dependent on the system, and not easily changed by the user.

Maybe, in your copious spare time, you should run experiments?

Re: another point of view

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I realize that you're required to clean containers. The point is, far more ecological damage is done by running a couple of gallons of hot water than is gained by recycling 15 grams of plastic. We'd be better off throwing that plastic out than wasting the hot water.

Really, the only way to make it make sense would be to wash these types of containers in leftover dishwater that was about to be drained anyway.

I think water usage is going to be a big deal someday, even here where we have so much of it. I see hundreds if not thousands of gallons of it wasted every day; people run water for a minute while brushing their teeth; they don't need it, they just leave it run. Tons of examples, I could rant on for hours.