Why keep recycling?

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

LOL melt em down with what?
The cost to heat up a blast furnace would far exceed the value of the end result.

But the cool factor should offset the cost of heating the blast furnace. I mean, imagine the neighbor envy when you tell them "I have a blast furnace. You have any metal I can melt down?"

[ckelly78z]

Heat the shop with the blast furnace, and use the ingots to pay the bill when the scrap price goes up in the dead of Winter...come out even. That's a Win-Win in my book.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by widebody911

At least straw men are recyclable.

lol

Only thing they take for recycling here is #1 and #2 plastic, glass, metal cans. I seem to remember styrofoam, if clean, is valuable to recycle. Not sure if that is true.

All the beer cans and water bottles have an extra tax, I mean deposit, to encourage recycling. 2 quart plastic containers you get juice in are too. Every few months I turn those in for cash.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

That place stull exists?
Guess I lost that bet.

I worked there back in the 80's and recognized it was a BS scam immediately.
A place to turn federal tax money into local revenue. Not cost effective, did more damage to the environment than good.

It was also very poorly engineered and designed.
Example:
Al big furnaces have forced draft (FD) and induced draft (ID) fans to blow the air through the furnace.

The motor on one if their ID fans had failed and they called my company to replace the motor despite the fact that we were very expensive and specialized in stuff that was too difficult for typical plant forces.

The reason they called us: The ID fan sat in the middle of a maze of large duct work.
Ducting that was around 8 to 10 feet tall, and the motor was probably around 3000 pounds or so. it was a long time ago, caint remember the 'zact details but it were heavy and inaccessible.

A crane large enough to reach it and pick it would have cost tens of thousands of dollars and take a few weeks to get shipped and built on-site.

So we built a combination of a small gauge rail system with an adjustable pedestal car that we could slide the motor onto, and roll it around the track with the use of tuggers to a location that was close enough to the road where a large (but not giant) crane could pick it and load it on a semi trailer.
re-installation was a the same steps reversed.

One thing I clearly remember was how gross the place was. Thee bolts that held the motor to the base were covered with maggots and had to be brushed off before putting a wrench on them.
And there were a few places where there were puddles of maggots on the ground and they were slippery when stepped on.
You can imagine the smell, don't have to go there.

But the money was really good.

Did some checking, they were planning to shut down that plant last year but Long beach spent $14 million in upgrades to keep it alive until 2024.

for reference, a couple of pics of similarly sized ID fans:

[RWebb]

what do they do in Germany?

[john70t]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

LOL melt em down with what?
The cost to heat up a blast furnace would far exceed the value of the end result.

Dude, you are so on.

The reason Tokyo was firebombed was that there were a thousand manufacturing shops spread out in tiny wooden buildings.
One guy makes wing material. One guy makes tarps.

Anyone can make a small wood-fired kiln using basic materials such as bricks and clay.
Anyone can chop up (non fire-hazardous cough) metal material in any amount for later use, or just as an art piece.

[jcommin]

These goods are commodities and like any commodity they have value - and that value goes up and down.

Steel, aluminum or any metal is the choice commodity - Living in Chicago, there are the "scrappers" that go into neighborhoods looking for metal. Even the homeless will walk with shopping carts picking for metal out of garbage cans. Then there are the dumpster divers and I have seen all kninds: men, woman and children. Electrical stuff (copper) has value as well.

Then there is the other stuff: food waste, yard waste, plastic, wood/paper - that value is less and the demand has shrunk.

My company has many rubber injection machines - I geneate a fair amount of rubber scrap. I was selling it until Novemeber of last year. I now had to pay for recycling - which I did because it was even with the cost of landfilling it. In March of this year, no one was taking it - it is now landfilled.

It isn't easy, but the best option is to reduce the output of scrap. Raw materials cost money. When my compnay estabishes a cost for products made out of metal, the scrap dollars are calculated and the production cost is reduced by the value of the scrap. This especially true in high alloy, speciality metals,

Personally, I'm trying to reduce plastic waste - I really loath plastic bags.

[Clint Lando]

make slag

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by RWebb

what do they do in Germany?

I'm guessing something based on long term benefits and not today's easiest buck.

[RWebb]

Here how they recycle in England:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/23/sri-lanka-send-100-containers-human-remains-disguised-recycling/

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by jcommin

I generate a fair amount of rubber scrap. .

Now you're just bragging.

[LakeCleElum]

I live in rural area and recycle is not an option with our waste collection system. Get visitors from the city all the time (Liberals)......Always poking around looking for my recycle bin. When I tell them it doesn't exist, they don't believe me and put it in different bags for me to sort out...

I humor them and throw all but the metal in the wood stove when they leave.....

[masraum]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

LOL melt em down with what?
The cost to heat up a blast furnace would far exceed the value of the end result.

Steel melts easy, probably just a backyard bonfire or maybe a small hibachi with some Kingsford.

[wdfifteen]

[QUOTE=LakeCleElum;10535647]I live in rural area and recycle is not an option with our waste collection system. Get visitors from the city all the time (Liberals)..

Isn't it interesting that liberals want to conserve and conservatives want to waste?