March 6, 2026 • 42 mins
Why does Germany use five different bins for recycling? Can you trick people into being greener by putting wolves on packaging? And is recycling a good business to be in? Plus, why Totes McGoats is one of the worst phrases of all time... but also perhaps the best recycling mascot ever. Featuring Christopher Hassiotis from HowStuffWorks.
This episode originally aired on January 24, 2018.
Got a question or idea for the show? Call our hotline at (302) 405-5925 or email higeniuses@gmail.com.
Follow us on Instagram @parttimegenius and Bluesky @parttimegenius.bsky.social!
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski via Unsplash. Thanks, Pawel!
Learn more about your ad choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what mango?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What's that? Will?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So are you familiar with tots magoats?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh? Please don't tell me you're going to start using
that phrase.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
No, I'm not talking about the term though, though now
I'm tots magoat's going to start using it. But I'm
talking about this weird man goat mascot that they used
in the Niagara Falls area, and you know, it's to
help people start recycling more.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I can't say I've heard of that, and it sounds
like a horrible idea. Did you say, mangat?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I did, and it is super weird looking. You should
totally look up tots mgoats. But you know, supposedly since
introducing this really bizarre mascot a few years ago, recycling
is actually up fifty percent in this area and the
amount of trash going to landfills has dropped by twenty percent.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Okay, so I just pulled them up, and honestly, if
I thought this scary looking mascot with a tiny goat
heead was going to come after me, I'd start recycling too.
Maybe it's just a scare tactic they're using.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I don't know. But on the topic of how much
we recycle. We've had several questions we've been meaning to
get to and things like, you know, what's the state
of recycling in the US, and is it a good
business to be in? Is it even worth it to recycle?
And what are the weirdest things people can recycle? Now
it's Toat's Magot's time to find out. Please all right,
but let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
(01:34):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
joined by my good friend mangeshat Ticketter And on the
other side of the soundproof glass separating his number one
and number two plastics from the rest of the bunch,
that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, and good for Tristan for doing that. Most folks
don't even know the numbers inside the recycling system on
plastic containers and that they're actually a way to tell
which kinds can and can't be recycled. But Tristan has
the whole resin identification hode down and that's just the
kind of guy he is.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Well, and we love him for it, and especially today
because we're going to be taking a hard look at
the current state of recycling in the world and asking
a tough question, you know, is recycling worth it? Because
when you think about it, the practice is a pretty
unique blend of environmentalism and business, and it's one that
the majority of developed nations agree is a pretty sensible
thing to do. And I mean, of course, recycling makes environmental sense.
(02:25):
It reduces the trash we send to the landfills and
conserves natural resources that you know would otherwise go into
making new products. But it also makes economic sense. For example,
I was looking at a study by the EPA, this
report they released back in twenty sixteen, and it found
that within a single year, recycling and reuse activities in
the US account for seven hundred and fifty seven thousand
(02:48):
jobs and almost seven billion in tax revenue and over
thirty six billion in wages. So recycling clearly leads to
some very real and valuable benefits. But of course those
benefits always come with a.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Cost, right, So today we'll try to balance the books
and get a sense of whether recycling is actually paying
off both environmentally and economically. But before we get into that,
I want to take a minute to talk about how
recycling became a thing that people do in the first place.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You're always going back to the origins and things, but
with recycling, like, I didn't even know there was an
origin of recycling.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, I mean, wide scale recycling programs are a fairly
new phenomenon in history. They kind of arose during the
industrial and post industrial ages as manufacturing was kicking into overdrive.
So humans started using more and more natural resources to
produce more new things than ever before. And meanwhile, you know,
the thrifty people started looking for ways to just reuse
what was already out there instead. So, for example, in
(03:43):
the late eighteen hundreds, these European cities like London and Paris,
they were rife with what you'd call rag and bone men.
And these were pebblers who just wandered around and collected
and carted around sacks of reusable items, and then they'd
sell those back to general stores.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
All right, so rag and bone, I'm guessing from the
name that these reusable items you're talking about were rags
and for some reason bones.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, So these guys would scour the city for like
old rags, bones, bits of metal, any other discarded items
that could be scavenged and of course recycled.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I love how you just say this like it's no
big deal. I still need to know it. Actually, maybe
I don't why and how people were reusing bones and
why were so many random bones just all over the
streets of London.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, I don't have specifics on where the bones were
actually coming from, but I imagine there were mostly animal bones
left over from you know, meals that've been tossed in
the garbage. But you know, as for how the bones
were recycled, a lot of them were used to make
geladin for processed foods or glue, kind of the way
we still do today. And also I've forgotten this, but
prior to the rise of plastics in the twentieth century,
(04:49):
many of the buttons for clothing were made from polished bones,
so that was another use as well.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
All right, So what exactly happened to these pioneers of recycling.
Was it, you know, plastics that kind of kill the
bone market? I guess.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah. Plastic and a few other advancements sort of put
an end to those kinds of local level recycling schemes
for a while. After the Industrial Revolution, fewer people were
making their own goods, so there was just less need
for reusable materials. Like the ones rag and bone men
were collecting, and instead all that stuff kind of became
garden variety garbage. But I should mention that that entrepreneurial
(05:23):
spirit still lives on today in today's scrap recyclers. So,
according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, scrappers processed
more than one hundred and thirty million tons of material
in twenty thirteen, and all that helped us save energy,
reduce screenhouse gas emissions, It helped preserve natural resources and
actually limited the amount of material that would otherwise go
(05:44):
to landfills.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Well, I know, the scrap industry is nothing like Sanford
and Sun these days, and I mean it has its
own institute now apparently, which I wasn't aware of. But
I still can't help thinking of that show whenever somebody
mentions scrap dealers, which is more often than you think, actually,
But you look at the numbers that you mentioned, and
it really highlights just how much of an impact industrialization
has had on the amount of trash that we produce.
(06:08):
So I was flipping through this book by Tom Zaki
called out Smart Waste, the Modern Idea of garbage and
how to think our way out of it, and according
to his research, the amount of waste that humans produce
has gone up by more than ten thousand percent over
the past century. That's ten thousand percent.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
That's insane. But you know, if there is a silver
lining to that insanely large cloud of trash, it's that
the world's recycling rate has also risen by leaps and
bounds over that same period. So, for instance, by the
EPA's last count Americans now recycle nearly thirty five percent
of the trash we produce, which is up from just
six point two percent in the nineteen sixties. And you
(06:46):
know a few other countries like Taiwan, Austria, Germany, they
now boast recycling rates as high as sixty three percent.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Well, that is a promising uptick, but I still can't
help but feel a little disappointed with our current numbers.
I mean, not even a full thirty five percent of
our trash gets recycled. Americans produce about two hundred and
fifty million tons of trash every single year, so recycling
just a third of that means we're still sending close
to one hundred and seventy million tons of waste, you know,
(07:14):
off to landfills and incinerators every single year. I mean,
there's got to be a better way to get our
numbers up.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, there are definitely a few things we could improve on,
and we should talk about them in a bit, But
first I want to throw out another silver lining that
we shouldn't overlook.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
They're always looking on the positive side. Then, all right,
so what's this upside to a thirty four percent recycling rate.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, even at that current rate, our recycling efforts, coupled
with composting, prevent the release of a lot of carbon dioxide,
so about one hundred and eighty million metric tons of
it in twenty thirteen alone, And according to the EPA,
that's comparable to taking more than thirty nine million cars
off the road for a whole year. So yeah, so
(07:55):
even though we have like a long way to go,
we're really making some headway.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Well I'm glad you mention that, because it is important
to keep progress in perspective, and in fact, that might
be one way we can improve our recycling game here
in the States.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
How's that?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Actually? I saw this survey conducted by IPSOS back in
twenty eleven that found that only half of American adults
recycled daily. About a third of the respondent said that
they recycle less frequently than that, and about thirteen percent
admitted that they never recycle at all. And some researchers
have since suggested that there's a psychological reason for our
spotty track records with recycling. I mean, namely, we have
(08:30):
trouble connecting our daily habits with their consequences, and so
if you think about it, it actually kind of makes
a lot of sense. You know, the reward for recycling
isn't immediate, and then the fallout from recycling also doesn't
feel real either, so we don't see the benefits or
the harms that we're contributing to. So there's less of
an appeal to make recycling a daily behavior, and it
(08:50):
just is kind of all lessened in our minds because
of this.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
That's pretty interesting and it actually makes me think of
this study I read about in Scientific American. That's just
an other psychological hang up that people have with recycling.
So I don't know if you've heard this before, but
there have been a number of studies that show that
women typically have greener habits and are more environmentally minded
than men. So, for instance, women recycle more, they litteralless,
(09:14):
then they leave a smaller carbon footprint than their average
male counterparts.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So do we know why this might be?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Well, Weirdly, the research report on by Scientific Americans suggests
that men might shun this eco friendly behavior like recycling,
because it makes them feel less macho.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Really.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, So two of the researchers describe the findings of
their study this way. So quote, we showed that there
is a psychological link between eco friendliness and perceptions of femininity.
And due to this green feminine stereotype, both men and
women judged eco friendly products, behaviors, and consumers as more
feminine than their non green counterparts.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That is such a strange thing. But actually, from what
you're saying, so even women thought going green was a
feminine thing.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, it's weird, right. So one of the experiments had
the participants recall a time when they did something good
for the environment, and both the men and the women
said they perceived themselves to be more feminine in those
instances that they shared. Maybe it's just because they were
like caring nicely for mother Earth. I'm not sure what
it was.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Wow, So is there any way to counter this thinking
so that guys will be more inclined to you know,
pitch in with recycling or these other green efforts.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, so, since this is like a psychological hurdle, the
best way to solve is for men to grow more
secure with their own masculinity. That's good advice, and I
guess marketing can help. Like, for instance, the researchers and
Scientific American described this experiment where men were found to
be more likely to donate to a green nonprofit if
it had a masculine logo, so like if it had
(10:49):
black and dark blue colors and like featured a howling wolf,
and also if the name was something more masculine like
Wilderness Rangers. Yeah, I had a bold fond apparently, so
and men contributed more to that than something with like
a traditional logo with light and green tan colors, if
it featured a tree, if it had like a frilly
(11:11):
font and a name like Friends with Nature.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So it's crazy if it makes me wish that mancho
man Randy Savage was still around so that we could.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Have Wilderness Rangers exactly. We need a bad boy of recycling.
The show is our way.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So it's clearly still all in our heads though.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, so our psyches are our worst natural enemies when
it comes to recycling. Like, according to a survey from
the National Waste and Recycling Association, one in five Americans
say that they'll put something in a recycling bin even
if they aren't totally certain that it's recyclable. And this
is a phenomenon that's called wishful recycling, where people in doubt,
we'll just go for it and the off chance that
(11:51):
whatever they want to get rid of can hopefully be recycled.
And of course a lot of the time we're completely
wrong with those kinds of judgments.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, and if I'm being honest, I mean I have
definitely been guilty of that as well. You've got a
product and you're just again you're hoping that it can
be recycled, so you just go ahead and toss it
in there. But you know, it does lead to all
these kinds of headaches for people who have to sort
and then process this random assortment of stuff that people
are just chucking in the recycling bins.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah. So some years ago, Lizzie and I house sat
for some friends in Portland and they gave us like
this twenty minute tour of just their recycling system and
the fifteen bins they had for various types of things.
It was dizzying. I know, it really felt like a
Portland episode. But and I mean that's coming from Delaware,
where we had recycling really early. But you had to
(12:38):
make such an effort to do it, Like I actually
remember on weekends, like I'd collect stuff around the house
with my dad, all the newspapers and cardboard, and turned
his hatchback and we'd drive off to recycling center a
few miles away. And that's because the city didn't pick
it up yet. But I'm a little off topic. I
definitely want to talk about the problems that come from
the so called single stream approach to recycling that we
(12:58):
go by in the US. But before we do that,
let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're breaking down
the pros and cons of recycling. I mean, a minute
ago you mentioned single stream recycling, which of course was
intended to make recycling more approachable for the average citizen,
but really in practice the system has proven to be
both bad for the environment and bad for business.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah. So basically, the idea behind single stream was to
put all of your different recyclables, whether that's glass or
paper or plastic all into one bin. And this was
an idea that first cropped up in California back in
nineteen ninety five and was later rolled out nationwide as
almost the best, most user friendly shot for getting people
on board with recycling. And really though this approach just
(13:54):
kind of kicked the can a little further down the
road because you know, all those materials still need to
be sort of so instead of placing that added responsibility
on individuals, we just invested in processing plants to do
all that sorting for us.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Right. And you know, in the opposite end of the spectrum,
you have somewhere like Germany and it adopted this system
in the early nineties that actually required households to use
a total of five different bins. They're all color coded
and they help indicate where you should dispose of different
kinds of waste and a little bit like the Portland
example you gave earlier. And you know, while it sounds complicated,
(14:28):
that approach has led to a recycling rate that's nearly
double what we see here in the States.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, I mean that's incredible, But the drawbacks of this
single like single stream system go far beyond making us
look bad in front of the Germans. So one of
the biggest issues the system poses is cross contamination. So
that's when like little pieces of plastic get mixed in
with paper, or worse, when they're like food particles from
containers that weren't cleaned well enough. And all of this
slows down the sorting process, it comes up the machines.
(14:55):
It leads to this inordinate amount of would be recyclables
being thrown out instead of being recycled. Then, according to
City Lab, as much as twenty five percent of the
recyclable waste that passes through the single stream system winds
up in landfill, and if you ask Tom Zakey, that
number is closer to fifty percent. Either way. It really
calls it a question whether our already not soo stellar
(15:16):
thirty four percent national recycling rate is even accurate.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
There's a good chance it's way lower. Yeah, you know,
And I was reading that an even bigger problem for
materials recovery facilities or mirphs. I guess they're called MRF
so that that's what they call them in the industry,
That this all these unrecyclables that end up in the
plants thanks to the wishful recycling that you were talking
about earlier. According to Susan Robinson, she's the director of
(15:40):
public affairs for Waste Management, but we also get a
surprising number of garden hoses, Christmas lights and shower curtain.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And I can just imagine how much time is lost
by like trying to shut down the equipmen and fish
out all that junk.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, and that loss and productivity has started to take
its toll on recycling's profitability. I mean, all cross the country,
recycling companies are reporting drastic decreases in profit and that's
partly because of the higher processing costs associated with contamination
and faulty user sorting practices. You know, for example, in
the District of Columbia, they replaced those thirty two gallon
(16:15):
bins with ones that were fifty percent larger. This was
back in twenty fourteen, and so these larger binds lead
to a higher rate of wishful recycling among the residents,
so much so that all that non recyclable material that
wound up in DC's mirphs, it drove up the city's
processing costs and it cut their profits from recyclable sales
by more than fifty percent back in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Wow, So clearly there's room for improvement in this single
stream system. And still, in the interest of balance, I
do want to point out a few parts of the
recycling industry that are still paying out despite our somewhat
you know, flawed way of doing things. So one example
is aluminum, which is actually the most recycled product in
the world, with close to seventy percent of aluminum cans
being recycled around the world. And there the reason for
(17:00):
that huge turnover rate is that aluminum nets recycling companies
the most money of any recyclable material out there. It's
about fifteen hundred dollars per ton in the US as
of twenty fifteen. And another area where business is booming
is corrugated cardboard, and that's thanks to online shopping. You know,
the recycling stream is just flush with cardboard boxes, which
(17:20):
you know, can be valuable so long as they aren't
contaminated by pizza grease or whatever other organic bits have
mistakenly made their way into the recycling bin.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, and I do want to be careful not to
harp too much on the business side of things, because
there's still other areas where recycling definitely benefits the economy,
like reducing the use and costs of landfills and reducing
the energy expense of harvesting more natural resources for all
the new products that we need to create.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, and another reason not to stress too much about
the money saving benefits of environmentalism is that it can
actually make people less likely to recycle.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Wait what, so, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
So this comes from a team of researchers at Cardiff
University in the UK, and they found that appealing to
somebody's self interest actually makes them less likely to behave
in a helpful manner. So, in this experiment, one group
of students was told about the environmental benefits of carpooling.
Another group was told about the potential to save money
by carpooling, and things get a little devious from there.
(18:17):
And here's how Wired explained the next part of the experiment.
So the students then filled out paper questionnaires about unrelated topics,
which they were told to dispose of at the session's end.
Unbeknownst to them, this was the experiment's real purpose and
a microcosm of environmental tensions. Would they use a recycling
basket inconveniently located under another table or a general waste
(18:39):
bin at arm's length. Among those students primed as psychologists say,
with the message of carpooling self transcending benefits, eighty nine
percent recycled. Of the group that learned about the cost saving,
just fifty percent recycled.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Wow, so the environmental impact turned out to be a
bigger draw than saving their own cash, which I guess
that's actually a little bit heartening.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, And the study also highlights the biggest risk of
pushing recycling mainly as a way to save time or
make money instead of as a way to preserve the
beauty of the natural world, like people might forget that
nature is in its own right reason enough to care
about conservation efforts.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
That's a really good point, you know. One of my
favorite examples of just how effective that naturalist mentality can
be is this tiny town. It's in southwestern Japan and
it's called Kamakatsu. So there's about seventeen hundred people who
live there, and since two thousand and three, the town
residents have been engaged in this long running quest that
becomes zero waste by twenty twenty. And so in order
(19:40):
to get there, citizens are responsible for separating their trash
into thirty four distinct categories and then getting it all
delivered to the nearest recycling center thirty fours.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Ever beens and no trash trucks. Like right, I thought
the Germans had it wrong.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, I mean, this is more Portland than Portland. It's
pretty impressive. But that's actually not all either. So to
sidestep the contamination problem that we have here in the States,
town residents are also required to thoroughly wash all thirty
four kinds of recyclables and then separate out all their
organic waste and compost that at home.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
That's crazy, It sounds like such an imposition. But are
the residents really okay with putting in all that extra
effort or is everyone just miserable and exhausted by the
end of the week.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well, that's the thing. I mean, most people in comic
coots who say that despite the hard work, they appreciate
this push to be more thoughtful about how and what
they consume. And in an interview that was on the BBC,
there was one local woman who summed up the feeling
this way. She said, I have to do it every
day and it's certainly a bit of work. But it's
a good idea to send things back to the earth,
so I support it.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That's awesome, and in fact, what do you say we
keep these positive vibes going and take a look at
some other unique recycling programs as well as the weirdest
things they figured out how to reuse.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Sounds good to me. But first let's take a quick break. Okay, mango,
So it's quiz time now. Before we jump into the quiz,
we had a couple other questions that we wanted to
ask about recycling since that's our topic today, and we're
(21:14):
joined by one of the brilliant researchers here at How
Stuff Works, Christopher Haciotis Christopher, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
All right, so we gave you the heads up we
were talking about recycling and we had a couple of questions.
Now now Tristan, we've informed our listeners, is an expert
on all the numbers that you see on the plastics
and what they mean and which ones you can recycle
and which ones you can't. I know you're not surprised
because Tristan's pretty much good at everything. But for those
of us that don't know everything, about recycling and the
(21:44):
numbers that are on the plastics. Can can you just
give us like the cheat sheet to that what those
one through seven numbers mean and why some can be
recycled and others can't be sure.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Yeah, it's this really labyrinthing convoluted system of coding known
as the r I see, it's the Resin Identification coding
system and it was put in place in nineteen eighty eight.
So you've got these seven different types of plastic and
basically what it comes down to is what the plastics
are made out of and what you can do with them.
Some will be recyclable immediately, Some are reusable but not recyclable.
(22:17):
Some should not be reused or recycled.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And what you've.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Got to do is flip your jug of water, you're
a jug of milk, your plastic cup upside down, take
a gander at what's underneath it, and then get on
the internet. Because honestly, nobody knows this system.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
And Tristin does what he won't say anything about that.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Tristan Okay, So I think what we need is everyone
needs a system to just give Tristan.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
A call right away.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So, yeah, you've got these seven types of plastic number
one polyethylene telephylate also known as PET number two high
density polyethylene. So these are the kinds that are generally
recyclable and most commonly accepted in your neighborhood or community
recycling centers. And then there are a bunch of others
that are technically recyclable but just basically just a hassle
(23:06):
for the people to do it. So, you know those
plastic bags you get at the grocery store, right, everyone's
got opinions about them. Should I ge paper, should I
get pastics? Should I bring my own? If you're getting
the plastic bag, it's the same substance that makes up
milk jugs and toys and other kinds of bottles that
are recyclable, but it's so thin and it's so spread
up that it's not worth it to recycle them. And
(23:28):
those plastic bags can also jam up the gears and
get caught in the machines that do the recycling. And
those numbers, you know, you generally see one through seven,
but they go up way beyond there. There's a plastic
that's number nine. That's the kind of plastic your cell
phones are made out of. Your TVs, but then the
numbers go all the way up into the hundreds. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I feel like you need a field guide to plastics
where people are like bird spotting, but for rare plastics
and the chondreds. So I used to see glass recycling
all over the place, and that used to be pickups
neighborhoods and stuff, and now I don't really see that
as much. Do you know anything about that? I do.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, So, recycling aluminum, you are spending about ninety six
percent less energy than if you were just making it
from raw materials. Glass is all the way at the
other end of that spectrum, so you're only saving about
twenty six percent of the energy to recycle glass. Petroleum,
which makes up plastic, is a generally expensive item. It's
dropped in price recently, but it's cost more for companies
(24:28):
who make plastic to get the virgin materials out of
the ground, and it does reuse it. It's not necessarily
the case for glass. Glass, as anyone who's I don't
spend a lot of time with kids, cartoons is made
out of sand. I think it might have been an
episode of He man or Man rubs his hands really
fast on the desert floor and creates some sort of
(24:51):
I think but yeah, basically, so you can either take glass,
go through the whole process recycle it, or you can
just go get some new sand.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Well that's super helpful, Christopher. Now we can't let you
go though, before playing a super important quiz, Na Mango,
What what quiz are we playing today?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
It's called recycled Sesame Street shows, and so according to
Muppet Wiki, Sesame Street has to produce something like one
hundred and thirty shows a season, and they often recycle
their main storylines. So we're going to tell you a
recycled plot and you just have to tell us which
Sesame Street character starred in it.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
They do one hundred and thirty shows a season.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I mean this is wikipedias. I assume Muppet Wig, Muppet, Muppet.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Muppet Wiki. All right, that is a lot, Okay, I
mean I guess that's every year that that That is a.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Tonic speaker behind the screen. Con that's where he shines.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
All right, We've got five questions for you, Christopher. Question
number one on episode three eight hundred and twelve and
episode three nine hundred and thirty three. Wow, this friendly
vampire wanders around Sesame Street, enumerting all the mistakes on
Sesame Street. Who are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (25:58):
So that is none other than Count vomb Count I
would assume.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, that's right. And according to his origin story on
Sesame Street, he's not the only member of his family
that loves numbers. His uncle Uno also loves to count.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
All right, all right? Question number two. On episodes five,
eighteen and seven ninety two, this character conducts a philharmonic
orchestra of similar grumps instead of musical instruments. The orchestra
makes annoying sounds, like that of an airplane or a
fire engine. Who are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh? Wow?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Okay, so you said of similar grumps, which would point
me in the direction of Oscar the Grouse or Statler
and Waldorf. But then there's Rolf, who's the musically talented one.
So I'm gonna go I'm just gonna say Rolf because
he's the piano playing dog and I dig him.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Oh, You're were on the right track. It was Oscar
the Grouse.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Oh okay, wow, that was really a really impressive rundown
of all the possible answers. Okay, still have time to
recover here. Question number three episodes eight ninety four and
one and fourteen, this character orders a radio, but instead
he gets a box containing its parts, but even worse,
(27:10):
it doesn't contain any baked goods. What character are we
talking about?
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Hmmm, so you've got the okay. My initial thought was
the sweetest chef, because he's the one who's going to
be putting things together and making something and cooking, but
then baked goods. Who would be upset about not getting
baked goods? Unless it were in a health oriented episode,
I would say cookie Monster.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, that's right, it is Cookie Monster. And you know
what one of the producers on the show said earlier
when they were starting the show, a typist used to
correct all of Cookie Monster's grammar in the scripts and
to stop avermappening.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Wow, that's pretty great, okay. Question number four. On episodes
four to one, seven, four and four four one three,
this character organizes a nest sale where all his old
toys can be bought for five birds seeds. What character
are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I'm gonna go with one of the friendliest characters I
can think of, and that's Big Bird.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Mm hmm, that's right, you got it, all right. Question
number five for the big win. Here on episodes three, four, six,
five and three seven two two, this once imaginary character
is depressed because every time he tap dances, it causes
an earthquake. What character are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (28:24):
So, I'm pretty happy that a tap dancing earthquake is
a more than one time occurrence, But I I don't
know who that would be, although I'm gonna I'm just
gonna guess that it's snuffle Up. I guess yes, I
think he's sizable enough that he could do it.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
That's right. And also, I didn't realize this until we
did the research, but Snuffy's favorite foods are cabbage spaghetti
and sassafras tea.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
So wait, Mango, is that a tea made out of cabbage,
spaghetti and sassafras?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
No, those are separate items.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I'm glad you. I'm glad you added those little fun
facts in there, Mango. That's that's really valuable. So, so,
how did Chris do today?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Well, Christopher went an amazing four for five, which entitles
them to our big prize, our total.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Admirationy congratulations Christopher, and thanks for joining us anytime.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Okay, Well, so I love Komakotsu's zero waste plan. But
let's be honest, getting people on board to recycle is
one thing in a town with fewer than two thousand residents,
But it's a lot harder to get that tens of
thousands or even millions of residents of the city to
all commit to that extra effort of recycling. So, I know,
cities like San Francisco and Portland are making huge strides
(29:46):
and boosting the recycling rates, but some cities are taking
an even bolder approach to the challenge. For example, there
are about twelve hundred cities across the US that have
adopted a so called pay as you throw system.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
You know, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people
that would not like the sound of that. So is
this is this some kind of garbage tax or something?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, sort of. So the idea is that municipal garbage
trucks won't pick up any trash unless it's been placed
inside specially marked bags that residents buy from the city. So,
for example, in Malden, Massachusetts, it's one dollar for each
fifteen gallon bag, or two dollars for a thirty three
gallon bag.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And so I'm a little confused by this. So how
exactly does this encourage people to recycle?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Well, Cities with pays you throw programs still pick up
recyclables and yard waste for freeze, so it's really just
the landfill bound waste that costs you money. And the
hope is that the added expense will encourage residents to,
you know, take the initiative recycle and compost and just
be more thoughtful about their garbage.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Well, it's definitely an interesting idea, But what about all
that research you mentioned earlier about the whole recycling saves
you money angle being kind of a dead end approach.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, it's not something that's going to be compelling to everyone,
and in fact, some cities have experienced pushback in the
form of residents who will buy regular trash bags and
then just leave them ound the garbage or in public
bins or in front of a neighbor's house. But there's
evidence that the pay as you throw system is convincing
enough people to make it worthwhile. So according to this
Atlantic article about this type of program, the city of
(31:12):
Malden's trash tonnage was actually cut in half between twenty sixteen.
In twenty thirteen, which was the year it adopted the
paid throw model, and the same thing happened in Worcester
and other Massachusetts city that cut its solid waste tonnage
by forty seven percent in the first year of its program.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Well, I see your point, and those are some pretty
solid results. And I guess since it is densely populated
cities that churn out the most trash, this extra push
from programs like this could could be worth it, you know,
to get people on the same page. But so, how
about we look at a few novel recycling programs that
use a I don't know, let's say, like a less,
less compulsory approach.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Sure. So one of my favorites is the clean Wave
program that's run by this ecological nonprofit in San Francisco
called Matter of Trust. They accept donations of human hair
and petfur and then they turn it into these like
oil absorbing mats and brooms that hazmat teams can use
to soak up oil spills. It's amazing and it's actually
a great way to make sure hair clippings that would
(32:10):
otherwise wind up in landfills are recycled and put to
good use. So if you work in a barber shop
or a pet groomers, or if you're just someone with
a bunch of cats or a really shaggy dog, you
should really check out the website to find out how
to donate.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Well, that's a pretty cool and well another recycling program
that's making a real difference in the world is called
the Limbs for Life Foundation. Now I didn't know this
before today's show, but it's actually illegal to reuse prosthetic
limbs in the United States, and since they're often made
from plastics and other materials that can't be recycled that easily,
there's a lot of perfectly functional prosthetics that just wind
(32:43):
up in the trash, you know. But the organizations like
Limbs for Life have found an amazing loophole here because
it turns out it is legal to disassemble them and
then ship those used prosthetics to other countries. So that's
exactly what these programs do. They collect and they distribute
these used prosthetics free of charge to land mine victims
and other amputees and countries around.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
The world love that. What a great work around. So
this one's kind of in the same vein. It's called
New Eyes for the Needy and it collects recycles and
distributes old eyeglasses and hearing aids to impoverish children and adults,
both in the US and abroad. And the group has
been working to improve the world's vision since nineteen thirty two.
So far they've distributed over eight million pairs of glasses
(33:26):
to people all over the globe.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Oh wow, that's pretty neat. Well, speaking of glasses, I
came across this really neat recycling program where people can
donate their eclipse glasses that you know that they used
to view last year's total eclipse.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Wait, aren't those only safe to look at like for
a few years.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, that's true here in the US, but actually South
America and Asia they're getting ready to experience their own
total eclipse in twenty nineteen, and so of course, you know,
that's well within that three year span where it's safe
to use all those glasses that we had last year.
So that's where a nonprofit called Astronomers Without Borders comes in.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
That's that's such a great name.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I love how many of the fill in the blank
without borders there are, but it is a great name.
And you know, the group is currently collecting these used
and certified eclipse glasses to distribute to people who might
be unable to afford or otherwise get their hands on
a pair in time for next year as a clip.
So if you've held onto your glasses as memento or
just haven't gotten around to tossing them yet, it's a
(34:22):
great chance to help someone else have their own once
in a lifetime experience.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well, the last unusual recycling program I want to mention
isn't as altruistic as some of the others we've talked about,
but it does help take a bite out of the
problem with plastics. So one thing I found out while
researching is that most credit cards, as well as things
like hotel keys and ID cards, are made from PVC,
and as Tristan will tell you, that's one of the
five out of seven main plastic types that usually can't
(34:47):
be recycled at all. Whenever people cut up their expired
cards or turn in their old driver's licenses, all those
strips of plastic typically heads straight to the dump.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
But so if PVC is unrecyclable, then than how's a
recycling program supposed to help?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, So there are actually some groups. A major one
in Ohio is called Earthworks, for example, and they recycle
old cards by chopping them up and melting them back
into sheets of raw PVC and then the plastics able
to be turned into well new cards. It's kind of
like with those plastic bags that everyone has a million
of under their sink, Like, we can't actually get rid
of them completely, so the best bet is to just
(35:23):
keep reusing the ones we have, so we don't, you know,
expend new resources to make more of them.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Well, that makes a lot of sense, you know. It
actually kind of reminds me of this cool design project
that came across It's a diy machine that can turn
plastic trash into brand new housewares. The projects called Precious Plastics,
and it's the brainchild of a Dutch designer named Dave Hawkins,
and so he wanted to create a system that makes
recycling plastic an easier and more accessible prospect for the public.
(35:51):
And so to that end, he's released these free to
download blueprints for the Precious Plastics machine, and the hope
is that communities will build their own and then use
them to establish these small scale centers locals that can
then drop off their unwanted plastic waste in exchange for
that that get a little bit of cash, and then
the senters can actually recycle these old plastic bottles and
containers and then turn them into new goods that can
(36:13):
be sold in this on site shop there.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I mean, that's a great idea, and it sounds like
some kind of three D printer, but one that's designed
to run on recyclables. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
The machines are these all in one units, and they
house a plastic shredder and then three kinds of manufacturing devices.
There's a rotational molder, an extruder, and an injection molder,
and that kind of covers all your basics in terms
of plastic making. And so unlike three D printers, though
these precious plastic systems, they wouldn't cost towns an arm
(36:43):
and a leg to get everything needed to construct one
can be easily obtained from scrap yards.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
So I think what I like most about this idea
goes back to something we talked about at the top
of the show, and that's the way that the invention
of plastic kind of did away with the tradition of
people making their own goods on a small scale, easier
to just buy mass manufactured product, so entire skill sets
were left by the wayside, and a lot of communities
suffered as a result. But something like this precious plastics
(37:09):
machine that almost returns some of that self sufficiency to
local communities.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
That's a good point, and it's actually one that Hawkins
touches on while he's speaking about his inspiration for the project.
So he said, it sort of all started when I
noticed we have a lot of plastic wastes, but for
a lot of reasons, we can't do anything with it
like we would with wood or with metal. So you
have a carpenter or a metal worker, and now you
can have a plastics person.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
And with a little luck, every town on the map
will have a plastics person to help boost the national
recycling rate in the years ahead. But until then, there's
still plenty of other interesting ways to help reduce reviews
and recycle. So how about you say we feature a
couple of those in our fact off before we go.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Sounds good to me, all right. So we've all read
about roads built from her tires or other materials, but
did you know that in the Netherlands there's actually a
bike path made with recycled toilet paper. That toilet paper
(38:09):
provides the cellulose that's helpful in maintaining traction when it's
really wet or slippery out. And while there are other
sources of cellulose, this is a good use for recycled
material that people really aren't that excited about being used
in other ways, even though it does go through a
serious sterilization process.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, so I could see there being a bit of
a mental block with toilet paper being recycled into things.
So I'd read about the repurposing of crayons, but I'd
never actually seen a figure out how many new crayons
coming into the world each day. Apparently the Crayola factory
in eastern Pennsylvania produces about twelve million crayons every single day.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Wow, every day.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, it's insane, right, And that's because people often treat
crayons as disposable, but crayons aren't actually biodegradable. So there's
a nonprofit called the Crayon Initiative that collects old crayons
from schools and restaurants and then it melts them down
and gives brand new crowns to hospitals and other places
that could use them. It's pretty neat.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
That is pretty neat, all right. Well, I talked about
the Netherlands before, and now I'm going to talk about Sweden.
So did you know they've gotten so efficient with they're
recycling that they actually now import waste from nearby countries
to send through their recycling plants, just to keep them going.
It's like overachieving, it is, they're definitely overachievers. Here's another
way that they overachieve. I saw this crazy statistic. So
(39:26):
less than one percent of household waste than Sweden goes
to the landfill each year. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
So earlier this week I was looking at photos of
the beach at Yusuri Bay in Russia, and it's really
worth looking up because it's strange and beautiful. At one
point it was a dumping ground for old glass bottles,
and that obviously doesn't sound that great. But the crazy
thing is over quite some time, the waves on these
beaches have worn down all these beer and vodka bottles
(39:53):
into these beautiful, beautiful pebbles. There's a protected area there
now called the glass Beach, and that's become this really
popular tourist spot. Huh.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
All right, Well, in doing our research this week, I
was pleased to see that there are two items that
I have lots and lots of that can also be recycled. Now,
the first is old CDs. So there's a CD recycling
center that grinds the CDs up into a fine powder,
and then later on that powders melted down and that
could be used in several ways, but the most common
uses in cars and building materials. So I can now
(40:25):
feel better about, you know, doing something with that old
toad the Wetsprocket CD from the early nineties, feel pretty
good knowing it's in somebody's car. And then the other
item is something I know you and I both had
lots of old ones of, and that's tennis balls. And
so there's this organization called Rebounces, and they actually repressurize
the old tennis balls so that they can be used again.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Oh that's really cool. Well here's a quick fact for you.
Did you know there's actually more gold and a ton
of mobile phones than there is in a ton of
gold ore. And so I read that from a ton
of gold or you can actually get one gram of gold,
but it only takes a little over four mobile phones
to get that same amount.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Oh wow, Well, sing as, I probably have about forty
old phones that might be an exaggeration, but I've got
a lot of old phones that I didn't know what
to do with, But now I know what to do
with them. I'm gonna make some gold mango. But before
I do that, I'm gonna give you today's fact Off trophy.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Thanks so much, Will, But I don't know if I
want this recycled trophy? Is there a new one you
can hand me instead?
Speaker 1 (41:22):
All right, Well, thank you guys for listening. We'd love
to hear from you. If we've forgotten any great facts
about recycling, and I know you guys have a ton
of them, feel free to send them our way. You
can email us part Time Genius at houstuffworks dot com
or call us on our twenty four to seven fact hotline.
That's one eight four four pt Genius. You can also
hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Keep the messages coming,
(41:42):
and thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Part Time Genius is a production of house works and
wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
(42:03):
important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Gabeluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research
Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
And Eves Jeffcoat gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Could we
forget jam Jason who
Guess what mango?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What's that? Will?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So are you familiar with tots magoats?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh? Please don't tell me you're going to start using
that phrase.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
No, I'm not talking about the term though, though now
I'm tots magoat's going to start using it. But I'm
talking about this weird man goat mascot that they used
in the Niagara Falls area, and you know, it's to
help people start recycling more.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I can't say I've heard of that, and it sounds
like a horrible idea. Did you say, mangat?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I did, and it is super weird looking. You should
totally look up tots mgoats. But you know, supposedly since
introducing this really bizarre mascot a few years ago, recycling
is actually up fifty percent in this area and the
amount of trash going to landfills has dropped by twenty percent.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Okay, so I just pulled them up, and honestly, if
I thought this scary looking mascot with a tiny goat
heead was going to come after me, I'd start recycling too.
Maybe it's just a scare tactic they're using.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I don't know. But on the topic of how much
we recycle. We've had several questions we've been meaning to
get to and things like, you know, what's the state
of recycling in the US, and is it a good
business to be in? Is it even worth it to recycle?
And what are the weirdest things people can recycle? Now
it's Toat's Magot's time to find out. Please all right,
but let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
(01:34):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
joined by my good friend mangeshat Ticketter And on the
other side of the soundproof glass separating his number one
and number two plastics from the rest of the bunch,
that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, and good for Tristan for doing that. Most folks
don't even know the numbers inside the recycling system on
plastic containers and that they're actually a way to tell
which kinds can and can't be recycled. But Tristan has
the whole resin identification hode down and that's just the
kind of guy he is.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Well, and we love him for it, and especially today
because we're going to be taking a hard look at
the current state of recycling in the world and asking
a tough question, you know, is recycling worth it? Because
when you think about it, the practice is a pretty
unique blend of environmentalism and business, and it's one that
the majority of developed nations agree is a pretty sensible
thing to do. And I mean, of course, recycling makes environmental sense.
(02:25):
It reduces the trash we send to the landfills and
conserves natural resources that you know would otherwise go into
making new products. But it also makes economic sense. For example,
I was looking at a study by the EPA, this
report they released back in twenty sixteen, and it found
that within a single year, recycling and reuse activities in
the US account for seven hundred and fifty seven thousand
(02:48):
jobs and almost seven billion in tax revenue and over
thirty six billion in wages. So recycling clearly leads to
some very real and valuable benefits. But of course those
benefits always come with a.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Cost, right, So today we'll try to balance the books
and get a sense of whether recycling is actually paying
off both environmentally and economically. But before we get into that,
I want to take a minute to talk about how
recycling became a thing that people do in the first place.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You're always going back to the origins and things, but
with recycling, like, I didn't even know there was an
origin of recycling.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, I mean, wide scale recycling programs are a fairly
new phenomenon in history. They kind of arose during the
industrial and post industrial ages as manufacturing was kicking into overdrive.
So humans started using more and more natural resources to
produce more new things than ever before. And meanwhile, you know,
the thrifty people started looking for ways to just reuse
what was already out there instead. So, for example, in
(03:43):
the late eighteen hundreds, these European cities like London and Paris,
they were rife with what you'd call rag and bone men.
And these were pebblers who just wandered around and collected
and carted around sacks of reusable items, and then they'd
sell those back to general stores.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
All right, so rag and bone, I'm guessing from the
name that these reusable items you're talking about were rags
and for some reason bones.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, So these guys would scour the city for like
old rags, bones, bits of metal, any other discarded items
that could be scavenged and of course recycled.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I love how you just say this like it's no
big deal. I still need to know it. Actually, maybe
I don't why and how people were reusing bones and
why were so many random bones just all over the
streets of London.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, I don't have specifics on where the bones were
actually coming from, but I imagine there were mostly animal bones
left over from you know, meals that've been tossed in
the garbage. But you know, as for how the bones
were recycled, a lot of them were used to make
geladin for processed foods or glue, kind of the way
we still do today. And also I've forgotten this, but
prior to the rise of plastics in the twentieth century,
(04:49):
many of the buttons for clothing were made from polished bones,
so that was another use as well.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
All right, So what exactly happened to these pioneers of recycling.
Was it, you know, plastics that kind of kill the
bone market? I guess.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah. Plastic and a few other advancements sort of put
an end to those kinds of local level recycling schemes
for a while. After the Industrial Revolution, fewer people were
making their own goods, so there was just less need
for reusable materials. Like the ones rag and bone men
were collecting, and instead all that stuff kind of became
garden variety garbage. But I should mention that that entrepreneurial
(05:23):
spirit still lives on today in today's scrap recyclers. So,
according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, scrappers processed
more than one hundred and thirty million tons of material
in twenty thirteen, and all that helped us save energy,
reduce screenhouse gas emissions, It helped preserve natural resources and
actually limited the amount of material that would otherwise go
(05:44):
to landfills.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Well, I know, the scrap industry is nothing like Sanford
and Sun these days, and I mean it has its
own institute now apparently, which I wasn't aware of. But
I still can't help thinking of that show whenever somebody
mentions scrap dealers, which is more often than you think, actually,
But you look at the numbers that you mentioned, and
it really highlights just how much of an impact industrialization
has had on the amount of trash that we produce.
(06:08):
So I was flipping through this book by Tom Zaki
called out Smart Waste, the Modern Idea of garbage and
how to think our way out of it, and according
to his research, the amount of waste that humans produce
has gone up by more than ten thousand percent over
the past century. That's ten thousand percent.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
That's insane. But you know, if there is a silver
lining to that insanely large cloud of trash, it's that
the world's recycling rate has also risen by leaps and
bounds over that same period. So, for instance, by the
EPA's last count Americans now recycle nearly thirty five percent
of the trash we produce, which is up from just
six point two percent in the nineteen sixties. And you
(06:46):
know a few other countries like Taiwan, Austria, Germany, they
now boast recycling rates as high as sixty three percent.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Well, that is a promising uptick, but I still can't
help but feel a little disappointed with our current numbers.
I mean, not even a full thirty five percent of
our trash gets recycled. Americans produce about two hundred and
fifty million tons of trash every single year, so recycling
just a third of that means we're still sending close
to one hundred and seventy million tons of waste, you know,
(07:14):
off to landfills and incinerators every single year. I mean,
there's got to be a better way to get our
numbers up.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, there are definitely a few things we could improve on,
and we should talk about them in a bit, But
first I want to throw out another silver lining that
we shouldn't overlook.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
They're always looking on the positive side. Then, all right,
so what's this upside to a thirty four percent recycling rate.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, even at that current rate, our recycling efforts, coupled
with composting, prevent the release of a lot of carbon dioxide,
so about one hundred and eighty million metric tons of
it in twenty thirteen alone, And according to the EPA,
that's comparable to taking more than thirty nine million cars
off the road for a whole year. So yeah, so
(07:55):
even though we have like a long way to go,
we're really making some headway.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Well I'm glad you mention that, because it is important
to keep progress in perspective, and in fact, that might
be one way we can improve our recycling game here
in the States.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
How's that?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Actually? I saw this survey conducted by IPSOS back in
twenty eleven that found that only half of American adults
recycled daily. About a third of the respondent said that
they recycle less frequently than that, and about thirteen percent
admitted that they never recycle at all. And some researchers
have since suggested that there's a psychological reason for our
spotty track records with recycling. I mean, namely, we have
(08:30):
trouble connecting our daily habits with their consequences, and so
if you think about it, it actually kind of makes
a lot of sense. You know, the reward for recycling
isn't immediate, and then the fallout from recycling also doesn't
feel real either, so we don't see the benefits or
the harms that we're contributing to. So there's less of
an appeal to make recycling a daily behavior, and it
(08:50):
just is kind of all lessened in our minds because
of this.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
That's pretty interesting and it actually makes me think of
this study I read about in Scientific American. That's just
an other psychological hang up that people have with recycling.
So I don't know if you've heard this before, but
there have been a number of studies that show that
women typically have greener habits and are more environmentally minded
than men. So, for instance, women recycle more, they litteralless,
(09:14):
then they leave a smaller carbon footprint than their average
male counterparts.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So do we know why this might be?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Well, Weirdly, the research report on by Scientific Americans suggests
that men might shun this eco friendly behavior like recycling,
because it makes them feel less macho.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Really.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, So two of the researchers describe the findings of
their study this way. So quote, we showed that there
is a psychological link between eco friendliness and perceptions of femininity.
And due to this green feminine stereotype, both men and
women judged eco friendly products, behaviors, and consumers as more
feminine than their non green counterparts.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That is such a strange thing. But actually, from what
you're saying, so even women thought going green was a
feminine thing.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, it's weird, right. So one of the experiments had
the participants recall a time when they did something good
for the environment, and both the men and the women
said they perceived themselves to be more feminine in those
instances that they shared. Maybe it's just because they were
like caring nicely for mother Earth. I'm not sure what
it was.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Wow, So is there any way to counter this thinking
so that guys will be more inclined to you know,
pitch in with recycling or these other green efforts.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, so, since this is like a psychological hurdle, the
best way to solve is for men to grow more
secure with their own masculinity. That's good advice, and I
guess marketing can help. Like, for instance, the researchers and
Scientific American described this experiment where men were found to
be more likely to donate to a green nonprofit if
it had a masculine logo, so like if it had
(10:49):
black and dark blue colors and like featured a howling wolf,
and also if the name was something more masculine like
Wilderness Rangers. Yeah, I had a bold fond apparently, so
and men contributed more to that than something with like
a traditional logo with light and green tan colors, if
it featured a tree, if it had like a frilly
(11:11):
font and a name like Friends with Nature.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So it's crazy if it makes me wish that mancho
man Randy Savage was still around so that we could.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Have Wilderness Rangers exactly. We need a bad boy of recycling.
The show is our way.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So it's clearly still all in our heads though.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, so our psyches are our worst natural enemies when
it comes to recycling. Like, according to a survey from
the National Waste and Recycling Association, one in five Americans
say that they'll put something in a recycling bin even
if they aren't totally certain that it's recyclable. And this
is a phenomenon that's called wishful recycling, where people in doubt,
we'll just go for it and the off chance that
(11:51):
whatever they want to get rid of can hopefully be recycled.
And of course a lot of the time we're completely
wrong with those kinds of judgments.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, and if I'm being honest, I mean I have
definitely been guilty of that as well. You've got a
product and you're just again you're hoping that it can
be recycled, so you just go ahead and toss it
in there. But you know, it does lead to all
these kinds of headaches for people who have to sort
and then process this random assortment of stuff that people
are just chucking in the recycling bins.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah. So some years ago, Lizzie and I house sat
for some friends in Portland and they gave us like
this twenty minute tour of just their recycling system and
the fifteen bins they had for various types of things.
It was dizzying. I know, it really felt like a
Portland episode. But and I mean that's coming from Delaware,
where we had recycling really early. But you had to
(12:38):
make such an effort to do it, Like I actually
remember on weekends, like I'd collect stuff around the house
with my dad, all the newspapers and cardboard, and turned
his hatchback and we'd drive off to recycling center a
few miles away. And that's because the city didn't pick
it up yet. But I'm a little off topic. I
definitely want to talk about the problems that come from
the so called single stream approach to recycling that we
(12:58):
go by in the US. But before we do that,
let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're breaking down
the pros and cons of recycling. I mean, a minute
ago you mentioned single stream recycling, which of course was
intended to make recycling more approachable for the average citizen,
but really in practice the system has proven to be
both bad for the environment and bad for business.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah. So basically, the idea behind single stream was to
put all of your different recyclables, whether that's glass or
paper or plastic all into one bin. And this was
an idea that first cropped up in California back in
nineteen ninety five and was later rolled out nationwide as
almost the best, most user friendly shot for getting people
on board with recycling. And really though this approach just
(13:54):
kind of kicked the can a little further down the
road because you know, all those materials still need to
be sort of so instead of placing that added responsibility
on individuals, we just invested in processing plants to do
all that sorting for us.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Right. And you know, in the opposite end of the spectrum,
you have somewhere like Germany and it adopted this system
in the early nineties that actually required households to use
a total of five different bins. They're all color coded
and they help indicate where you should dispose of different
kinds of waste and a little bit like the Portland
example you gave earlier. And you know, while it sounds complicated,
(14:28):
that approach has led to a recycling rate that's nearly
double what we see here in the States.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, I mean that's incredible, But the drawbacks of this
single like single stream system go far beyond making us
look bad in front of the Germans. So one of
the biggest issues the system poses is cross contamination. So
that's when like little pieces of plastic get mixed in
with paper, or worse, when they're like food particles from
containers that weren't cleaned well enough. And all of this
slows down the sorting process, it comes up the machines.
(14:55):
It leads to this inordinate amount of would be recyclables
being thrown out instead of being recycled. Then, according to
City Lab, as much as twenty five percent of the
recyclable waste that passes through the single stream system winds
up in landfill, and if you ask Tom Zakey, that
number is closer to fifty percent. Either way. It really
calls it a question whether our already not soo stellar
(15:16):
thirty four percent national recycling rate is even accurate.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
There's a good chance it's way lower. Yeah, you know,
And I was reading that an even bigger problem for
materials recovery facilities or mirphs. I guess they're called MRF
so that that's what they call them in the industry,
That this all these unrecyclables that end up in the
plants thanks to the wishful recycling that you were talking
about earlier. According to Susan Robinson, she's the director of
(15:40):
public affairs for Waste Management, but we also get a
surprising number of garden hoses, Christmas lights and shower curtain.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And I can just imagine how much time is lost
by like trying to shut down the equipmen and fish
out all that junk.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, and that loss and productivity has started to take
its toll on recycling's profitability. I mean, all cross the country,
recycling companies are reporting drastic decreases in profit and that's
partly because of the higher processing costs associated with contamination
and faulty user sorting practices. You know, for example, in
the District of Columbia, they replaced those thirty two gallon
(16:15):
bins with ones that were fifty percent larger. This was
back in twenty fourteen, and so these larger binds lead
to a higher rate of wishful recycling among the residents,
so much so that all that non recyclable material that
wound up in DC's mirphs, it drove up the city's
processing costs and it cut their profits from recyclable sales
by more than fifty percent back in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Wow, So clearly there's room for improvement in this single
stream system. And still, in the interest of balance, I
do want to point out a few parts of the
recycling industry that are still paying out despite our somewhat
you know, flawed way of doing things. So one example
is aluminum, which is actually the most recycled product in
the world, with close to seventy percent of aluminum cans
being recycled around the world. And there the reason for
(17:00):
that huge turnover rate is that aluminum nets recycling companies
the most money of any recyclable material out there. It's
about fifteen hundred dollars per ton in the US as
of twenty fifteen. And another area where business is booming
is corrugated cardboard, and that's thanks to online shopping. You know,
the recycling stream is just flush with cardboard boxes, which
(17:20):
you know, can be valuable so long as they aren't
contaminated by pizza grease or whatever other organic bits have
mistakenly made their way into the recycling bin.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, and I do want to be careful not to
harp too much on the business side of things, because
there's still other areas where recycling definitely benefits the economy,
like reducing the use and costs of landfills and reducing
the energy expense of harvesting more natural resources for all
the new products that we need to create.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, and another reason not to stress too much about
the money saving benefits of environmentalism is that it can
actually make people less likely to recycle.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Wait what, so, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
So this comes from a team of researchers at Cardiff
University in the UK, and they found that appealing to
somebody's self interest actually makes them less likely to behave
in a helpful manner. So, in this experiment, one group
of students was told about the environmental benefits of carpooling.
Another group was told about the potential to save money
by carpooling, and things get a little devious from there.
(18:17):
And here's how Wired explained the next part of the experiment.
So the students then filled out paper questionnaires about unrelated topics,
which they were told to dispose of at the session's end.
Unbeknownst to them, this was the experiment's real purpose and
a microcosm of environmental tensions. Would they use a recycling
basket inconveniently located under another table or a general waste
(18:39):
bin at arm's length. Among those students primed as psychologists say,
with the message of carpooling self transcending benefits, eighty nine
percent recycled. Of the group that learned about the cost saving,
just fifty percent recycled.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Wow, so the environmental impact turned out to be a
bigger draw than saving their own cash, which I guess
that's actually a little bit heartening.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, And the study also highlights the biggest risk of
pushing recycling mainly as a way to save time or
make money instead of as a way to preserve the
beauty of the natural world, like people might forget that
nature is in its own right reason enough to care
about conservation efforts.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
That's a really good point, you know. One of my
favorite examples of just how effective that naturalist mentality can
be is this tiny town. It's in southwestern Japan and
it's called Kamakatsu. So there's about seventeen hundred people who
live there, and since two thousand and three, the town
residents have been engaged in this long running quest that
becomes zero waste by twenty twenty. And so in order
(19:40):
to get there, citizens are responsible for separating their trash
into thirty four distinct categories and then getting it all
delivered to the nearest recycling center thirty fours.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Ever beens and no trash trucks. Like right, I thought
the Germans had it wrong.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, I mean, this is more Portland than Portland. It's
pretty impressive. But that's actually not all either. So to
sidestep the contamination problem that we have here in the States,
town residents are also required to thoroughly wash all thirty
four kinds of recyclables and then separate out all their
organic waste and compost that at home.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
That's crazy, It sounds like such an imposition. But are
the residents really okay with putting in all that extra
effort or is everyone just miserable and exhausted by the
end of the week.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well, that's the thing. I mean, most people in comic
coots who say that despite the hard work, they appreciate
this push to be more thoughtful about how and what
they consume. And in an interview that was on the BBC,
there was one local woman who summed up the feeling
this way. She said, I have to do it every
day and it's certainly a bit of work. But it's
a good idea to send things back to the earth,
so I support it.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That's awesome, and in fact, what do you say we
keep these positive vibes going and take a look at
some other unique recycling programs as well as the weirdest
things they figured out how to reuse.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Sounds good to me. But first let's take a quick break. Okay, mango,
So it's quiz time now. Before we jump into the quiz,
we had a couple other questions that we wanted to
ask about recycling since that's our topic today, and we're
(21:14):
joined by one of the brilliant researchers here at How
Stuff Works, Christopher Haciotis Christopher, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
All right, so we gave you the heads up we
were talking about recycling and we had a couple of questions.
Now now Tristan, we've informed our listeners, is an expert
on all the numbers that you see on the plastics
and what they mean and which ones you can recycle
and which ones you can't. I know you're not surprised
because Tristan's pretty much good at everything. But for those
of us that don't know everything, about recycling and the
(21:44):
numbers that are on the plastics. Can can you just
give us like the cheat sheet to that what those
one through seven numbers mean and why some can be
recycled and others can't be sure.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Yeah, it's this really labyrinthing convoluted system of coding known
as the r I see, it's the Resin Identification coding
system and it was put in place in nineteen eighty eight.
So you've got these seven different types of plastic and
basically what it comes down to is what the plastics
are made out of and what you can do with them.
Some will be recyclable immediately, Some are reusable but not recyclable.
(22:17):
Some should not be reused or recycled.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And what you've.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Got to do is flip your jug of water, you're
a jug of milk, your plastic cup upside down, take
a gander at what's underneath it, and then get on
the internet. Because honestly, nobody knows this system.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
And Tristin does what he won't say anything about that.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Tristan Okay, So I think what we need is everyone
needs a system to just give Tristan.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
A call right away.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So, yeah, you've got these seven types of plastic number
one polyethylene telephylate also known as PET number two high
density polyethylene. So these are the kinds that are generally
recyclable and most commonly accepted in your neighborhood or community
recycling centers. And then there are a bunch of others
that are technically recyclable but just basically just a hassle
(23:06):
for the people to do it. So, you know those
plastic bags you get at the grocery store, right, everyone's
got opinions about them. Should I ge paper, should I
get pastics? Should I bring my own? If you're getting
the plastic bag, it's the same substance that makes up
milk jugs and toys and other kinds of bottles that
are recyclable, but it's so thin and it's so spread
up that it's not worth it to recycle them. And
(23:28):
those plastic bags can also jam up the gears and
get caught in the machines that do the recycling. And
those numbers, you know, you generally see one through seven,
but they go up way beyond there. There's a plastic
that's number nine. That's the kind of plastic your cell
phones are made out of. Your TVs, but then the
numbers go all the way up into the hundreds. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I feel like you need a field guide to plastics
where people are like bird spotting, but for rare plastics
and the chondreds. So I used to see glass recycling
all over the place, and that used to be pickups
neighborhoods and stuff, and now I don't really see that
as much. Do you know anything about that? I do.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, So, recycling aluminum, you are spending about ninety six
percent less energy than if you were just making it
from raw materials. Glass is all the way at the
other end of that spectrum, so you're only saving about
twenty six percent of the energy to recycle glass. Petroleum,
which makes up plastic, is a generally expensive item. It's
dropped in price recently, but it's cost more for companies
(24:28):
who make plastic to get the virgin materials out of
the ground, and it does reuse it. It's not necessarily
the case for glass. Glass, as anyone who's I don't
spend a lot of time with kids, cartoons is made
out of sand. I think it might have been an
episode of He man or Man rubs his hands really
fast on the desert floor and creates some sort of
(24:51):
I think but yeah, basically, so you can either take glass,
go through the whole process recycle it, or you can
just go get some new sand.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Well that's super helpful, Christopher. Now we can't let you
go though, before playing a super important quiz, Na Mango,
What what quiz are we playing today?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
It's called recycled Sesame Street shows, and so according to
Muppet Wiki, Sesame Street has to produce something like one
hundred and thirty shows a season, and they often recycle
their main storylines. So we're going to tell you a
recycled plot and you just have to tell us which
Sesame Street character starred in it.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
They do one hundred and thirty shows a season.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I mean this is wikipedias. I assume Muppet Wig, Muppet, Muppet.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Muppet Wiki. All right, that is a lot, Okay, I
mean I guess that's every year that that That is a.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Tonic speaker behind the screen. Con that's where he shines.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
All right, We've got five questions for you, Christopher. Question
number one on episode three eight hundred and twelve and
episode three nine hundred and thirty three. Wow, this friendly
vampire wanders around Sesame Street, enumerting all the mistakes on
Sesame Street. Who are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (25:58):
So that is none other than Count vomb Count I
would assume.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, that's right. And according to his origin story on
Sesame Street, he's not the only member of his family
that loves numbers. His uncle Uno also loves to count.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
All right, all right? Question number two. On episodes five,
eighteen and seven ninety two, this character conducts a philharmonic
orchestra of similar grumps instead of musical instruments. The orchestra
makes annoying sounds, like that of an airplane or a
fire engine. Who are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh? Wow?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Okay, so you said of similar grumps, which would point
me in the direction of Oscar the Grouse or Statler
and Waldorf. But then there's Rolf, who's the musically talented one.
So I'm gonna go I'm just gonna say Rolf because
he's the piano playing dog and I dig him.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Oh, You're were on the right track. It was Oscar
the Grouse.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Oh okay, wow, that was really a really impressive rundown
of all the possible answers. Okay, still have time to
recover here. Question number three episodes eight ninety four and
one and fourteen, this character orders a radio, but instead
he gets a box containing its parts, but even worse,
(27:10):
it doesn't contain any baked goods. What character are we
talking about?
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Hmmm, so you've got the okay. My initial thought was
the sweetest chef, because he's the one who's going to
be putting things together and making something and cooking, but
then baked goods. Who would be upset about not getting
baked goods? Unless it were in a health oriented episode,
I would say cookie Monster.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, that's right, it is Cookie Monster. And you know
what one of the producers on the show said earlier
when they were starting the show, a typist used to
correct all of Cookie Monster's grammar in the scripts and
to stop avermappening.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Wow, that's pretty great, okay. Question number four. On episodes
four to one, seven, four and four four one three,
this character organizes a nest sale where all his old
toys can be bought for five birds seeds. What character
are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I'm gonna go with one of the friendliest characters I
can think of, and that's Big Bird.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Mm hmm, that's right, you got it, all right. Question
number five for the big win. Here on episodes three, four, six,
five and three seven two two, this once imaginary character
is depressed because every time he tap dances, it causes
an earthquake. What character are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (28:24):
So, I'm pretty happy that a tap dancing earthquake is
a more than one time occurrence, But I I don't
know who that would be, although I'm gonna I'm just
gonna guess that it's snuffle Up. I guess yes, I
think he's sizable enough that he could do it.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
That's right. And also, I didn't realize this until we
did the research, but Snuffy's favorite foods are cabbage spaghetti
and sassafras tea.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
So wait, Mango, is that a tea made out of cabbage,
spaghetti and sassafras?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
No, those are separate items.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I'm glad you. I'm glad you added those little fun
facts in there, Mango. That's that's really valuable. So, so,
how did Chris do today?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Well, Christopher went an amazing four for five, which entitles
them to our big prize, our total.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Admirationy congratulations Christopher, and thanks for joining us anytime.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Okay, Well, so I love Komakotsu's zero waste plan. But
let's be honest, getting people on board to recycle is
one thing in a town with fewer than two thousand residents,
But it's a lot harder to get that tens of
thousands or even millions of residents of the city to
all commit to that extra effort of recycling. So, I know,
cities like San Francisco and Portland are making huge strides
(29:46):
and boosting the recycling rates, but some cities are taking
an even bolder approach to the challenge. For example, there
are about twelve hundred cities across the US that have
adopted a so called pay as you throw system.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
You know, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people
that would not like the sound of that. So is
this is this some kind of garbage tax or something?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, sort of. So the idea is that municipal garbage
trucks won't pick up any trash unless it's been placed
inside specially marked bags that residents buy from the city. So,
for example, in Malden, Massachusetts, it's one dollar for each
fifteen gallon bag, or two dollars for a thirty three
gallon bag.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And so I'm a little confused by this. So how
exactly does this encourage people to recycle?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Well, Cities with pays you throw programs still pick up
recyclables and yard waste for freeze, so it's really just
the landfill bound waste that costs you money. And the
hope is that the added expense will encourage residents to,
you know, take the initiative recycle and compost and just
be more thoughtful about their garbage.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Well, it's definitely an interesting idea, But what about all
that research you mentioned earlier about the whole recycling saves
you money angle being kind of a dead end approach.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, it's not something that's going to be compelling to everyone,
and in fact, some cities have experienced pushback in the
form of residents who will buy regular trash bags and
then just leave them ound the garbage or in public
bins or in front of a neighbor's house. But there's
evidence that the pay as you throw system is convincing
enough people to make it worthwhile. So according to this
Atlantic article about this type of program, the city of
(31:12):
Malden's trash tonnage was actually cut in half between twenty sixteen.
In twenty thirteen, which was the year it adopted the
paid throw model, and the same thing happened in Worcester
and other Massachusetts city that cut its solid waste tonnage
by forty seven percent in the first year of its program.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Well, I see your point, and those are some pretty
solid results. And I guess since it is densely populated
cities that churn out the most trash, this extra push
from programs like this could could be worth it, you know,
to get people on the same page. But so, how
about we look at a few novel recycling programs that
use a I don't know, let's say, like a less,
less compulsory approach.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Sure. So one of my favorites is the clean Wave
program that's run by this ecological nonprofit in San Francisco
called Matter of Trust. They accept donations of human hair
and petfur and then they turn it into these like
oil absorbing mats and brooms that hazmat teams can use
to soak up oil spills. It's amazing and it's actually
a great way to make sure hair clippings that would
(32:10):
otherwise wind up in landfills are recycled and put to
good use. So if you work in a barber shop
or a pet groomers, or if you're just someone with
a bunch of cats or a really shaggy dog, you
should really check out the website to find out how
to donate.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Well, that's a pretty cool and well another recycling program
that's making a real difference in the world is called
the Limbs for Life Foundation. Now I didn't know this
before today's show, but it's actually illegal to reuse prosthetic
limbs in the United States, and since they're often made
from plastics and other materials that can't be recycled that easily,
there's a lot of perfectly functional prosthetics that just wind
(32:43):
up in the trash, you know. But the organizations like
Limbs for Life have found an amazing loophole here because
it turns out it is legal to disassemble them and
then ship those used prosthetics to other countries. So that's
exactly what these programs do. They collect and they distribute
these used prosthetics free of charge to land mine victims
and other amputees and countries around.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
The world love that. What a great work around. So
this one's kind of in the same vein. It's called
New Eyes for the Needy and it collects recycles and
distributes old eyeglasses and hearing aids to impoverish children and adults,
both in the US and abroad. And the group has
been working to improve the world's vision since nineteen thirty two.
So far they've distributed over eight million pairs of glasses
(33:26):
to people all over the globe.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Oh wow, that's pretty neat. Well, speaking of glasses, I
came across this really neat recycling program where people can
donate their eclipse glasses that you know that they used
to view last year's total eclipse.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Wait, aren't those only safe to look at like for
a few years.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, that's true here in the US, but actually South
America and Asia they're getting ready to experience their own
total eclipse in twenty nineteen, and so of course, you know,
that's well within that three year span where it's safe
to use all those glasses that we had last year.
So that's where a nonprofit called Astronomers Without Borders comes in.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
That's that's such a great name.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I love how many of the fill in the blank
without borders there are, but it is a great name.
And you know, the group is currently collecting these used
and certified eclipse glasses to distribute to people who might
be unable to afford or otherwise get their hands on
a pair in time for next year as a clip.
So if you've held onto your glasses as memento or
just haven't gotten around to tossing them yet, it's a
(34:22):
great chance to help someone else have their own once
in a lifetime experience.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well, the last unusual recycling program I want to mention
isn't as altruistic as some of the others we've talked about,
but it does help take a bite out of the
problem with plastics. So one thing I found out while
researching is that most credit cards, as well as things
like hotel keys and ID cards, are made from PVC,
and as Tristan will tell you, that's one of the
five out of seven main plastic types that usually can't
(34:47):
be recycled at all. Whenever people cut up their expired
cards or turn in their old driver's licenses, all those
strips of plastic typically heads straight to the dump.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
But so if PVC is unrecyclable, then than how's a
recycling program supposed to help?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, So there are actually some groups. A major one
in Ohio is called Earthworks, for example, and they recycle
old cards by chopping them up and melting them back
into sheets of raw PVC and then the plastics able
to be turned into well new cards. It's kind of
like with those plastic bags that everyone has a million
of under their sink, Like, we can't actually get rid
of them completely, so the best bet is to just
(35:23):
keep reusing the ones we have, so we don't, you know,
expend new resources to make more of them.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Well, that makes a lot of sense, you know. It
actually kind of reminds me of this cool design project
that came across It's a diy machine that can turn
plastic trash into brand new housewares. The projects called Precious Plastics,
and it's the brainchild of a Dutch designer named Dave Hawkins,
and so he wanted to create a system that makes
recycling plastic an easier and more accessible prospect for the public.
(35:51):
And so to that end, he's released these free to
download blueprints for the Precious Plastics machine, and the hope
is that communities will build their own and then use
them to establish these small scale centers locals that can
then drop off their unwanted plastic waste in exchange for
that that get a little bit of cash, and then
the senters can actually recycle these old plastic bottles and
containers and then turn them into new goods that can
(36:13):
be sold in this on site shop there.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I mean, that's a great idea, and it sounds like
some kind of three D printer, but one that's designed
to run on recyclables. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
The machines are these all in one units, and they
house a plastic shredder and then three kinds of manufacturing devices.
There's a rotational molder, an extruder, and an injection molder,
and that kind of covers all your basics in terms
of plastic making. And so unlike three D printers, though
these precious plastic systems, they wouldn't cost towns an arm
(36:43):
and a leg to get everything needed to construct one
can be easily obtained from scrap yards.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
So I think what I like most about this idea
goes back to something we talked about at the top
of the show, and that's the way that the invention
of plastic kind of did away with the tradition of
people making their own goods on a small scale, easier
to just buy mass manufactured product, so entire skill sets
were left by the wayside, and a lot of communities
suffered as a result. But something like this precious plastics
(37:09):
machine that almost returns some of that self sufficiency to
local communities.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
That's a good point, and it's actually one that Hawkins
touches on while he's speaking about his inspiration for the project.
So he said, it sort of all started when I
noticed we have a lot of plastic wastes, but for
a lot of reasons, we can't do anything with it
like we would with wood or with metal. So you
have a carpenter or a metal worker, and now you
can have a plastics person.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
And with a little luck, every town on the map
will have a plastics person to help boost the national
recycling rate in the years ahead. But until then, there's
still plenty of other interesting ways to help reduce reviews
and recycle. So how about you say we feature a
couple of those in our fact off before we go.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Sounds good to me, all right. So we've all read
about roads built from her tires or other materials, but
did you know that in the Netherlands there's actually a
bike path made with recycled toilet paper. That toilet paper
(38:09):
provides the cellulose that's helpful in maintaining traction when it's
really wet or slippery out. And while there are other
sources of cellulose, this is a good use for recycled
material that people really aren't that excited about being used
in other ways, even though it does go through a
serious sterilization process.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Yeah, so I could see there being a bit of
a mental block with toilet paper being recycled into things.
So I'd read about the repurposing of crayons, but I'd
never actually seen a figure out how many new crayons
coming into the world each day. Apparently the Crayola factory
in eastern Pennsylvania produces about twelve million crayons every single day.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Wow, every day.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, it's insane, right, And that's because people often treat
crayons as disposable, but crayons aren't actually biodegradable. So there's
a nonprofit called the Crayon Initiative that collects old crayons
from schools and restaurants and then it melts them down
and gives brand new crowns to hospitals and other places
that could use them. It's pretty neat.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
That is pretty neat, all right. Well, I talked about
the Netherlands before, and now I'm going to talk about Sweden.
So did you know they've gotten so efficient with they're
recycling that they actually now import waste from nearby countries
to send through their recycling plants, just to keep them going.
It's like overachieving, it is, they're definitely overachievers. Here's another
way that they overachieve. I saw this crazy statistic. So
(39:26):
less than one percent of household waste than Sweden goes
to the landfill each year. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
So earlier this week I was looking at photos of
the beach at Yusuri Bay in Russia, and it's really
worth looking up because it's strange and beautiful. At one
point it was a dumping ground for old glass bottles,
and that obviously doesn't sound that great. But the crazy
thing is over quite some time, the waves on these
beaches have worn down all these beer and vodka bottles
(39:53):
into these beautiful, beautiful pebbles. There's a protected area there
now called the glass Beach, and that's become this really
popular tourist spot. Huh.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
All right, Well, in doing our research this week, I
was pleased to see that there are two items that
I have lots and lots of that can also be recycled. Now,
the first is old CDs. So there's a CD recycling
center that grinds the CDs up into a fine powder,
and then later on that powders melted down and that
could be used in several ways, but the most common
uses in cars and building materials. So I can now
(40:25):
feel better about, you know, doing something with that old
toad the Wetsprocket CD from the early nineties, feel pretty
good knowing it's in somebody's car. And then the other
item is something I know you and I both had
lots of old ones of, and that's tennis balls. And
so there's this organization called Rebounces, and they actually repressurize
the old tennis balls so that they can be used again.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Oh that's really cool. Well here's a quick fact for you.
Did you know there's actually more gold and a ton
of mobile phones than there is in a ton of
gold ore. And so I read that from a ton
of gold or you can actually get one gram of gold,
but it only takes a little over four mobile phones
to get that same amount.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Oh wow, Well, sing as, I probably have about forty
old phones that might be an exaggeration, but I've got
a lot of old phones that I didn't know what
to do with, But now I know what to do
with them. I'm gonna make some gold mango. But before
I do that, I'm gonna give you today's fact Off trophy.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Thanks so much, Will, But I don't know if I
want this recycled trophy? Is there a new one you
can hand me instead?
Speaker 1 (41:22):
All right, Well, thank you guys for listening. We'd love
to hear from you. If we've forgotten any great facts
about recycling, and I know you guys have a ton
of them, feel free to send them our way. You
can email us part Time Genius at houstuffworks dot com
or call us on our twenty four to seven fact hotline.
That's one eight four four pt Genius. You can also
hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Keep the messages coming,
(41:42):
and thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Part Time Genius is a production of house works and
wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
(42:03):
important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Gabeluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research
Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
And Eves Jeffcoat gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Could we
forget jam Jason who
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
Betrayal Season 5
Saskia Inwood woke up one morning, knowing her life would never be the same. The night before, she learned the unimaginable – that the husband she knew in the light of day was a different person after dark. This season unpacks Saskia’s discovery of her husband’s secret life and her fight to bring him to justice. Along the way, we expose a crime that is just coming to light. This is also a story about the myth of the “perfect victim:” who gets believed, who gets doubted, and why. We follow Saskia as she works to reclaim her body, her voice, and her life. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at betrayalpod@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.