Landfills hurting as consumers repair, reuse

[inanna]

Source: AP

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Thrift-driven Americans are fixing up, making do and reusing so much to cope with the recession that the drop in throwaways means less fill for landfills.

To deal with the drop-off in dropoffs, landfills are laying off workers, reducing hours of operation and hiking disposal fees, with the increases passed along to cities, businesses and consumers.

"You can look at waste and see what the economy is doing," said Tom Houck, manager at the Defiance County Landfill in northwest Ohio. He's watched the amount of trash arriving at the landfill plunge 30 percent in the past year.

With consumers cutting back on new purchases, there is less packaging to throw away. The downturn in new housing means less waste from construction materials such as insulation and from discarded drywall and lumber. Restaurant waste is down because people are eating out less.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MELTDOWN_LANDFILLS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-04-25-12-21-44

[Deja Q]

1. And buying higher quality equipment that won't break down in 6 months

[Spacemom]

2. The consumer is to blame for everything

First we're wasteful and throwing too much away. Now we're destroying the economy because we're not buying enough cheap crap to throw away. :shrug:

[Hannah Bell]

9. Same as on one hand they tell us we're overpopulated, on the other they tell us there

aren't enough future workers to fund social security.

These discrepancies are the evidence that something in the standard storyline is false.

[robinlynne]

3. fantastic.

[Oceansaway]

4. i recycle everything i can.....

so my trash is reduced mega...and NO, i dont poop in a bucket...

[demodonkey]

5. Guess that is why we need individually wrapped prunes?

Have been seeing a lot of ads for that lately on prime time TV here.

[Mari333]

14. hah!!! those blow my mind

wtf does a person need individually wrapped fcking prunes for anyway..what an incredible waste !

[myrna minx]

18. I know! What about the young woman who exclaims: "That's so cool!"

:wtf: When I was her age, I thought seeing Public Image Ltd and New Order live was "cool". I guess we've seen the death of "cool", if individually wrapped prunes are it, no?

[UndertheOcean]

6. Those are jobs I don't mind seeing disappear , not at all !

great !

[ohio2007]

7. finding the dark lining around a silver cloud ?

I don't see how this is "bad news".

[smiley]

8. This might not be the appropriate place to post this... but

A friend and I just completed our first of 6 children's books dedicated to teaching children about the values of living a green lifestyle.

In our first book the main character Nico and his babysitter Hannah visit the landfill where Nico learns about reusing and recycling.

We just launched this self published book this week so I found this article very relevant to our project.

Check out our site where you can view the book online for free - http://www.radventuresofnico.com

[msongs]

10. shouldn't fees go DOWN due to supply and demand issues? nt

[DCKit]

11. Not when you have a monopoly and the shareholders are screaming for dividends. n/t

[Toucano]

12. Finally, some good news! n-t

[marias23]

13. Our Reuse Guide Bombed in 1995

We are glad to see that reuse is finally catching on even if is not motivated by pure environmental motives - the result is the same - less landfills, less use of resources. In 1995 we were surprised and disappointed that our book "Choose to Reuse" (Ceres Press) received little attention. This AP story reports an important trend. If you are interested in reuse please take a look at the book - available in many libraries (the ultimate reuse facility) and my blog http://choosetoreuse.blogspot.com/

And don't forget to clean out your closets, basements and storage lockers and donate usable stuff to reuse organizations like Goodwill. A unique part of reuse is the charitable side - unlike recycling it gets things to people who need them.

[Mari333]

15. my late husband's best lines

when we walked into a mall
"look, honey..the beginning of a landfill"

when we walked into a supermarket

"look around you honey..someday all of this will be shit."

[canetoad]

16. Maybe people are discovering

How immensely satisfying it is to repair something with your own two hands. Good stuff.

[Iowa]

17. And don't forget composting...

We compost all fruits/veg parts that do not get eaten and use it to make very fertile soil. Our waste has dropped significantly due to that.

[Quantess]

19. Good news!

We needed some good news.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. kick! I'm sorry about the lost jobs but not about the reduction in waste

[llmart]

21. Good news but.......

I think this country's citizens have a long, long way to go before they can crow about being "green". The first principle of conservation is to REDUCE. That implies you ask yourself first if you really need it before buying it in the first place.