[speaker001:] so um what do they do about recycling in Raleigh is there any public program
[speaker002:] yeah they they uh get uh they regarding recycling they just gave us uh about five man about five or six months ago they passed out these um green containers to everybody in the city
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh they started out by just recycling newsprint and clear glass I think and or well clear glass and uh you know brownish glass and ah however no plastics oh cans was another thing that they're recycling um
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] and so you know there really wasn't a lot that I could put in there anyway I just mostly had bottles um
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and it seemed like that uh plastic would would would've been very helpful to recycle well finally they started plastics but only the kind of milk bottle plastics
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum oh that
[speaker002:] how about how about in your area
[speaker001:] well in Atlanta they um where I used to live they had a they had just started a program but apparently it wasn't city wide because I moved over to a different neighborhood and they didn't even you know no one had ever heard of this
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and um the one nice thing though is I'm is I'm lucky is I'm pretty close to downtown so um aluminum cans be recycled just by tossing them out in your yard and the bums come around and
[speaker002:] um-hum do they have a deposit on them
[speaker001:] um no they don't have any deposit but um you know there's a there's a thriving industry of homeless people that collect uh aluminum cans and turn them in for you know recycling the the weight in aluminum
[speaker002:] right right yeah because uh in in places where there's a bottle deposit I know that if you discard anything somebody will pick it up which is a good argument in favor of deposits uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh um-hum
[speaker002:] course uh now it's Adopt-A-Highway they get rid of a lot of that anyway but I'm not sure when they do pick it up if they recycle it there uh
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum yeah I'm not sure I I don't I think they only carry one bag when I when I've seen people out there you know
[speaker002:] yeah well I mean well yeah yeah but I mean if you put you know I oh I see what you mean everything would be in the same bag and they would have to separate the cans from all the rest of the trash yeah
[speaker001:] yeah hm
[speaker002:] yeah that would that would be good because uh you know
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah yeah that seems like it would be you know very labor intensive to actually you know go through it all and pick out the different things
[speaker002:] um-hum right of of course if there's a deposit it's worth it for kids to do
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] um now soft drink companies don't want that because it uh obviously it would have a negative effect on sales to some degree I don't know
[speaker001:] yeah I I mean it's you know they have the cost of the cleaning equipment to clean the bottles and
[speaker002:] um hm I suppose yeah but that would be cheaper than getting new plastic I I think it's just the fact it raises the price temporarily that they don't like
[speaker001:] and things like that um-hum
[speaker002:] it should be anyway well did you see there was an interesting article about recycling in the Wall Street Journal about three or four weeks ago
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] it talked about some commodities that are being recycled uh they they they these critics start recycling before there's an industry to deal with the stuff and
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I forget where it was I think it was Portland Oregon ended up burning a bunch of it it was just piling up and they had no where to put it
[speaker001:] yeah I've heard that you know a lot a lot of the you know more popular recycled materials like aluminum and um paper especially that because you know everyone's become much more environmentally conscious and you know has moved to recycle that
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] their you know the the the the the systems basically has this very large backlog of of material to be recycled and and processed and apparently in a lot you know in a lot of industries
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you can't just you know take a bunch of stuff and recycle it you generally you mix it with with new material
[speaker002:] right yeah I think that
[speaker001:] and that and that you know with you know coupled with the recession that there just isn't you know the demand for you know recycled product
[speaker002:] yeah well I don't yeah I don't know I guess if as far as packaging materials are concerned are concerned if uh durable goods purchases go down you need less packaging I
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] I don't know how much sensitive things like soft drinks sales are to economic conditions though I I I I I expect it well I would expect they ought to be more sensitive than they are or something I think that's one of the things people think of cutting back on but it certainly would be a way to save money um
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] but um yeah in the the the article uh mentioned that it very much depend upon depended upon what kind of products you're talking about certain things and I believe clear glass is one there is plenty of market for they can use all they can get but it's other things
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] and I think some of the plastics are are are are among those that's rather difficult to recycle it's just to recycle them there needs to be a greater economies of scale before they become uh viable
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah yeah I think it depends on like the little number in the circle
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] that they have on them but because they I have a lot of friends that you know are very into recycling you know and say you know just about you know they they try and throw out as little as they can you know and and
[speaker002:] hm um-hum yeah that's right right right um well I'm down I read somebody say he was down to uh one bag of garbage a week and that's about the same with me but I'll tell you my garbage is mostly by weight is mostly junk mail
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] if I could get rid of that it wouldn't be much at all it's just that
[speaker001:] um-hum