[speaker002:] I I think that uh recycling is uh is real important right now or or you know for our future of the ecology and everything
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh Richardson has uh started recently a newspaper recycling program
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] where uh they pick up newspapers in their is they're part of the regular garbage pickup
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] on uh Wednesdays every week and then we have recycling centers around you know for aluminum and glass and that kind of stuff
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum so do you recycle up those products
[speaker002:] well I have not uh I haven't been doing much in the way of glass and that kind of stuff I have started recycling aluminum cans because of
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know I just keep those and then take them to one the sale there's a centers around that buy those
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] and and yes I do stack the newspapers and put them out in the alley
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] I did notice uh this Wednesday when I put them out I must have gotten them out late because they didn't pick them up so they probably picked them up with the regular garbage yesterday
[speaker001:] yeah probably
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] well they're uh out I'm out in uh California recycling has been in for a while I mean it's yes it's very important now I think it's actually always been important we're just recognizing it now that things are starting to run out um
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] it's um the main key to making recycling is to make it more convenient for people I think and the community I was just in not the one I just moved to uh had basically whenever you took your trash out you could just throw another bin of recyclable refuse out and not to be very you know you could have cans and aluminum cans and tin cans and bottles and everything and apparently they sorted it out which increased their labor costs tremendously
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] but uh that sure made it easy I mean there was like no excuse not to recycle you just need two trash cans and if it's recyclable you throw it in one and if it's not you throw it in the other and take both out um so that seemed to have been working quite well um seems like the other thing to make recycling more viable is to make it more economically uh you know increase the economic incentive uh like news recycled recycled newsprint isn't worth very much right now because there's a lot of it available and trees are still cheap
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so from a purely economic standpoint I'd say recycling one way to increase to increase the viability of recycling is to increase the cost of the raw materials uh through selective taxation or whatever currently most things like aluminum only cost what it costs the company to produce them um without any charge for you know long-term effects on the land or you know with with minimal minimal taxation for replenishing replenishing replenishing the land after the mine is gone or health costs or all sorts of things like that or for that matter anytime you take aluminum out of the ground you can view it as you're stealing if from future generations
[speaker002:] yeah I guess that's a one way to look at it
[speaker001:] and and no one ever pays them you know basically you run out of these things and uh and then you have to start using something else yeah it seems like we're using up a lot of the abundant materials minerals right now I mean petroleum will be gone in about three decades at the rate we're going and it it just seems like increasing the raw cost of those would uh through you know more sensitivity of what the long term costs would be rather than just the extraction costs would
[speaker002:] I guess uh I my main concern with uh with the recycling is that we should be more geared to recycling or to eliminating the use of so much stuff that does not uh return to it's original uh is not biodegradable uh the plastics and the
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum
[speaker002:] styrofoams and things like that uh I really think we need to to really concentrate a lot more on on limiting those the use of those
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh I'm finding I'm I'm almost offended when I go into a restaurant now and they try to give me a styrofoam cup for coffee or something you know
[speaker001:] uh uh-huh
[speaker002:] but uh I think there's there's got to be a better way
[speaker001:] well things are changing I mean I've been really encouraged I've I mean I come from a family that's been recycling for thirty years and uh has always been you know concerned about these things and I'm just now starting to see you know significant social movement towards recycling
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] um the community the Berkeley City Council coined a term called precycling which I liked which is the idea of well you can recycle all these little aluminum cans and all this and that but you can also purchase products in the first place which uh use less resources
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you know not buy those styrofoam cups not buy individual aluminum cans if you're going to buy soda but get some you know larger reusable cheaper container and things like that
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] uh they call it precycling in other words keep recycling but minimize the original consumption too
[speaker002:] right yeah I guess that's a a good idea I do I would like to see uh we talk about buying the larger containers I'd like to see those larger containers not the uh not the plastic bottles I guess is the main thing
[speaker001:] well it's funny because plastic is incredibly recyclable um the problem is there's so many different types of plastic and they can't be mixed together
[speaker002:] right yeah
[speaker001:] but any one type of plastic can be recycled just about easier than anything because it melts down real easily and so forth can be
[speaker002:] yeah it's got to but it's got to go back to to the same product or is that is that the way it works
[speaker001:] um there are a number of laws about that some things can't be recycled back into the same products for health concerns even though they're not scientifically valid health concerns I mean because some you know anything will get killed when you melt down plastic uh
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but and other things made to be uh can go back you know glass can go back into glass bottles and stuff
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] but if it's mixed plastic it can only go to certain uses it can make actually plastic lumber for like uh park benches and things like that out of mixed plastic
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I saw a uh an advertisement on television yesterday for a garden hose it's a a soaker hose
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] it's made out of recycled tires
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh I thought that was a was an interesting idea I had not I had not heard of that before but I you know I knew that tires were recycled quite you know quite a bit for different things
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah although there's far a lot more could be done there are just there are yards just heaped with mountains literally mountains of tires which they don't know what to do with
[speaker002:] right yeah
[speaker001:] so if we can do more things with those that would be helpful
[speaker002:] yeah but uh I think you know I think that uh that the future should be that uh home builders and you know designers and everybody should be really gearing you know the the home to have a recycling center in it
[speaker001:] yeah yeah and more efficient pickups and everything
[speaker002:] and uh that's yeah we're uh my wife and I are are looking at you know designing a new house now and uh probably you know some years away before we'll be ready to build it but
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] that uh that's one of the things that we're looking at is you know where we where are we going to put the recycling bins
[speaker001:] sure some kind of recycling chutes or something
[speaker002:] uh-huh right so uh we're going to have that designed you know where you know that in mind when we do our floor plans
[speaker001:] well that would be admirable I I think that's wonderful
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] well great uh oh the last thing as long as I've got an audience is the uh I really want to see more recycling of batteries
[speaker002:] okay it's been  oh yeah
[speaker001:] because batteries have all kinds of toxins in them and they're quite recyclable and most people just throw them in the trash or they leak into the ground water or all kinds of stuff
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] but most people aren't even aware that batteries are something you shouldn't throw away in the trash
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I mean like Japan it's illegal to throw batteries away in the trash
[speaker002:] when you say batteries do you mean uh automobile batteries or
[speaker001:] well those are the worst defenders it's because they're biggest but even some of the small ones
[speaker002:] so
[speaker001:] need to be disposed of properly just your basic ten cell batteries um once they rust out there's some pretty nasty things in them especially the mercury ones
[speaker002:] hum
[speaker001:] but um it's it's it's a regular trash item in this country
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] um despite the fact that if you were if you were a company throwing that kind of stuff away the EPA could give you a major fine because it's a toxin
[speaker002:] yeah  yeah so well that's uh that was some interesting ideas anyway and uh if I get a chance I'll uh pass those along okay uh-huh nice talking to you bye
[speaker001:] okay well nice talking with you bye-bye