TORT: The ONSC Rant Thread (4 Viewers)

[RedHeadedStepChild]

Oh it’s there, I never said we had the most salted roads. Just that I hate any of it. I live in the south for a reason.

I hear ya. I'm just playing around. The 2x per year when they'd spray the brine in Wilmington I'd be in the 4R yelling, "WTF!? I thought I got away from this crap. "
That brine is much nicer though. It just creates a light coating. I wish they'd try it here. We're still spreading rock salt that gets thrown up and grit blasts the underside.

 

[fj40z]

I hear ya. I'm just playing around. The 2x per year when they'd spray the brine in Wilmington I'd be in the 4R yelling, "WTF!? I thought I got away from this crap. "
That brine is much nicer though. It just creates a light coating. I wish they'd try it here. We're still spreading rock salt that gets thrown up and grit blasts the underside.

Gosh yeah the rock salt is much worse! I did have the misfortune of getting on 2 different roads that had just been brined. Soaking wet with salt water and it was slinging everywhere.

 

[NCFJ]

Chesnee SC 29323 We have not received mail yet this week, roads were clear yesterday! My wife drove
25 miles to work Monday morning. The Chesnee Post office site says that we can come in and pick up our own mail, all 5 hours that they are open. 5 hours that no working person can make. They took off for Bush's funeral!

On the other hand UPS rolled up at 9:03 PM tonight, they are playing catch up for the storm.

 

[roadstr6]

Chesnee SC 29323 We have not received mail yet this week, roads were clear yesterday! My wife drove
25 miles to work Monday morning. The Chesnee Post office site says that we can come in and pick up our own mail, all 5 hours that they are open. 5 hours that no working person can make. They took off for Bush's funeral!

On the other hand UPS rolled up at 9:03 PM tonight, they are playing catch up for the storm.

The postal service, like most government run organizations, is a black hole for tax money to be shoveled into. It is a financial burden to our country. Here’s an easy idea to trim the deficit: Cut US Mail deliveries (and subsequently the hemorrhaging of money) by 40 percent. If I just got mail on M-W-F, I don’t feel like I’d miss much. 95 percent of what comes in my mailbox gets thrown in the trash anyway.

 

[weejub]

Chesnee SC 29323 We have not received mail yet this week, roads were clear yesterday! My wife drove
25 miles to work Monday morning. The Chesnee Post office site says that we can come in and pick up our own mail, all 5 hours that they are open. 5 hours that no working person can make. They took off for Bush's funeral!

On the other hand UPS rolled up at 9:03 PM tonight, they are playing catch up for the storm.

USPS reported BS to Amazon - said they couldn't get in my house they are basically lying as I had my fat butt out clearing sidewalks - easy access to my house.

The postal service, like most government run organizations, is a black hole for tax money to be shoveled into. It is a financial burden to our country. Here’s an easy idea to trim the deficit: Cut US Mail deliveries (and subsequently the hemorrhaging of money) by 40 percent. If I just got mail on M-W-F, I don’t feel like I’d miss much. 95 percent of what comes in my mailbox gets thrown in the trash anyway.

I like this - I only need the spam bs i get three days a week.

USPS is a government sponsored independent company with 650K employees . . . and we think corporations are bloated . . .

 

[roadstr6]

I want to make a public service announcement regarding recycling. If you live anywhere in Union County, NC, whether it’s in a town or outside of town and you separate out your recyclables into special bins or rolling cans for curbside pick-up, you are wasting your time. The Union County landfill does not recycle...period. It costs too much. All the trash gets buried in the landfill. All of it. I live out in the County and I don’t have city trash pick-up. I pay for a garbage service to pick up my trash. They provide two cans...one for regular trash, one for recyclables. In order to maintain the illusion that the recyclables are being recycled, they send separate trucks to pick up each can. The truck that picks up the regular garbage at a nearby neighborhood comes through my neighborhood and picks up my recyclables and vice versa. All the trash/recyclables go into the same trucks and all the trucks dump at the Union County landfill where everything is buried. Saving the planet through recycling isn’t really a thing where I live and most people don’t even realize it. The County would never tell you this, but I would. Now you know what I know. Have a nice day.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I want to make a public service announcement regarding recycling. If you live anywhere in Union County, NC, whether it’s in a town or outside of town and you separate out your recyclables into special bins or rolling cans for curbside pick-up, you are wasting your time. The Union County landfill does not recycle...period. It costs too much. All the trash gets buried in the landfill. All of it. I live out in the County and I don’t have city trash pick-up. I pay for a garbage service to pick up my trash. They provide two cans...one for regular trash, one for recyclables. In order to maintain the illusion that the recyclables are being recycled, they send separate trucks to pick up each can. The truck that picks up the regular garbage at a nearby neighborhood comes through my neighborhood and picks up my recyclables and vice versa. All the trash/recyclables go into the same trucks and all the trucks dump at the Union County landfill where everything is buried. Saving the planet through recycling isn’t really a thing where I live and most people don’t even realize it. The County would never tell you this, but I would. Now you know what I know. Have a nice day.

How did you figure this out? Curious if Durham does the same thing.

 

[roadstr6]

A friend of mine owns a waste service company that operates in my county. He clued me in on exactly how the magic happens here. I just use the recycle can as another trash can now. But don’t worry. The planet is still safe. I promise to continue to save the Earth by keeping 40 year-old trucks running down the road as opposed to wasting precious resources on building new ones. Mom, you are welcome. It’s my pleasure, really.

 

[S4Cruiser]

How did you figure this out? Curious if Durham does the same thing.

They might but it doesn’t go in a durham landfill. There hasn’t been one operating in years. All trash (aside from yard waste) and recyclables gets shipped somewhere else. It’s also two different trucks that pickup trash v recyclables...not that I’d put it past them to still dump them in the same pile!

I watched a 60 minutes (or something similar) show about recycling and it was talking about how we (Americans) used to sell it all to the Chinese and then (recently) they decided they didn’t want it anymore. Which has meant in most cases it costs more (significanlt) to recycle it.

Almost defeats the purpose right? Expend more energy potentially creating more pollution to recycle something then it would to incinerate it and make new? I’m rambling now and have no educated references to back up the above.

 

[jamesurq]

From what I hear aluminum is the only thing that still pays for itself.

 

[roadstr6]

They might but it doesn’t go in a durham landfill. There hasn’t been one operating in years. All trash (aside from yard waste) and recyclables gets shipped somewhere else. It’s also two different trucks that pickup trash v recyclables...not that I’d put it past them to still dump them in the same pile!

I watched a 60 minutes (or something similar) show about recycling and it was talking about how we (Americans) used to sell it all to the Chinese and then (recently) they decided they didn’t want it anymore. Which has meant in most cases it costs more (significanlt) to recycle it.

Almost defeats the purpose right? Expend more energy potentially creating more pollution to recycle something then it would to incinerate it and make new? I’m rambling now and have no educated references to back up the above.

Jon, I didn't see the 60 Minutes episode but that is exactly what my friend in the trash business told me. It used to all go to China. They've got more than they can deal with so they don't take it anymore. We aren't set up to recycle here locally, so it all goes in the ground.

 

[NCFJ]

I knew a guy in the waste (HUGE) business when I lived in the keys. He told me that the plastic bags from the stores cost three times as much to recycle as it does to make a new one. His words "those recycle bins are just to make you feel warm and fuzzy about the situation, it all gets incinerated or burried"

 

[izzyandsue]

How did you figure this out? Curious if Durham does the same thing.

A friend of mine owns a waste service company that operates in my county. He clued me in on exactly how the magic happens here. I just use the recycle can as another trash can now. But don’t worry. The planet is still safe. I promise to continue to save the Earth by keeping 40 year-old trucks running down the road as opposed to wasting precious resources on building new ones. Mom, you are welcome. It’s my pleasure, really.

Unfortunate, but real. I am the Chairperson for the Mecklenburg County Waste Management Advisory Board, and the recycling facilities as well as all landfills are under the board's purview, and we have been working this issue for months. Let me share some of the facts with you all. The problem is countrywide, recycling is a business and the buyers need to have a reason to buy goods at a rate that makes sense to them. Market compression has driven the cost of recycled paper, plastic, and glass upside down. Aluminum still works. The largest markets for the US are in Asia, China primarily. Since our leaders started playing chicken with China, they started rejecting shipments of recycled goods claiming they are contaminated, not cleaned enough. Many of the shipments ended up being picked up by Vietnam at a fraction of the original price. Vietnam then sells the same shipment to China for a decent profit. Same one, no change. And the US remains upside down. Many other shipments get stored in "Speculative Storage Facilities" in Asian countries, basically an big open field by the coast. When storms hit the coastal areas, our recycled stuff flows out to sea, and you get the giant floating plastic islands that kill sea life. So when you read on facebook that the plastic floating blob came from Asia, its true. But they will never tell you that most of the material floating came from the US, the largest consumer in the world.

The county has been trying to continuously educate our citizens with what is actually recyclable, trying to minimize the "contamination" of non-recyclables into the bundles that are ship to China. Hope is we show good faith in a reduction of contamination, they will take the shipments. However, it is a political issue more than a recyclables issue. We want to continue to recycle because it is a good habit, and if we loose the habit it can again take years to regain, so if you can, continue to recycle and let the market decide what they do with it.

What can you do? I will ask you to please, please continue recycling, let your children know that it is important and continue the habit. Yes, many cities across the US have stopped recycling altogether, they can't afford it. But we can still, keep at it. The markets may change, the tariff war started by the current administration will end and the markets can return. Glass is the worse, no recycling market besides local markets due to the transportation weight. If you can, stop buying items in glass to reduce the wastestream. Try to use reusable bags for the supermarket, since the single largest contamination complaint is the plastic bags.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I received a letter from my trash company (I'm county also, pay for my trash pickup) telling me what is and isn't recyclable. Guess Izzy has explained why that letter came!

 

[onemanarmy]

Not again: 18-wheeler becomes lodged under Peace Street bridge :: WRAL.com

idiot truck driver doesn't know how high his truck is and ignores warning signs......then the comments section (always a hoot, in a sad way) jumps right to "when is the government going to do something?"

D.C. has won. Everyone instantly looks to the gov't for everything now.

 

[JohnVee]

Legend has it that a guy who looks just like me once tied up traffic in Durham at the screwy train bridge intersection near DPAC when he realized at the absolute last second that his rental truck wasn’t wasn’t gonna fit. Rush hour be damned!

Cheap Trick wasn’t so lucky there a number of years earlier.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

A friend of mine owns a waste service company that operates in my county. He clued me in on exactly how the magic happens here. I just use the recycle can as another trash can now. But don’t worry. The planet is still safe. I promise to continue to save the Earth by keeping 40 year-old trucks running down the road as opposed to wasting precious resources on building new ones. Mom, you are welcome. It’s my pleasure, really.

2nd on the recycling can being used as a garbage can... Think of all the wasted man hours and water wasted just to sort out and rinse recyclables at the household level, only for all of those items to just wind up in the landfill.

 

[PhrogsPhorever]

How did you figure this out? Curious if Durham does the same thing.

I think so based on what I was when the wife lived in North Durham, and that’s the way it went in Coastal Carolina. Everything went to the dump.

 

[NCFJ]

There is a piece on 60 minutes tonight about recycling

 

[NCFJ]

This is a pretty good read on the trash subject

Wasteland: Tokyo grows on its own trash | The Japan Times