Saturday, June 03, 2006

Impact

Just a quick one this evening. I'm an aluminum can junkie. I know it's not cost-effective (better to get drinks in plastic 2L bottles). But I like cold carbonated beverages, the colder and more fizzy the better, and short of little glass bottles, the aluminum can is the holy grail.

But there is no recycling pick up at my apartment. If I lived in a house around the corner there would be curbside pickup. But I don't. So my options are:

1) Walk 7 miles round trip to drop off cans at the recycling center, or
2) Drive 7 miles round trip to drop off cans at the recycling center, or
3) Throw them out

Walking in 90+ degree heat is unattractive. And it seems stupid to throw out aluminum, which has ~90% energy savings on recycling. But driving makes me wonder about net environmental impact. Does the environmental benefit of reusing a bag full of aluminum cans outweigh the impact of an otherwise unneeded (it's not on the way to anywhere) 7 mile city car journey?

Oh and one unrelated thing.

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So get Firefox if you haven't, takes about 20 seconds to install, then click the orange Feed to subscribe!

3 comments:

perrykat said...

When I was in Auburn, I drove my cans to the recycle center. I would guess it was 10 miles (maybe 8) round trip. So, I gathered about 2 garbage bags full before I went. This, of course, requires space to save cans.

Now, I don't know if this is true, but I was told once (by a hippie, earth-lovin' girl)that you save the equivalent of 1/3 of a can of gasoline for each can you recyle. That seems to me to make it worth the drive.

Jebbo said...

Well I found some links that back up your hippie friend ;-)

http://sustainability.unc.edu/Documents/CampusEcology.doc

http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/briggsstratton.cfm

http://www.co.anoka.mn.us/v2_dept/iwm/show-item-info.aspx?id=32

Upshot? Recycling 16 cans saves the energy of a gallon of gas. For us non-hybrid drivers, 25mpg in a city is probably average, so you get about a mile and a half per can. 7 miles means I need to recycle at least 5 cans to make it worthwhile. I'm not sure if this takes into account the emissions, etc, but I think it is safe to say it's worth the drive.

Thanks for the heads up.

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