DIYbanter - View Single Post - When to use sharp sand and when to use "soft" sand?

wrote:

On 05 Jun 2005 15:55:09 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

Glass really wasn't worth recycling at all until the landfill
tax came in.

I'll not disagree but given the "need" to avoid landfill and ongoing
quarrying/dredging for sand it just struck me as a possible use
without too much recycling cost.

Paper is another questionable one. The cost (in particular the
energy use) of processing recycled paper often exceededs the
cost of creating new paper. It has always seemed to me that
paper should be buried in landfill as this is exactly the reverse
process of burning fossil fuels, i.e. it's taking CO2 out of the
atmosphere and burying it back underground.

I'll agree this with the possible exception of glossy papers which
have lots of china clay in them, I wonder if this filler can be washed
out and reclaimed?

This is a bit of my hobby horse because use of recycled fiber impacted
on my erstwhile trade. In the 70s we harvested the portion of the crop
that was "pulpwood" at a profit. As GATT and recycling bit we needed
to cross subsidise harvesting this with the better grades, now with
mechanised harvesting a lot gets left in the wood.

I disagree about burying it though, if anaerobic conditions occur
biogas is given off and this has implications for damaging the ozone
layer as well as being a worse climate changing gas than the CO2 that
would be generated by burning it.

Now if you consider pyrolysing it to 85% fixed carbon and then
burying it.....

I also cannot see the benefit in recycling simple (non halogenated)
plastics over burning them for power, more a topic for the environment
newsgroups though.
Totally agree.

And as far as landfill sites - or their lack - goes - why not use glass
banks to shore up the east coast, bits of which keep falling into the
sea...?

AJH