Good morning Mastodon!
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Also as a little postscript, in a facility where 95% of the staff I saw were male presenting I was impressed by the fact that there were free menstrual products in the toilets
@afewbugs excellent thread, thank you!
In particular thanks for explicit instructions on what to do with sealed-in batteries and camping gas cans. These kinds of thing frequently say how they *can't* (or shouldn't) be disposed of, but not how they can and should! I'm pretty sure lack of knowledge is one reason they end up in the general waste. -
@afewbugs excellent thread, thank you!
In particular thanks for explicit instructions on what to do with sealed-in batteries and camping gas cans. These kinds of thing frequently say how they *can't* (or shouldn't) be disposed of, but not how they can and should! I'm pretty sure lack of knowledge is one reason they end up in the general waste.@jetlagjen Thank you! A few people popped up to say this is UK specific and may be different in other countries, so disclaimer for that
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@jetlagjen Thank you! A few people popped up to say this is UK specific and may be different in other countries, so disclaimer for that
@afewbugs yes, of course. But as I'm in the UK I still appreciate UK info
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@cat it is isn't it? That's why I jumped on this tour when the message went round, if you have the opportunity handed to you to learn something completely new why wouldn't you take it?
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@afewbugs yes, of course. But as I'm in the UK I still appreciate UK info
@jetlagjen sorry, I'm never sure where anyone's based on here
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But the worst one is batteries. Most people now (hopefully!) know you shouldn't put batteries in your domestic waste, but only recognise batteries as the little AA cylinders rather than recognising batteries as being in little household things like toothbrushes, hearing aids, ear pods or vibrators where they're sealed in and invisible. Vapes are a huge one, and although single use vapes have been banned vapes with a recharge port at a similar price point are still being treated as single use disposable items. These cause a lot of fires in waste collection lorries when they're compacted, but also fires at waste management plants which want the fire in one place only, the kiln. So remove batteries from small electronic devices for disposal if you can, and if you can't dispose of the whole device in the battery recycling bin that every shop selling batteries should by law have available.
So basically stick your broken sex toys in the clear plastic battery bin in Sainsburys
@afewbugs Just recently, someone mentioned in here in passing that there is no concept of domestic battery disposal in Florida. That you just chuck batteries in the usual bin. I was both amazed and not amazed to learn that 'don't put batteries in domestic waste' is not common knowledge or practice everywhere.
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Good morning Mastodon! Remember when you were in primary school and went on school trips to places teachers though were important or free, and retained nothing from them except for who was sick on whom on the way there? Now you're older and nerdier did you ever think "Actually it might be really interesting to visit a major piece of civic infrastructure and learn how it works?" Just me? Well I was in luck today because the University sustainability team has organised a tour of #Exeter Energy Recovery Facility in #MarshBarton, where all our non-recyclable rubbish ends up.
https://www.viridor.co.uk/energy/energy-recovery-facilities/exeter-erf/
@afewbugs Wonderful thread. Thanks for sharing the trip.
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When we visited the world's biggest claw machine was operated by an extremely tolerant bloke called Ashley, who very good naturedly answered all our questions while trying to get on with his job. A couple of people told him he had the coolest job in the world, to which he replied that it had been for the first six hours or so but after that it got a bit boring.
@afewbugs That chair is worthy of Star Trek. Sounds like a really interesting tour!
My A-level physics class (which included Kirsty MacColl) were given a guided tour of Dungeness B power station back in the late 70s. The only thing I remember clearly from the tour was them showing us the reactor floor with the comment "The BBC have just filmed something called #Blakes7 here."
They were so excited.
"It's going to be bigger than Star Wars," they said.
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@afewbugs The US still makes battery recycling a pain. Recycling bins are not in very many shops, most cities have no curbside pickup of them - you'd have to drive them to the recycling or hazmat center which is usually only one or two per city and only open certain hours.
@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange @afewbugs@social.coop in Taiwan I could go to any convenience stores and they’d have a battery wastebin (aka I could throw it away at literally every other block) but now that I moved to Spain I just don’t really know how to throw away stuff like that because… guess what, the internet is really horrible at being helpful resources with this stuff in English & my friends fail to explain it at all because they either don’t understand it themselves or they don’t ever think about it enough to explain it
(context: I’m Taiwanese and I grew up in Taiwan, I only speak English because of being terminally online)
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@afewbugs Just recently, someone mentioned in here in passing that there is no concept of domestic battery disposal in Florida. That you just chuck batteries in the usual bin. I was both amazed and not amazed to learn that 'don't put batteries in domestic waste' is not common knowledge or practice everywhere.
@CiaraNi yes someone else replied to the thread to say they don't have battery recycling in the USA, which just seems wild to me
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But the worst one is batteries. Most people now (hopefully!) know you shouldn't put batteries in your domestic waste, but only recognise batteries as the little AA cylinders rather than recognising batteries as being in little household things like toothbrushes, hearing aids, ear pods or vibrators where they're sealed in and invisible. Vapes are a huge one, and although single use vapes have been banned vapes with a recharge port at a similar price point are still being treated as single use disposable items. These cause a lot of fires in waste collection lorries when they're compacted, but also fires at waste management plants which want the fire in one place only, the kiln. So remove batteries from small electronic devices for disposal if you can, and if you can't dispose of the whole device in the battery recycling bin that every shop selling batteries should by law have available.
So basically stick your broken sex toys in the clear plastic battery bin in Sainsburys
@afewbugs Or here on top of your recycling bin! But I wonder just how widely this varies from place to place in the UK. It's a mess really.
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@afewbugs That chair is worthy of Star Trek. Sounds like a really interesting tour!
My A-level physics class (which included Kirsty MacColl) were given a guided tour of Dungeness B power station back in the late 70s. The only thing I remember clearly from the tour was them showing us the reactor floor with the comment "The BBC have just filmed something called #Blakes7 here."
They were so excited.
"It's going to be bigger than Star Wars," they said.
@headfirstonly @afewbugs Blake's 7 was great. Ok, the BBC budget was a bit crap and the a-cting was sometimes wooden, but it gave us Servalan, and all the things a 12 yearold boy wasn't ready to feel.
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@CiaraNi yes someone else replied to the thread to say they don't have battery recycling in the USA, which just seems wild to me
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@headfirstonly @afewbugs Blake's 7 was great. Ok, the BBC budget was a bit crap and the a-cting was sometimes wooden, but it gave us Servalan, and all the things a 12 yearold boy wasn't ready to feel.
@BackFromTheDud @afewbugs Oh, for sure. I have a soft spot for the show, not least because it gave us Avon's premiership league snark (a girlfriend was _really_ into Paul Darrow).
Years later I played a gig with Josette Simon (Dayna) who is not only lovely, but also an incredible jazz singer.
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@CiaraNi yes someone else replied to the thread to say they don't have battery recycling in the USA, which just seems wild to me
@afewbugs It is wild indeed. I coincidentally saw this fact mentioned in a different context and thread in here (Mastodon) a few weeks ago. I hadn't spotted it in the replies in this thread - sorry for repeating it at you here!
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@CiaraNi yes someone else replied to the thread to say they don't have battery recycling in the USA, which just seems wild to me
NY state nominally does
I don't know all the ins-and-outs, but the law around e-waste came into effect when I was doing IT work
There are separate collection points for battteries and for old laptops at our regional waste transfer station.
I wish we did more waste to energy incineration. Even more, I wish pyrolytic waste-to-fuel weren't caught in the trap between the "not good enough" for purists who don't recognize how bad the status quo is, on the one hand, and "too woke" or something by people OK with building trash mountains in our otherwise beautiful countryside.
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NY state nominally does
I don't know all the ins-and-outs, but the law around e-waste came into effect when I was doing IT work
There are separate collection points for battteries and for old laptops at our regional waste transfer station.
I wish we did more waste to energy incineration. Even more, I wish pyrolytic waste-to-fuel weren't caught in the trap between the "not good enough" for purists who don't recognize how bad the status quo is, on the one hand, and "too woke" or something by people OK with building trash mountains in our otherwise beautiful countryside.
@idlestate @CiaraNi yes I wish waste to energy plants didn't only get built in the poorest neighborhoods, and they do pump out some air pollution and a lot of greenhouse gases, but if the waste is there anyway it has to go somewhere and they're exponentially better than landfill
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But the worst one is batteries. Most people now (hopefully!) know you shouldn't put batteries in your domestic waste, but only recognise batteries as the little AA cylinders rather than recognising batteries as being in little household things like toothbrushes, hearing aids, ear pods or vibrators where they're sealed in and invisible. Vapes are a huge one, and although single use vapes have been banned vapes with a recharge port at a similar price point are still being treated as single use disposable items. These cause a lot of fires in waste collection lorries when they're compacted, but also fires at waste management plants which want the fire in one place only, the kiln. So remove batteries from small electronic devices for disposal if you can, and if you can't dispose of the whole device in the battery recycling bin that every shop selling batteries should by law have available.
So basically stick your broken sex toys in the clear plastic battery bin in Sainsburys
@afewbugs I've had trouble getting clarification on whether the shops that offer battery recycling will accept lithium ion batteries, or devices containing them, at all. In my local authority area (Gateshead), the only approved way of disposing of such batteries seems to be to take them to one of the council household waste and recycling centres, which unfortunately requires you to have a vehicle and book in advance. Yes it's ridiculous.
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@idlestate @CiaraNi yes I wish waste to energy plants didn't only get built in the poorest neighborhoods, and they do pump out some air pollution and a lot of greenhouse gases, but if the waste is there anyway it has to go somewhere and they're exponentially better than landfill
@afewbugs @idlestate @CiaraNi and if they are going to do it, they should at least make it into something like copenhill in Copenhagen...
Also it should be used for district heating. My apartment is heated by heat from a waste to energy facility.
