Comments on: Occupational Health News Roundup http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/occupational-health-news-roundup-64/ A water cooler for the public health crowd Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:35:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: rjh http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/occupational-health-news-roundup-64/#comment-38329 rjh Fri, 16 May 2008 21:06:30 +0000 http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/?p=900#comment-38329 Some locales accept plastic containers and others don't. Yours does not. The recyclability of used plastic containers is mediocre at best. Reuse of plastic bottles is much better. This is related to volume, cost of separation, etc. rather than a fundamental chemical limit. It's just very expensive to go through the recycling process for a small percentage item like polypropylene containers. Pulling out plastic bottles and sorting them is much easier, and there are lots of alternative uses that do not mind the occasional mixed color or other sorting problem. I'm not aware of a take-out container that is easily recycled. The paper-based ones get contaminated by the food and contaminate the entire recycling box with food waste. Paper recycling is very sensitive to food waste. It can make the whole load into reject paper that gets burned. Polypropylene is very well suited to takeout, but as I said, is much harder to recycle. One potential is for you to re-use those containers yourself. Clean and reuse until they are somehow damaged. Then accept that you got a bunch of uses before finally discarding it. Some locales accept plastic containers and others don’t. Yours does not. The recyclability of used plastic containers is mediocre at best. Reuse of plastic bottles is much better. This is related to volume, cost of separation, etc. rather than a fundamental chemical limit. It’s just very expensive to go through the recycling process for a small percentage item like polypropylene containers. Pulling out plastic bottles and sorting them is much easier, and there are lots of alternative uses that do not mind the occasional mixed color or other sorting problem.

I’m not aware of a take-out container that is easily recycled. The paper-based ones get contaminated by the food and contaminate the entire recycling box with food waste. Paper recycling is very sensitive to food waste. It can make the whole load into reject paper that gets burned. Polypropylene is very well suited to takeout, but as I said, is much harder to recycle.

One potential is for you to re-use those containers yourself. Clean and reuse until they are somehow damaged. Then accept that you got a bunch of uses before finally discarding it.

]]> By: Ness http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/occupational-health-news-roundup-64/#comment-38244 Ness Thu, 08 May 2008 16:38:43 +0000 http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/?p=900#comment-38244 I am glad I discovered your website! I thought you and your readers might be interested in IssueLab's new collection of research on veteran health. It's all by nonprofit and University researchers and touches on issues like PTSD and traumatic brain injury (a common injury for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans) and new evidence that they interact with each other; homelessness; why veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are particularly experiencing challenges that veterans from past wars have not, etc. You can check out our May CloseUp on veteran health here-- http://www.issuelab.org/closeup Thanks! Vanessa I am glad I discovered your website! I thought you and your readers might be interested in IssueLab’s new collection of research on veteran health. It’s all by nonprofit and University researchers and touches on issues like PTSD and traumatic brain injury (a common injury for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans) and new evidence that they interact with each other; homelessness; why veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are particularly experiencing challenges that veterans from past wars have not, etc. You can check out our May CloseUp on veteran health here– http://www.issuelab.org/closeup

Thanks!

Vanessa

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