the vlaue of rubbish

[pitstopbunny]

Here's my latest assignment for uni, what are your ideas about the value of rubbish.....

"Outline the ways in which rubbish can be said to have value in a consumer society"

[sandyRoe]

Recycled it saves further depletion of resources. It also provides employment for the people who have the job of recycling it.

[Jemisa]

Did you not see 'The Apprentice'? a couple of weeks back their task was to make as much as thay could on 'Rubbish' they made hundreds.
Perhaps you could watch via BBC IPlayer. Watch & Learn.

jem

[Booldawg]

Theres alot of money in industrial waste.

[pitstopbunny]

Hi Jem, I never watch TV but will find it on the iplayer

[VHG]

Depends what you define as rubbish.

One mans rubbish is anothers mans income.

We get a van coming round our street every day collecting metal. He plays a trumped so you can hear him.

People leave out metal things they dont want (old tools, electrical equipment etc) and he takes them away (to sell them I guess)

One mans rubbish....

[David H]

Potential tax revenue for councils (although thank goodness most plans for charging have been dropped) and fines for not recycling or putting the bins out at the right time or place. Good money spinners for the cruel and heartless.

[DTCwordfan]

tricity generation as well....

look at the Masada project in the States as well - bioethanol from scrap paper and cuttings of grass etc

look at Iogen from Ottawa as to bioethanol from the waste of plants......

[DTCwordfan]

crops that is, not plants per se......

[factor-fiction]

Another angle -perhaps this is a bit tenuous,but it could be argued that by making waste disposal so easy it encourages consumers to replace things with newer items and therefore helps keep the economy ticking over

[starone]

Our scrap merchant is invaluable and I think he makes a good living out of it. He also clears away things we do not want so does two things at the same time.

[wildwood]

Empty drink cans are collected by the homeless in New York and other places. It gives them a bit of spending money and saved the city collection/sorting cost. Win/win situation.

[pitstopbunny]

Thank you all, it's given me a few other viewpoints that I hadn't thought of ; )

[keyplus90]

My neighbour clears people's garden rubbish and he makes mopre money than I do as accountant. That is one benefit to the consumer society. But then there is a loss to tax payers as his full time job is a bin man and all of the rubbish he collects in his van, he dumps in big tipper he drives for the local council.

[atalanta]

One of the most important things you can recycle is aluminium. Not because there is a shortage of aluminium ore ( bauxite ) in the earth - far from it. The problem is with the huge temperatures and amounts of energy used to obtain the metal from the ore. Save aluminium, save all that energy.

[pudp]

hi did you complete your assignment on the value of rubbish, would be really grateful if i was to get a little help from you. maybe i could help you in the future with an assignment. :o) T