I watched 50% of McCain's speech tonight, 75% of Clinton's, and 100% of Obama's. All I can say about Clinton is that I used to be a non-Hillary-hater. Used to being past tense. After her speech tonight, I will likely never support her in any election. Not conceding and basically continuing to campaign, despite the fact she has LOST was selfish, egotistical, and narcissistic. It was her night to do the honorable thing to unite the party. She had a massive chance to stand up and put this thing to rest in a graceful manner. But she chose a different route - and it was pathetic. It's one that makes me clearly see, in a way I've never seen before, why the right wingers so loathe the Clintons.
McCain's speech was pathetic, too, but in an entirely different way. We have learned the lesson from Bush that you don't have to be a good public speaker to win the office, but damn! The stark difference between Obama and McCain in oratory skills is mind boggling. I'm not sure if McCain decided to have all the old folks from the home do up a nice little sign for him and come up with some lame one-liners, but that is what it felt like. Completely flat, completely old school, completely uninspiring. And I would be able to recognize an inspiring speech even if it was chalk full of ideals I didn't share.
Recycling
I was asking the question on a blog about whether formula cans are recyclable. I've recently been using the can opener to at least detach the aluminum bottom from the can so I could recycle that, but I wasn't sure about the can itself. Anyway, turns out it is more than likely not recyclable, though I'll need to do a bit more digging to find out.
I also asked if anyone knew what happens when people but the wrong things in a recycle bin. For example, you're not supposed to put in lids or plastic bags, but I'm positive that some (many?) people do this. What happens? There were the two answers I got:
Answer 1 from Heather
Megan - the sides of the can sound like the are made from multiple sources (foil, cardboard, some coating, etc.), so those would not recycle. It's great that you are taking off the lids. We do that with the frozen orange juice containers we buy (I had read that if you can't live w/o OJ, frozen is the way to go since it's lots less water and petro to transport this very non-local food -- my husband is the one who can't live w/o it). So we recycle the tops/bottoms, like you and toss the middle/cardboard part.
When non-recyclables get into the system, they try to sort out the things they have no market for. They end up throwing lots of "contaminants" away at the recycling facilities. It's bad news if contaminants make it past sorting, because it can ruin whole "batches" of recyclables. For example, those corn-based plastic bags and containers contaminate the petro-based plastic recycling.
Portland should be sending out "oops" notices if customers repeatedly are putting lids or other non-curbside items in the bins. But it really depends on the eyes of the haulers and some are probably bigger sticklers than others.
Metro is always the best resource for any type of waste/recycling question. Call 503-234-3000, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. They are awesome!
I also emailed the Office of Sustainability to see if they have any sort of tour or information as to what the process is after recycling leaves my house. I would love to truly know what happens with the recycling when it leaves my home. I find the whole thing just fascinating.
