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One-Hour Recycling

Paper recycling for impatient or paranoid people
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At the one-hour recycling place, you can drop off your stack of newspapers, or bag of shredded credit card statements, and come back one hour later to pick up a fresh ream of blank paper.

The business caters to two types of people:

1. Those who would like instant satisfaction from the recycling process.

2. Paranoid people, classified into two subtypes:

a) People who don’t trust that paper you put into the blue bin actually gets recycled.

b) People afraid of identity thieves stealing their shredded documents and taping them back together.

AO, Dec 15 2003

Paper Making http://w3.tvi.cc.nm.us/~concon/paper.htm
[Klaatu, Oct 04 2004]

[link]






       Or those folks in desperate need of blank paper. Very nice, AO! [+]
Letsbuildafort, Dec 15 2003
  

       We have a recycling regime where I live which I've never come across before. We are encouraged to leave out for collection all glass, metal, plastic, paper and cardboard in a single bag once a week. The council have assured me that it's all automatically sorted.
hippo, Dec 15 2003
  

       Techically possible to sort garbage very finely - some extraordinary high percentage of used cars is recycled by composition, including the coins that fell down the backs of the seats.
DrCurry, Dec 15 2003
  

       Why would anyone remotely paranoid trust the one-hour-recyclery to actually have processed their paper? You'd have to allow them to watch (which might be neat for some.)   

       It would be so much easier for the one-hour place to cheat and just have reams of fresh paper on-site, and have the actual recycling processing done in a remote site.   

       Also, the extra energy needed to do it all in one hour may offset any environmental benefit to recycling.
sophocles, Dec 15 2003
  

       extra energy? how hard can it be to just spray paint everything white again?
luecke, Dec 15 2003
  

       same here, hippo.   

       I dropped the bag this week and broke some glass & had to put the entire bag (orange) in the dustbin   

       I don't believe it is automatic - it would be fairly easy for someone to pick through and sort the contents. the dustmen reject anything that looks vaguely soggy or suspect.   

       excellent idea, AO <under breath - dammit!>
po, Dec 15 2003
  

       That’s true, sophocles, they would have to let you watch if you wanted to. This is obviously not the most efficient way to recycle paper; the purpose of the business is to cater to people’s various neurosis in relation to recycling, not necessarily to benefit the environment.
AO, Dec 15 2003
  

       This might encourage neurotic recyclers who would get a high from dumping the newly recycled paper in the bin for recycling again.
FarmerJohn, Dec 15 2003
  

       [po] Ooh, our bags are orange too. It must be the same scheme
hippo, Dec 15 2003
  

       Or, do it yourself <link>
Klaatu, Dec 16 2003
  

       I'm sorry but recycled toilet paper....ewwwww!

[po] We have green and red bags over here....for plastic and newspaper respectively. We are expected to take our own glass to the local bottle bank.
silverstormer, Dec 16 2003
  

       // it would be fairly easy for someone to pick through and sort the contents. the dustmen reject anything that looks vaguely soggy or suspect //   

       In my experience of visiting waste-disposal sites and working with the staff there, I was surprised to discover that they often pick through the trash looking for discarded pornography, which they then stack up in vast quantities in their portacabins to dry prior to distribution among themselves.
dobtabulous, Dec 16 2003
  

       It would appeal to me even as an exchange place; 1kg trash paper for 1kg recycled paper (plus a fee).   

       //Why would anyone remotely paranoid trust the one-hour-recyclery to actually have processed their paper?// "Deposit" of your old paper would be through the shredder right into the bleach barrel.
kbecker, Dec 16 2003
  

       This is a really great idea. +++
sartep, Jul 07 2004
  

       there have been several rumours going round about recycling, one is that during the 80's/90's when recycled paper was all the rage the paper companies made reams of new paper which was immediately recycled.   

       The other is that some of these recycling schemes actually take the sorted rubbish straight to land fill sites anyway as they don't have suitable contracts to get the recycling done.
engineer1, Jul 07 2004
  

       (+) <needs a re-cycle>   
      
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