Disposal Of Our Materials

[mcs1056]

Sorry for the length here.

Let me start by saying that I am no tree-hugging environmentalist. I believe that climate change has more to do with cyclic changes to the planet's proximity to the sun than to man-induced pollutants (remember "the coming ice age" during the 70s?). I do, however, believe we should do all we can to preserve the beauty of the planet and the health of its inhabitants. I never want to see another commercial with that American Indian turning away from the smokestacks with a tear in his eye (did you know that was actually an Italian actor "appropriating" Native American heritage?)

So; What do you folks do to keep things clean?

• I don't flush old paint, thinners, stripping fluids, etc. down the drain. I use tubs, rather than sinks, to wash and rinse. Remaining fluids get poured into a bucket of kitty litter and are taken to the local recycling center.
• Filters from the airbrush booth also go to recycling.
• I do my best to collect plastic bits (those not used to make sprue goo) and sanding dust. I have a cordless vacuum with N95 exhaust filtering solely for this.
• I avoid aerosol spray cans to the best of my ability.
• I reuse the million Amazon boxes we get to ship stuff I sell on Ebay.
• Again, everything possible is brought to the recycling center. I know this is likely a futile endeavor, as I suspect these centers are merely go-betweens to the dump, but I can say I tried.

As I started with; I'm no GreenPeace psyco, and I'm not adopting a "holier than thou" attitude. I don't criticize anyone who does otherwise, whether that be through real disregard (OK...not so much that one) or failure to recognize. I just know that plastics are in every human's blood system by now, that chemicals are bad for stuff, and that this was ignored for a century. I also know that I need to atone for the 70s, where I admit to having poured spent motor oil into the storms drains, and other horrible things.

 

[49thStateRT]

I can't imagine any recycling center allows or wants dirty filters or even clean filters, let alone buckets of haz mat kitty litter? Maybe you are using "recycling" in another way? My recycling center doesn't even take most plastics, just clear bottles and milk jug type. I do have empty paint cans filled with dirty alcohol, acetone, and mineral spirits, I think I can take that to the household chemical "recycling" where people take used motor oil and paint, etc. but I have no idea what they would do with my toxic mix. Burn it? It can't be reused as far as I know. I do hate that I throw away in regular trash so many chemical soaked klenexes and paper towels, and plastic droppers for paint. Those all go on the landfill and leach out into the groundwater. I feel bad but then you see photos of places in the world that are so polluted in comparison.

 

[mcs1056]

I do everything I wrote. All is accepted. What they do with it after I pull away??? See the sixth bullet point.

 

[BarleyBop]

Hot topic.
And we aren't even addressing production and use of some form of styrene, the very stuff of this hobby.

Then again, according to mister Googly, one average automobile has over 400 lbs of plastic!

 

[blakeh1]

You have to be careful with what they dub"wish-cycling.
Often this causes more harm than good when it comes to recycling. For example, paper/cardboard cannot be contaminated with food since the paper recycling process cannot sanitize it. So recycling that greasy pizza box just contaminates the lot and any paper in it has to be discarded ultimately just creating more trash

In general anything to be recycled must be clean dry and stripped of none recyclable material. Remove labels from cans, get rid of plastic cellophane on paper products, rinse bottles and cans out etc

No dirty peanut butter encrusted jars

Also not all plastic and metal are recyclable. You have to check with your local services.

What I really want to figure out is how to recycle prescription bottles. You can only have so many for odd screws and bits or mixing paint. Those cannot be recycled currently. Pharmacies won't take them either.

The problem is manufacturers just slap a recycling symbol on anything and end their responsibilities there. The public is left with the false comfort that everything can be recycled rather than step up and figure out better packaging that is less wasteful

Reality is unfortunately that only about 10% or less actually gets recycled. And most of that is clear water bottle type plastic and aluminum only

 

[blakeh1]

I always wondered why some model companies don't implement some kind of sprue recycling program.

It could be something like a thing where you can mail back a box of sprues and get some kind of rewards points thing

 

[Steve Ski]

You're just being a good steward of what we have been given, Bravo! Ya, don't trash our home, keep it clean whenever possible.

Good call!

 

[MJY65]

I do catch my solvents used for cleaning the airbrush and bring them to a household hazardous waste facility we have available, but that's about it. The paint solids captured on the filter are no different than the ones that are stuck to the model. I'm sure a lot of painted models and toys go in the trash every day and are not treated as hazardous. As far as manufacturers taking sprues back: I suspect they need to use virgin plastic of known composition in their injection molding. They can't just take a mix of materials and melt them together.

 

[blakeh1]

It would be their own sprues though so it should be the same plastic. I guess the biggest block to that however is most of them use Chinese contractors rather than having their own facilities

I know in plastics manufacturing they just grind the miscasts or broken things right back down

 

[Littlemarten]

I always wondered why some model companies don't implement some kind of sprue recycling program.

It could be something like a thing where you can mail back a box of sprues and get some kind of rewards points thing

The build I'm currently (forever) working on is from Hasegawa. All the sprues are labeled as polystyrene. They will be recycled. What can be recycled varies enormously from place to place. Where I am, the only styrene that cannot be recycled is styrofoam. YM(almost certainly)V.

 

[Edbert]

I never considered putting old sprues into the recycling bin. I will start immediately.

Politics aside, I do think everyone wants to keep our home clean and non-toxic.

 

[Littlemarten]

I never considered putting old sprues into the recycling bin. I will start immediately.

Politics aside, I do think everyone wants to keep our home clean and non-toxic.

If they are not labeled, they may not be accepted. The ones from my Hasegawa P-40 are labeled, so it's worth a shot. Good luck!

 

[Jakko]

What can be recycled varies enormously from place to place.

Case in point: Here in the Netherlands, plastics are collected separately — but you're only allowed to put in clear plastics of the kind used in packaging, not any others. This is because this particular recycling effort essentially comes from the packaging industry, so they don't want opaque plastics like vacuum cleaner outer shells, broken car dashboards, mobile phone covers or even model kit sprues.

What makes it sillier, but which they don't say in so many words, is that they really only want plastic that comes from packaging made in the Netherlands. Which is to say: they only want to recycle what they made themselves. As a result, I make a deliberate effort to put in all plastic wrappers from the sprues of kits made in China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the UK or wherever