Steve:
> The U.S. reduces waste production from 5 lbs. per day to 2.5 lbs. per day.
> That is a 50% reduction. Then you still have to recycle another 2 lbs.
> per day to get to .5 lbs per day.
>
> (1-.9)*5=.5
>
> That is a 90% reduction given a 5 lbs. per day output of waste would leave
> .5 lbs. per day of waste.
No. If you start out with 5 lbs, then your goal is to reduce this by 60 to
90% [NYPRIG estimates]. The optimistic scenario results in a per capita rate
of 0.5 lbs per day per capita. But Japan already has a per capita rate of
2.5 lbs per day. The existing figure for the Japanese is already within 10%
of the lower 60% estimate of NYPRIG. So applying the lower rate reduction to
the Japanese per capita rate is going to have to be 2 lbs per day to meet
the lowest rate scenario.
Now if the Netherlands already reduces per capita waste by 45%, then a rate
reduction of only 15% is needed there to ensure that the wastes are within
the 60% reduction of NYPRIG most pessimistic estimate. Again you need to
check the dates of the NYPRIG estimate [1986] and Seidmann [1995]. If the
waste per capita increased in New York over that time, then the Seidmann
analysis is based on 'new sources' of waste. eg excessive packaging. Why
package a diamond ring in a refrigerator?
If the average Netherlander produces per capita 2.5 lbs and the US citizen 5
lbs, then to get a reduction of 60% based on an existing waste reduction
rate of 45% per capita, then you only need to reduce the waste by a further
0.375 lbs in Netherlands, but in NY City you need to reduce 0.7 lbs. The
math is simple, but you are assuming that only the 90% waste reduction is
the one that NYPRIG estimated; but the fact is that the waste reduction
estimates were in the range of 60 to 90 %.
We do not know what the per capita rate of garbabe production is in NY city,
and it may be less than 5 lbs or more than 5 lbs, so this variable has a
large impact on the estimates. How may quests leave wastes in NY City? There
are also trends to consider. Family size, size of house, habits and all
sorts of variables affect the amount of waste that is produced by people.
One thing that has changed in NY is that all newspapers are now recycled,
and there is a bylaw forbidding anyone to put newspapers into the garbage.
Up to 45% of the average landfill contains newprint. This stuff is about 98%
re-cycleable.
With that one simple change, a bylaw, waste is reduced by up to 45% per
capita, or to be realistic up to 43%. IF we remove the telephone books from
the waste stream, then another 2 or more % is removed. You keep doing this
and you end up with the magic lower estimate of 60%.
chao
john foster
>
> In other words, you'd still have to recycle 2 pounds, which out of 2.5
> lbs. per day is 80%.
>
> A 2 pound reduction is 40% of 5.
>
> Your number still don't add up.
>
> Steve
>
>
>
>
> =====
> "In a nutshell, he [Steve] is 100% unadulterated evil. I do not believe in
a 'Satan', but this man is as close to 'the real McCoy' as they come."
> --Jamey Lee West
>
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