SMOKING BAN, what do you think?

[flo]

Remind me never to swim in the ocean  and as for you, lazybear, you KNOW I was just a youngster when doctors were smoking.  (still am  ) and as for the food groups, never paid much attention to em cause figured sooner or later they'd decide that wasn't good for you, just like coffee isn't good for you and eggs aren't good for you, and blah blah blah and now coffee is and eggs are and blah blah blah - what I need now is some chocolate 

[Tobina+1]

To be honest, standing outside of hospitals and clinics and nursing homes... you see more doctors and nurses smoking than anyone else!

[Diane Amberg]

  Flo were you asking me about NYC ?  Long ago the barges were all dumped at sea.  Now some goes to VA. and NC. and other states who contract to take it.  The big huge dump on Staten Island was closed ( Fresh Kills) after 9-11. The nasty stuff that shows up on the beaches is now more likely to be from sewer outfalls over loaded from storms. Bacteria gets high in the oceans off New Jersey in Aug. but samples are taken several times each day and the beaches will be closed if the harmful bacterias get too high. It happens off Del. too, but not as commonly. Sunshine kills off a lot of it in a short time. We never go in if counts are too high.
  Lazy Bear, you weren't doing anything "wrong" with your food groups. Research has just refined things a bit, that's all . A great many things change over time as we learn more and more. Now little kids aren't supposed to take aspirin. Who knew? Nothing is ever going to stay the same, I guess. But then again, I have a friend who had a heart transplant years ago and is doing great. I never thought I'd ever see that. For as much as we grump about some things, there are lots of good things too.

[LShortt]

Diane, our area has I guess what you could term mandatory recycling.  We have "blue" boxes for alum, glass, plastic, paper products (the obvious recylables) and we also have a "green cart" (small cart, hip high) that is for dumping all food materials...basically compost materials.  These two things are picked up, curb side, on a weekly basis.  Every TWO weeks "garbage" is picked up (anything that would normally be thrown out but not considered recyclable and we are limited to 3 bags of "garbage" every 2 weeks.  Also every second week yard waste materials (everything but grass clippings, grass clippings are no longer picked up)...leaves, twigs, branches, etc etc.

OKAY now...once a month, we have a "large item" pickup.  Large items can be furniture...carpet..TV's...anything but large appliances.  You can sit anything on the curb and the garbage trucks will pick it up...ONCE a month.  OH...I'm not finished....if you have large appliances to toss, the regional waste management trucks will pick them up if you call in advance to let them know you have something (specific days of the month they do this).  Trucks will not pick up anything considered hazardous...paint...batteries, etc...but you can take them to the landfill (for free) where they have a special collection area for such items.  I've never seen such orginazation.   

[Diane Amberg]

That is very impressive!  By the time it is all done, ours will be similar for home owners, but we are encouraged to have compostors or piles for kitchen scraps (except meat, fat or bones) and grass, weeds and small branches.  We have had a chipper for years and do already compost.  We will be able to co-mingle the recyclables.  Our city trucks will come get any big thing you can get to the curb, by appointment. We can never burn, so I still have questions about diseased plants and leaves that I don't want to compost but can't throw away. I'll have to find out soon.  Several times a year we can take hazmat waste to a pick up point. At the end of this semester There will be a place for left over dorm and apartment furniture at