Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Ban paper throwout

By making it illegal to throw any paper products away, we could reduce our waste by 65% per year.
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(+2, -6)
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Here's the idea:

If you have paper, it MUST be thrown into a recycling bin -- NO paper allowed in trashcans. if your pickup notices paper products in your trashbags, you will receive a ticket of say... $60 for each weeks offense. eventually the idea would catch on, making our landfills that much smaller [fun fact: if you put all the worlds trash from one year into one pile, it would be a pile the size of Mexico and 2,500 feet high!]. It would also open more opportunities for recycling centers in every community, creating jobs and helping the economy at the same time.

phylum_sinter, Mar 24 2002

(?) You could be shot http://scriptorium....00/W0084-72dpi.jpeg
[mrthingy, Mar 25 2002]

[link]






       How about we send all our trash to Mexico then? They could use the jobs, less illegal immigrants into U.S., etc. etc.
<Performs>Obligatory Hat Dance</Performs>
thumbwax, Mar 24 2002
  

       Or the Maldives/Bangladesh/<insert low-lying third world country here>. Help them get higher as sea levels rise.
mcscotland, Mar 24 2002
  

       My grandfather had pretty much the same idea forty five years ago. He burned every sort of household combustible in his fireplace. The upside was that he had very low energy bills; The downside was that his neighbors did not care very much for the aroma that emanated from his chimney. (Two generations later we claim to have no knowledge of those events. But one has to admit, Grandpa's methods were efficient in reducing the cubic size of waste sent to the landfill.)
jurist, Mar 24 2002
  

       Not forget, Mr. Bubba, build on. Or perhaps if paper makes up so much of our trash, and as paper is somewhat absorbant, chuck in the sea and..uhm... "absorb" the sea levels back.
mcscotland, Mar 24 2002
  

       If all the world were paper
And all the sea were ink
If all the trees
Were bread and cheese,
What should we have to drink?
po, Mar 24 2002
  

       I've got a better idea -- instead of declaring it illegal to throw away paper, add a mandatory per-pound deposit fee on all paper that is sold. Anyone can then deliver their paper to the recycling center to reclaim the deposit money. This way it's in people's financial best interest to recycle the paper, and instead of everyone spending all their time figuring out how to throw paper away without getting caught, people are motivated to recycle their paper voluntarily. In fact, anyone who did throw away paper would probably be beseiged by homeless people doing impromptu recycling service...
Jeremi, Mar 24 2002
  

       Recycling is often (not always) good, and the world does generate too much trash. But I suspect your "fun fact" is less factual than it is fun.
beauxeault, Mar 24 2002
  

       I think this is a very interesting idea and stands on its own without specific factual data.
bristolz, Mar 25 2002
  

       What about toilet paper? You want to recycle that? I am making your milk cartons exclusively out of that recycled product, [phylum]. And I bet you are no longer reading the HB, so when you take a big drink of milk, I will laugh and laugh!   

       If you are going to do this, do it in the traditional HB style and require electrical bastinado for all who break your rule.
bungston, Mar 15 2006
  

       <prints this idea>
<crumples paper and throws in wastebasket>
phundug, Mar 15 2006
  
      
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