Waste Archives - Granite Grok

OPINION: The State Behind the Recycling Bin

October 3, 2026 Thiago V. S. Coelho

Alex Chalmers and Rob Wiblin’s “Just bury your trash” challenges a durable assumption of modern environmentalism: that recycling is intrinsically virtuous while landfill represents failure. Their evidence supports a more selective view. Recycling metals often makes excellent sense, and some clean plastics can be worth recovering. But many other materials require more labor, energy, water, … Read more

NYC Ordinance Looks to Cut Waste – Ignores City Government Completely

August 1, 2023 Steve MacDonald

The City that never sleeps has a new ordinance on the books. It encourages fellow New Yorkers to rat out local businesses that hand out extra napkins, condiments, containers, or utensils without customers asking for them.

solar panel solar farm Photo by American Public Power Association on Unsplash

BBC Admits Solar Panel Waste Is a Huge Environmental Problem (Or Did They Mean Opportunity?)

June 7, 2023 Steve MacDonald

It’s been five years since Canada Free Press admitted that solar panel waste is a toxic environmental nightmare, and no one had a plan. We still don’t have a plan. NH tried to get a clue in 2022, but the State Senate killed it, and now a new piece reminds us the problem can only get worse.

Two Senseless Tragedies, Two Opportunities for Pitiless Democrats

February 5, 2023 Peter Lemiska

The Democrat Party, it seems, has always had the ability and propensity to exploit crises and catastrophes whenever and wherever they find them.

More Huge Waste at Gunstock

March 20, 2022 Norm Silber

This is the story of how the Gunstock Area Commission (the “GAC”) and its so-called “leadership” wasted over $100,000 of taxpayer assets.

Sen. Rand Paul Releases Annual Report Highlighting Over 52 Billion Dollars in Government Waste

December 29, 2021 Op-Ed

Senator Rand Paul has released his annual Festivus Report on wasteful government spending. The late Senator Tom Coburn started this tradition when he was in the U.S. Senate and Paul has taken up the mantle since Coburn’s retirement.

The Federal Government Spent $4.5MM to Torture Ferrets

December 26, 2024December 29, 2021 Steve MacDonald

Senator Rand Paul has released his annual Festivus report on wasteful government spending. Along with torturing ferrets to test Covid vaccines, the government also spent money to find out that eating junk food makes kids fat, to do bad art in New York City, and to pay schools for students who didn’t attend those schools.

How Much is Afghanistan Worth? … What Have we Spent

October 21, 2020

America has reportedly lost $19 billion to fraud and abuse in Afghanistan. That’s not how much we spent there. Rather, it is how much we’ve wasted there based on audit findings. Follow me and we’ll try and put this in perspective.

Democrats Go for the Gold

May 19, 2020May 18, 2020 Peter Lemiska

America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been unprecedented. The complete shutdown of our national economy is truly historic. Not since World War II have Americans experienced such widespread anxiety, unrest, and economic hardship.

Here’s What Congress Deems “Essential Spending” for Coronavirus Recovery

March 27, 2020

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion “Phase III” emergency aid package. They are pushing this as being to “help” America recover from the coronavirus lockdown. Previous phases provide funds for testing and paid family leave. Not one U.S. Senator voted against the legislation: 96-0.

The Pre-Emptive Veto

March 12, 2020March 12, 2020 Ian Underwood

There’s a lot of talk lately about how the House wasted time on some pointless reprimands, and consequently everything is behind schedule. However, this represents a small fraction of a much larger slice of time that gets wasted in every session, but especially in sessions — like the current one — where the legislative and executive branches are controlled by different parties.

What the Proposed Trump 2021 Budget Cuts

Trump’s budget request would cut spending by $4.4 trillion over a decade

February 18, 2020

Trump’s budget request would cut spending by $4.4 trillion over a decade. This would put the federal budget on a path to balance… someday. The president’s budget includes $4.4 trillion in proposed reductions of spending increases. According to the administration, this is the highest amount of spending cuts a president ever has proposed.

Shining Shity On a Hill (Shan Fran Shisco) Shets New Public Poop Report Record

November 25, 2019 Steve MacDonald

Back in April, we shared the City of San Francisco’s poop map. A feature of the modern liberal utopia. An increasingly two-class system where you have elites and streets. One has indoor plumbing; the other has outdoor “plumbing.”

Is Recycling a “Waste” of Time?

November 2, 2022July 15, 2019 Steve MacDonald

Recycling is a thing. Plastic, glass, paper, metal, cardboard. But it’s not a carbon neutral thing. It is carbon intensive. And while “removing it” from the waste stream may save tipping fees for your local municipality, if you think you are saving the planet, you’re not.

Dems Proposed NH Bag Ban Created 52 Million More Pounds of Less Environmentally Friendly Waste in California

May 7, 2019 Steve MacDonald

When the Democrats took the majority in Concord, they crammed every far-left policy into the legislative hopper. One of their priorities, certainly not anyone else’s, was a ban on so-called single-use plastic bags.

Disqus Doodlings – Treehugger is so upset we buy clothes for ourselves….Part 1

September 26, 2018April 10, 2018 Skip

Sorry, but I’m no candidate for the “Naked and Afraid” reality show where guys and gals go gallivanting in the wilds buck naked and are expected to survive like our Stone Age ancestors. Thank you, but no thank you; I’ll keep my clothes on. But it seems that Treehugger is PO’d, once again, that we Normals have the temerity to want to buy clothes. This time, they take on the brand “H&M” and berate it, sorta, for its failure because it can’t keep up with what is known as “fast fashion” (unable to keep up with competitors’ abilities to turn over their inventory and bring in fresher, newer styles. And then they berate the “Internet Onlys” because those folks have put themselves beyond these anti-consumerist hacks like Treehugger denizens (emphasis mine):

Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar stores are being shuttered everywhere, which Cline fears will result in a loss of accountability, not to mention the death of our main streets and suburbs (who knew we’d ever lament that?):

“One advantage for activists has been that H&M’s huge brick-and-mortar empire made their efforts to hold it accountable on labor and environmental issues highly visible. As fast fashion moves online, bad actors will become harder to pin down and bad behavior more hidden from view.“

Mule Trading

September 26, 2018April 11, 2013 Steve MacDonald

Dead Mule

Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily in Starkville , MS. and bought a mule for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said,”Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night.”

Curtis & Leroy replied,”Well, then just give us our money back.”

The farmer said,”Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.”

They said, “OK then, just bring us the dead mule.”

The farmer asked, “What in the world ya’ll gonna do with a dead mule?”

Cutting Costs at UNH: AFP-NH Has a Suggestion, and So Do I…

September 26, 2018April 5, 2013 Steve MacDonald

AFP-NH Director Greg Moore fills the “Another View” slot in today’s Union leader with the question, “If you were running a business, how much would you pay your employees not to show up for work?”

He then proceeds to ask, how, in this economic environment, the same University system that cannot control costs, that begs for more and more taxpayer bailouts, can still afford to spend an estimated 6.5 Million dollars per year for professors to take paid sabbaticals that could last up to a year in length?

…we’re not talking about paid time off for vacation, earned by the employee, or other typical situations, such as maternity leave or sick time. Instead, these are the salary and benefit costs paid to professors at the University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State University and Keene State College when they t… are not in classrooms or labs, teaching our students, yet they add to the ever-growing cost of higher education, which is rapidly becoming less affordable each year.

I know you know this but t’s not just Sabbaticals.

Where Glen Reynolds tries a Drudge technique – on the Police

September 26, 2018March 7, 2013 Skip

Which is to poke fun at someone declaring “Truth” by linking to their story and then linking to a story which, pretty much, destroy’s the first one:

So, we all have seen how well “armored up” our local police have become over the past few years, and the ACLU story even mentions a town in our state, Keene. Sleepy little Keene where the most drastic thing that seems to happen in that college town is either that the college goofy up or the local militant Libertarians decided to do yet another act of “I dare you to arrest me” civil disobedience.

Why Isn’t Anyone Asking This Question?

September 26, 2018February 22, 2013 Steve MacDonald

Massa Obama gave a speech the other day in which he cried wolf over the sequester. It’s twice as amusing because it was his sequester in the first place. But now that the Republicans in congress are not falling into his evil trap he’s got to back off and blame them for letting him intimidate them into agreeing to his plan in the first place.

It all sounds rather ridiculousness, no less so than all the things Mr. Obama now says will collapse and suffer as a result of them letting his plan into action.

I don’t care if you believe any of it or not, that includes the Obama before or after, I’m wondering why people have not realized the only real and lasting solution to this problem?