Opinion: The reign of recycling
By John Tierney, New York Times
If you live in the United States, you probably do some form of recycling. It’s likely that you separate paper from plastic and glass and metal. You rinse the bottles and cans, and you might put food scraps in a container destined for a composting facility. As you sort everything into the right bins, you probably assume that recycling is helping your community and protecting the environment. But is it? Are you in fact wasting your time?
In 1996, I wrote a long article for the New York Times magazine arguing that the recycling process as we carried it out was wasteful. I presented plenty of evidence that recycling was costly and ineffectual, but its defenders said that it was unfair to rush to judgment. Noting that the modern recycling movement had really just begun just a few years earlier, they predicted it would flourish as the industry matured and the public learned how to recycle properly.
So, what’s happened since then? While it’s true that the recycling message has reached more people than ever, when it comes to the bottom line, both economically and environmentally, not much has changed at all.
Despite decades of exhortations and mandates, it’s still typically more expensive for municipalities to recycle household waste than to send it to a landfill. Prices for recyclable materials have plummeted because of lower oil prices and reduced demand for them overseas. The slump has forced some recycling companies to shut plants and cancel plans for new technologies. The mood is so gloomy that one industry veteran tried to cheer up her colleagues this summer with an article in a trade journal titled, “Recycling Is Not Dead!”
While politicians set higher and higher goals, the national rate of recycling has stagnated in recent years.
No I do not sort my garbage I do not know what is recycle and what is not. I can not believe that some one does not sort the green bag condense. most people I know use the green bags for other purposes. and I think it is a waste.
David Dewitt, Sorting your garbage for recyclinig is not hard.Just throw your empty cans, bottles ,cardboard,newspapers, magazines into the blue bag and set it out with your garbage on your garbage can pick up day.This helps with reduction of waste going to the landffill and many recyclable items are re-used for oher purposes.
Old Long recyled Skiis
OLS is correct. Recycling is easy and should be a way of life. Americans are pretty much the most wasteful and highest consumers. Almost everything we throw out could be repourposed, reused or recycled. It is easy to do and takes not alot of time. If you recycle some items you can get paid for it. The mindset needs to be changed from the” take it away”mantality to being more proactive about the garbage each one of us generates. Consume less, recycle the rest..
David. If we recycled during WWII, then we can recycle now. I remember my Grandparents talking about how they recycled “everything” during WWII: cans, bottles, tires, food scrapes, newspapers, boxes, shoes, you name it.
Another issue today is the amount of product packaging. When you purchase a toy for a child’s birthday party, the packaging should not be three times larger then the toy. The same goes for parts/products shipped via online transactions.
Last week on a reno news station there was a man asked to speak about recycling issues. The guy stood there saying that recycling isnt important and because it dosent generate enough money for someone it shouldnt be something we do. Its all about money. Once again some greedy corporation cant fleece society therefore its not worth doing. The news personalites doing the interview were at a loss for words and the silence was akward. Id have liked to slap the dude for being such an ignorant selfish american but there are so many like him, dont care about who comes next on this planet. Selfish ignorant greedy american dude who obviously has no worry about the future of his childrens planet. Go Figure…
I did not try and say I did not believe in recycling my point is we are going about it the wrong way. I think we should do it the right way. All The trash should be sorted by employees of the trash pick up people. Then all the recycle trash will be used in a responsible way.