"Though recycling rarely makes economic sense and often burns up more fresh resources than would have been used in making new items, Americans recycled. And recycled. And recycle still."
An old friend from college unfriended me on Fascistbook because I tried to get him to see that truth.
By all means, recycle when it makes economic sense to do so, when the act of recycling does not consume more resources in total than can be recovered. And how does one *know* when recycling makes economic sense? Why, when it doesn't need to be subsidized by using the threat of government violence to take money from you and me to give to the politically-connected few who thereby profit from the scam.
Edit: I recycle aluminum cans. I store them in the basement for 6 months to a year, then toss them in the truck and take them to be recycled. If I fill the truck bed with (grocery) bags of *crushed* cans, I may get about $50 for ... collecting trash in my house for a year. And that's for something that *does* pay for itself to be recycled.
EDIT 2019/08/09: Legal Insurrection: California’s Minimum Wage Rules Kill State’s Largest Recycling Center
California’s largest operator of recycling redemption centers has shut down and laid off 750 employees.The anti-economic wage-hike certainly contributed to the closure, but the greater cause is the fact that most recycling consumes more resources than it recovers.
The Mercury News reported Monday that the company, Ontario-based RePlanet, has closed all 284 of its centers.
RePlanet President David Lawrence said the company stopped operating because of increased business costs and falling prices of recycled aluminum and PET plastic.
The move comes three years after RePlanet closed 191 of its recycling centers and laid off almost 300 employees.
