I just came across this article. I think it gives an even better argument than the first does. It’s a highly reasoned, conservative and even handed treatise on why recycling makes little to no economic sense and how we’ve been lulled through some level of fraud into believing that it’s good, no matter what the cost.
Let me know what you think of it.
My daughter asked me once why we don't recycle. I said, "It is not economical for me to waste my time to sort through what I throw away, so that someone else can make a profit off of my work. If they want me to recycle, they need to make it worth my effort."
Read through both articles, and they do go into detail, especially the second one.
I don’t believe in the stupid ‘zero-waste’ thing it talks about, and I agree that recycling for recycling’s sake is pointless. But, and as the article points out, some materials are worth recycling - especially metals. Landfill space may be cheap, but long term that’s not a good solution. And recycling basic things - paper, metal, glass, plastic is pretty easy for people to do. As it’s economical to do so.
Something I didn’t see anywhere in the article is stuff that doesn’t go in the recycling bin - oils, chemicals, paint, electronics. Most of those are recycled separately, and there are companies that do this, Autozone takes your oil for free, and used computer parts stores generally will accept old electronics. Stuff like this that that article didn’t look at does tilt the equation a bit more towards recycling being a good and economic choice.
And, we did’t get much into the better recycling term - reuse. I’ll save some jars for the workbench, useful for screws and bolts and stuff. Gallon jugs are used for oil changes. Stuff like that.