Posted on 06/15/2007 1:43:56 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Recycling worsens global warming
Chris Mellor
June 4, 2007
Fancy some contrary thinking? Try this; if you want to save the planet from global warming, don't recycle.
There is lots of muddled thinking around global warming. The UK government is proposing to have all goods marked with a carbon index to indicate their friendliness or antipathy to global warming. The index would measure the amount of carbon emitted during the goods' manufacture and whether it can be recycled or not.
Recycled? What has that got to do with global warming? My instinctive reaction was: none. Why on earth should sticking broken disk drives and keyboards in landfill have anything at all to do with global warming? It was suggested to me that if the they could be repaired then new ones wouldn't have to be made, thus saving energy. Sounds feasible but that argument goes away when you think about it.
Disk drives, keyboards, etc. are made on highly efficient production lines. Disk drive and keyboard repairs are carried out by individuals at a workbench and take time, time in which their electric lights are switched on, their office is heated or cooled and their diagnostic equipment uses electricity. Recycling is not free in a carbon emissions sense.
In fact, thinking about recycling of goods and manufacturers taking them back, it sounds good again but ...
- The goods to be recycled have to be collected and transported to the recycling point, meaning energy is used and fuel burnt.
- The goods have to be un-manufactured, meaning more energy is used.
- The recovered components have to be collected, sorted, stored and transported to wherever they are going to be re-used, meaning more energy use.
Looked at this way recycling is no way to reduce global warming. In fact, by increasing energy use, it worsens it.
GreenPeace and Friends of the Earth would want us to increase recycling rates, as does the EEC, because .... well why? Okay, waste is a shame and Chinese tearing computer components apart by hand and smelting them for precious metals releases hazardous substances in the air but ....
The said Chinese are recycling keyboards and chassis, etc. So improve the way they do it to cut hazardous emissions and that sorts out the hazardous substance pollution. But we're still left with the point that recycling has nothing to do with stopping global warming.
There will be, I'm convinced, much conflating of global warming and recycling and hazardous substance pollution into an overall warm and friendly fuzzy green case. But warm and friendly fuzziness is no friend to clear, rational decision-making. Recycle if you want to recycle. Support the quasi-moral crusades against waste and landfill if that's your bag. But realise what you are doing and don't conflate recycling with global warming. Think chalk and cheese. In fact it's worse than two separate issues as the one affects the other.
Recycling has an energy cost and - it's as clear as night and day isn't it? - because of that recycling accelerates global warming. If you want to save the planet from global warming, don't recycle.
The unintended consequences of militant radical quasi-religious environmentalism.
Don’t forget the energy efficient light bulbs. I wonder how many homes will end up with high background mercury levels in the future. Unfortunately, I’ve got two in my home (got them before the mercury info came out) - the last two I’ll ever buy.
I don’t believe in man-caused globull wrming, so this is hard to believe.
Looked at this way recycling is no way to reduce global warming. In fact, by increasing energy use, it worsens it.Well, duh. Recycling only barely made sense when energy was cheap and the costs of recovery were cheaper than the costs of discovery. Neither is the case anymore. Recovery and reclamation costs have soared as the costs of energy have soared.
I think the commentator is just playing devil’s advocate by accepting the premise of the global baloney “chicken littles” and then takes that premise, along with recycling, to its logical end.
Glass I'm not so sure about.
Cardboard and plastic? Other than making companies look good by putting "90% recycled content" on their package, and making hippies feel good about themselves....I can't see how this is a resource saver, or a money maker.
I have 6 of them but I haven’t got up the nerve to remove them and get them out!!! If I concentrate on not dropping one, guess what will happen? Oh yes....HAZMAT HELP ME!!!!!
If it were economically feasible to do those noble things you speak of, why are recycling programs subsidized by government?
The entire point of Global Warming is to create a political mythology that allows the politcal elite to dictate the terms of human existence.
I think that a lot of recycling is not for energy conservation, etc. but just to reduce the pressure on landfills. We Americans dump huge amounts of trash, and many cities have major problems getting rid of it.
What about when the Federal Government bans incandescent bulbs?
I know. If they try to do it, I’ll be stocking up (of course, a lot of us will be). When they run out, candles! ;-p
I love it when one piece of enviromentalist wacko BS bumps into another. It confuses the poor dears so.
Apparently, there's not enough demand for reclycing. Or perhaps a cheap technology to recycle still is not there. It doesn't mean we have to go against recycle.
Why ? might be a better question.
If it doesn't save energy, doesn't save water, uses more resources, and people have to be forced to do it through regulations, then why do it ?
I'm against mindlessness.
Perhaps so that it doesn’t fill the landfill?
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