“Some people throw away batteries and other electronics that contain all sorts of nasties (arsenic, heavy metals). I try to recycle whatever I can. Why not, it can only help.”
Where I live, if I throw something nasty into the garbage it goes about 20 miles and ends up in a state-of-the-art lined landfill where nothing decomposes, nothing leaks out, etc. (At least for a few hundred years I suppose with the liners, clay, etc.)
If I send a nasty something to the recyling box at the office supply store it gets on a truck and/or train to the nearest port. Goes on a container ship to China. Gets on a truck/train where it ends up in some village where the kids wearing flip flops and maybe a rag over their nose burn the plastics and casings off to get to the useful parts. Discarding the bits and pieces behind their shack and the into the contaminated ditch.
So yes - it could hurt.
"If I send a nasty something to the recyling box at the office supply store it gets on a truck and/or train to the nearest port. Goes on a container ship to China. Gets on a truck/train where it ends up in some village where the kids wearing flip flops and maybe a rag over their nose burn the plastics and casings off to get to the useful parts. Discarding the bits and pieces behind their shack and the into the contaminated ditch."
I saw Charlton Heston in Soilent Green about a month ago. I saw Wally last week. We're just about there... God help us.