Righteous Recycling

American Thinker.com ^ | April 28, 2021 | Ron Ross

[Kaslin]

Why should leftists bother to make recycling work when their real objective is reached merely by appearing to practice it?

Recycling is a leftist sacrament. It fulfills emotional needs for Democrats. They suffer deep-seated guilt from participating in a materialistic culture that they think results in widespread environmental harm. For them recycling serves as a kind of visible penance. Unfortunately, recycling leads to unintended consequences.

A recent article in the Eureka, California Times-Standard began as follows:

“The CRV situation in Humboldt County is a losing situation for everyone.

Three major recycling centers in the county have halted all buyback programs for cans, bottles, and glass.

Customers who pay 5 cents per can at the grocery or convenience store have a nearly impossible time getting that fee back.”

“CRV” stands for California Refund Value. Two out of three of those words are bogus. Refunds have almost ceased and recyclables have little or no value. The program, however, epitomizes California.

Californians are the truest believers in recycling. Over the decades the state has passed laws that use both force and bribery to increase recycling obedience. One such law pertains to glass, plastic, aluminum cans, and bottles. It requires merchants who sell beverages to charge customers an extra 5 cents for containers up to 24 ounces and 10 cents for containers above 24 ounces.

[Irenic]

All the green crud is legal theft.

[albie]

Drive thru window at my bank asks you to go paperless, go green and have your receipt texted.

Then it says “press yes” for info on a low interest loan. About 2 feet of paper comes streaming out.

[BobL]

I recycle because it makes me feel superior to my neighbors here in Texas.

[ronniesgal]

i’m a lousy recycler- maybe fill the can 1ce a month.
My trash company gets $$ from my rinsing and shredding so i am pretty lazy about it.

[woodbutcher1963]

The only things that should be recycled are cardboard, glass, aluminum cans and steel/tin cans.
All of these have a value depending on the amount of trucking freight to wherever someone will buy them.

Plastics are the real issue. There is virtually no market for them other than composite decking, polywood furniture and a few other uses.

Most locations are better off burning it. Wheelabrator Technologies runs an incinerator here in NH that burns all of our trash. They run commercials on the radio and TV with this catchy jingle: “don’t put mercury in the trash”.

[ridesthemiles]

USPS receipts are no better....way too long

[ridesthemiles]

I repurpose many items...but I don’t recycle. It costs more than they are willing to tell the public.

[BlackAdderess]

Ask yourself this, how much recycling would be necessary if we did not have to design plastic packaging to be strong enough to withstand travel halfway around the world?

Don’t like micro-plastics? Then cease and desist with shipping finished consumer goods halfway around the world. Even recycling that plastic into fabrics etc contributes to the problem, shedding plastic that ends up in our food chain every time you wash them.

Don’t want to flood the world with single use plastic packaging? Then reshore and produce in the country where you sell.

[palmer]

For all practical purposes, recycling has ceased. It simply is no longer economically viable. Supply and demand have turned against it. The price paid for recyclables is below zero, i.e. you have to pay to get someone to take it off your hands. As is the case with ethanol fuel, recycling can only thrive by way of coercion or taxpayer-funded subsidies.

I know a lib who recycles every shred of foil, mylar candy bar wrappers, bottle caps, foam, and other assorted trash. I keep telling him that becsuse of his trash, everybody else's recycling is being sent to the landfill because it is contaminated. But he doesn't get it. Liberalism is a brain disorder.

[themidnightskulker]

I quit recycling when I found out the city was charging me $20/ month and sending my recyclables to the same landfill as my regular garbage. It should be a crime.

[Savage Rider]

Twenty years ago in Oregon I had a discussion with a grocery cashier about the Return Value being a mirage to support recycling efforts. Recycling will never work large scale because it is economically unsupportable. If you want to burn your old newspapers and grocery bags in your fireplace for winter warmth, that repurposing works. Home cleaning and sorting, massive trucks to retrieve and deliver household loads, and barges to send loads to China are expensive overhead costs. What can be recycled locally into recovered raw materials costs more than original raw materials. What is sent to China is dumped into rivers and ends up as floating garbage islands in the Pacific Ocean, where charities recover the trash and make it into Recycling Virtue Jewelry. Our HOA discontinued the recycling program because the vendor who did the pickup straight up told them they were taking it to the local trash dump because there was no where else to take it.

[Hurst Mama]

I live in Texas too and my county (Tarrant) picks up the recycle material once a week. My water bill is high enough as it is and I don’t want to add to it by using water to rinse out glass and plastic jars and bottles so those go to the trash can instead of the recycle can.

[zeugma]

The only thing that really makes sense to recycle from an economic standpoint is aluminum. If you live in a state with paper mills, cardboard might make sense, but not much. You're actually better off using it for fuel.

[Harpotoo]

I thought the PRCs stopped accepting our trash we sent them to recycle? And I thought I read they are/were just dumping the crap into the ocean.

[BitWielder1]

It can not possibly be cost effective to have millions of people spend an hour or more every week to sort their trash.