The only recycling that makes sense economically is metals recycling. And you know what? It has been going on for at least several hundred years for common metals and for thousands of years for precious metals like gold and silver. Let me add that industrial recycling works in some situations. You have a factory that produces plastic scrap that is pretty pure and only one kind of plastic, it pays to re-use it. And quite often that re-use happens inside the factory that creates the scrap. The shipping costs are minimal.
So what is the best thing to do with the stuff (other than metals) that you used to recycle? Send it to the dump. Yep the dump. If it ever becomes economically useful we can mine the dumps.
And what about all that paper waste? Newspapers, Time Magazine, etc. Easy. Don’t buy them. Because – other than technical magazines and newspapers – they are full of pollutants that will foul your mind.
H/T Jason Pye
Cross Posted at Power and Control
Comments
6 responses to “The Recycling Gris Gris”
I got to thinking long term on this, and I started to wonder; what sorts of minerals would millions of years of heat and pressure produce from plastics and paper? Seeing as both are carbon based; would we get coal or even diamond?
This entry made me think about how I spent so many years trying NOT to throw away my magazines. The Scientific Americans gave way to the Harvard Business Reviews which gave way to Architectural Digests which gave way finally to Better Homes and Gardens and Bon Appetit, both of which are currently offering two for one annual subscriptions for twenty bucks. Of course there were many others in the middle, including Time, which frankly proliferated at a rate that was better compared to the sex life of a cockroach than to news.
Magazine subscriptions we chose might just be a metaphor for the lives we led, and STILL lead…except for all this internet “stuff” that google seems to have a handle on. Is anyone tracking our “snail mail”?
This is wonderful fodder for psychologists, sociologists, and dare I call them…”those who need to be in touch”?
Personally? I am with Simon here. Have you hugged your scientist today? He or she may turn out to be the only thing between you, your junk mail, your bills and that landfill.
The above was brought to you by anonymous Penny. Soon at a theater near you.
Whorrothelt makes as much sense as the enviro-nazis.
Penn was dead wrong about one thing: not everybody thinks recycling is a good thing. I’ve always thought it was a wasteful indulgence foisted upon us by the wealthy society.
Mike Munger on recycling is good here.
Most all the Munger podcasts are entertaining. Try also eg. fair trade and price gouging.
If you want to spend an interesting evening learning about trash, read William Rathje and Cullen Murphy’s “Rubbish: The Archaeology of Garbage.” Rathje, a university archaeologist, dug up some of our landfills and found out a great deal of interesting stuff, especially about recycling.