[KevO]

yes, we've been had again!
Recycling has nothing to do with saving the planet. It has all to do with big bucks, so much so that these waste management corps want us to keep on 'recycling' aka consuming and discarding.

Kerbside collecions in the UK collect Glass, Paper and Cans, bottle tops, Jar lids and Foil - the latter few being aka metal.
Some collect plastic and card as well but they only do that if there is money to be made by that particular council. There is no other motivation for recycling. This practice is nearly Europe wide.
Laws are being brought in even to make sure you don't throw these [s]recyclables[/s] - money making products into a general trash bin.
In the north of England they have started putting microchips into wheelie bins.

Microchips capable of assessing the weight of rubbish thrown out by each household have been quietly fitted to thousands of wheelie bins, it emerged yesterday. A string of local councils have distributed bins that can transmit information to a central database about the disposal practices of individual families.

The penny-sized microchips, first revealed by the Guardian in February, are placed in the lip of the bin and can be scanned as it is tipped into a dustcart to allow council officials to assess how many bins their refuse collectors have emptied, and to tell them apart in case of neighbour disputes. But the technology could be used more fully in the future.

The Guardian

Thing is, rather than leave tins etc in your curb side box, take them to the scrap yard yourself and be paid! Better still, go ahead of the recycling lorries and collect all the other cans from the thousands of boxes before they do. It's not illegal and will pay more than a 'proper' job.

We're being scammed, big time, in the name of the environment.
just google 'recycling is a scam'

[Typo]

You're surprised that it's big business? People are going to consume the amount they consume regardless of encouragement from recycling companies; why not recycle it, if we're going to use it anyways? Did you really expect people to devote their careers to the recycling industry out of the good of their hearts? Profits and money will drive an industry further than the goodness of someone's heart.

This is similar to the silly arguments made against Pickens' plan. Who gives a damn if the man's going to make a profit? His plan, or something akin to it, is needed. He will be able to take the plan further if he's making a profit from it than he would be able to it by just spending money endlessly.

Someone once told the motivational guru Zig Ziglar that it must be wonderful to have "the number one goal of making people's lives better." Ziglar responded that his number one goal was NOT to make people's lives better; his number one goal was to make a profit. Without a profit, he wouldn't be able to run his business, employ his employees, travel to speaking engagements, etc. - in other words, making a profit allows him to do what he enjoys the most: making people's lives better.

By the same token, the recycling industry would go nowhere if it weren't for profit and "big bucks." I suggest you read Atlas Shrugged.

[KevO]

I think you're missing my points which are, in the UK, we are about to lose our choice whether we recycle or not and we already have to pay a proportion of a compulsory council tax for it to be collected whether we have it collected or not and then the same stuff is sold on.

My points are,
1/ we should have a choice and only pay tax for it to be collected if we actually have it collected.
2/ we should be re-numerated for sorting, sifting and cleaning it for collection - things we are compelled to do by the council we pay.
3/ we should recycle more purely by selling it ourselves direct to the scrap yards.
The third one we can all do when we want to.

It has nothing to do with saving the planet - that may be a bi product but if there was no money in recycling then recycling would not happen regardless of Goreism

[JJ]

grocery bags have increased astronomically in price. Selling the customer a "green" reuseable bag made in China makes the store money while saving in overhead. Win/win for the store, plus the amerikan gets to "feel good" about saving the enviroment.

[coyote]

Reduce - Reuse - Recycle. Means:

First: Reduce. Use less stuff.

Then: Reuse. The stuff you have to use, use again if you can.

Finally, if you can't do that: Recycle. Change the stuff you use and can't reuse into other usable stuff.

People have largely forgotten about the first two and just jump to the third. But there may come a time when stuff is so expensive that it becomes economically worthwhile for families and businesses to keep and reuse stuff instead of giving it away or throwing it away. Then the recycling industry will be "reduced" to scrounging in landfills for the stuff people used to discard.

I think recycling is worthwhile. But it's not as good as we can be. Use less stuff. Reuse what you can. Recycle as a last option.

[dohboi]

What coyote said. Of course some kind of recycling is crucial. But those who only recylce and think that this amounts to anything are fooling themselves.

I read a stat, half tongue in cheek, that so far recycling has diverted (some single digit) percentage of trash from land fills, but has diverted 75% of all consumer guilt from doing more important actions.

[pedalling_faster]

i see one benefit to the current system in the US & Canada - $$ for people on limited income, who are willing to work.

i had a seat on the 50 yard line a few months ago. some local guys, who appeared to be homeless, came by and went through my neighbors garbage cans looking for cans, bottles, etc.

they were better behaved than some of my neighbors ! they spent about a half hour poking through the garbage. cleaned up all the mess they made. went on their way with a few extra bucks worth of recycle-able objects.

very well mannered. just wish i had video-taped them, might have been a mini-classic.

[Javaman]

Reduce - Reuse - Recycle. Means:

First: Reduce. Use less stuff.

Then: Reuse. The stuff you have to use, use again if you can.

Finally, if you can't do that: Recycle. Change the stuff you use and can't reuse into other usable stuff.

People have largely forgotten about the first two and just jump to the third. But there may come a time when stuff is so expensive that it becomes economically worthwhile for families and businesses to keep and reuse stuff instead of giving it away or throwing it away. Then the recycling industry will be "reduced" to scrounging in landfills for the stuff people used to discard.

I think recycling is worthwhile. But it's not as good as we can be. Use less stuff. Reuse what you can. Recycle as a last option.

The recycling companies seem to want us to work for free by sorting out recyclables for them, they get any profits, and we still pay to have garbage collected. To get people to reduce, reuse, recycle you need to give them real incentives.

Maybe the garbage bins could be sized by the amount of garbage each household actually generates. Someone who produces only a few pounds of garbage each week gets free garbage collection, but the garbage must fit into a very small bin. If you require a medium sized bin, you pay for collection. If you need the largest bin, you pay a premium price. You reduce the size of the bin that you need by putting recycled materials into separate bins.

[oxj]

In our county, it is annually reported how much money is made from recycling, along with a deduction of how much is paid for landfill service for that which are not recycled. The difference is then paid by each county resident.

Last year our total trash bill was $30.00. This low bill encourages us to comply with recycling.

We may take our trash to one of several transfer stations at two appointed times per week. In practice, though, we visit as infrequently as once a month, to save gas. At the transfer station each citizen sorts his waste into various containers. At home, we presort for an efficient time at the transfer station. The trash gestappo actively pick through the piles, scolding citizens, and reclassifying items.

Indeed, I don't believe there is a better solution. In addition, we do save our metals to be reused, rewrought and reforged at home or, for example, in the case of aluminum, collected and sold to a scrapper.

[Ludi]

I recently learned that many "recycled" electronics are sent to other countries where the equipment is taken apart under unsafe conditions in which the workers are exposed to toxic materials.

[americandream]

I think you're missing my points which are, in the UK, we are about to lose our choice whether we recycle or not and we already have to pay a proportion of a compulsory council tax for it to be collected whether we have it collected or not and then the same stuff is sold on.

My points are,
1/ we should have a choice and only pay tax for it to be collected if we actually have it collected.
2/ we should be re-numerated for sorting, sifting and cleaning it for collection - things we are compelled to do by the council we pay.
3/ we should recycle more purely by selling it ourselves direct to the scrap yards.
The third one we can all do when we want to.

It has nothing to do with saving the planet - that may be a bi product but if there was no money in recycling then recycling would not happen regardless of Goreism

Consider the fuel demands of 10 recyclers making their way, each with 2 bags of recyclables, to a recycling depot, wherever that may be, as opposed to one recycler conveying all 20 bags.

Once again you make the mistake of applying free market logic to the use of finite and common resources. We have no other option than to dispense with the free market and consumerism and embrace hard marxism. The resulting societal needs will have to be centralised and rigorously monitored to ensure that we get the maximum use out of every morsel of a commodity.

But creating little centres of recycling in each household. Whats to stop each one of these centres then taking on the attributes you are currently deploring. Can you imagine....whole hosts of recyclers entirely driven by profit and each trying to out manouevre the other in engendering the creation of profitable waste. That would be a cornucopian nightmare.

[CarlosFerreira]

In our county, it is annually reported how much money is made from recycling, along with a deduction of how much is paid for landfill service for that which are not recycled. The difference is then paid by each county resident.

Last year our total trash bill was $30.00. This low bill encourages us to comply with recycling.

We may take our trash to one of several transfer stations at two appointed times per week. In practice, though, we visit as infrequently as once a month, to save gas. At the transfer station each citizen sorts his waste into various containers. At home, we presort for an efficient time at the transfer station. The trash gestappo actively pick through the piles, scolding citizens, and reclassifying items.

Indeed, I don't believe there is a better solution. In addition, we do save our metals to be reused, rewrought and reforged at home or, for example, in the case of aluminum, collected and sold to a scrapper.

Where do you live? Switzerland? Sounds like a really interesting end effective way of doing things. I once had a Swiss teacher, and she described a similar system. I liked the idea.

At home, I have an uphill, everyday battle with my family to recycle. Just last Friday, the trash collection bill from the City Council came: some €2,00, and mom and dad said they weren't recycling anymore, that they wouldn't be charged and still separate the trash and have the effort to take it down the road to recycling. Luckily, they were just teasing me, they love to see me defend recycling.

Reduce, that's the way forward. Reuse is important as well, and I'm glad we can all do it with profit. As for recycling, of course it's a business! How else would there be money available to invest in more recycling plants, campaigns and stuff? Perhaps it will sometime in the near future become mainstream, as people jump aboard, and all us, early adopters, will be disgusted that the lame people, often called J6P, are hopping up our prized, feel-good ritual of separating glass bottles from cereal boxes to save our beloved mother Earth.

[Starvid]

How are we supposed to heat our homes if we don't partition the crappy crap out of the trash before we energy-recycle it?

And having some company take all my trash away free of charge sounds like a good deal to me. If anyone disagrees he can keep his trash in his home til it flows out the windows... or start his own trash collection and recycling company.

[nobodypanic]

I suggest you read Atlas Shrugged.

and then recycle it as the garbage it is.

[idiom]

At my business school, they outlined that the best possible business model was to invent a widget or service and then have the Government mandate that everyone has to buy it and buy it from you.

Easy money.