by cberry on Sat Aug 30, 2003 1:04 am
Recycling paper and glass is pretty much a waste of time, first because they are made from nearly infinite resources (commercial forest companies replenish tree stocks, also paper is made from tree "waste" leftover from lumber products, sand, well, no shortage there) and also because the act of recycling is oftentimes enviormentally damaging: the process of recycling paper uses lots of damaging chemicals and bleaches. As far as metals and plastics, they will only be recycled in large quantities when the economic incentives exist; namely, when resources run low. As much as the greens would like to convince us otherwise, resources are cheaper and more available than ever. Good natured people can recycle as much as they please, but its not until the producers start prefering recycled inputs that plastics, metals, etc will be actively collected.