Reprehensible Recycling As far as 13 million years ago, humans have recycled. Archaeologists find evidence that our ancestors reused flint and bone in the tools they wielded (David). Fast forward from then and recycling is still incorporated into our society. In the 1970s Donald Sanderson, a former city councilman in Woodbury New Jersey, led the effort to make recycling mandatory (Poncavage). Even today people think that a 100% recycled society is a great thing, but is it? Recycling in America is not the good thing it’s made out to be, because it’s inefficient, and sometimes does more harm than good. We need to come up with a better way to deal with the immense waste that we produce by abandoning the unrealistic zero waste goal and improving our trash system. On the surface the phrase “reduce, reuse, and recycle” may seem like a sensible call to action, but the reality is the cost of recycling sometimes outweighs the benefits (Shughart). Then why do so many people think that recycling is the good thing to do? Our ancestors recycled to save energy and materials (David). We, however, recycle because we feel guilty
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Bill Moore, a leading industry consultant on recycling stated, “We kind of got everyone thinking that recycling was free, [but] it’s never really been free, and in fact, it’s getting more expensive” (Davis). It is typically more expensive for municipalities to recycle household waste than to send it to a landfill (Tierney). Recycling centers have to pay to have trash taken to the landfill every day (Davis). Since Politicians are putting out bigger and bigger bins consumers are filling them, with more trash. So much trash in fact, that a recent audit on Waste Management in the District of Columbia, revealed that the share of the city’s profit for selling recyclables had plummeted by 50%. The DC council gave 1.3 million to waste management with a profit of only 398 thousand
Bill Moore, a leading industry consultant on recycling stated, “We kind of got everyone thinking that recycling was free, [but] it’s never really been free, and in fact, it’s getting more expensive” (Davis). It is typically more expensive for municipalities to recycle household waste than to send it to a landfill (Tierney). Recycling centers have to pay to have trash taken to the landfill every day (Davis). Since Politicians are putting out bigger and bigger bins consumers are filling them, with more trash. So much trash in fact, that a recent audit on Waste Management in the District of Columbia, revealed that the share of the city’s profit for selling recyclables had plummeted by 50%. The DC council gave 1.3 million to waste management with a profit of only 398 thousand