Recycling = teh bullshit

Where did you pull all of this from? Prove my argument wrong before telling me what I'm thinking.

 

That's if you assume that every truck is full when it reaches it's depot... And that ignores the resources required in the actuall manufacturing and maintenance of said trucks.

 

Recycling is not the problem, its the tipe of energy we use in the prosses thats the problem.

 

people in this thread have already told you but you're not open to hearing it .

 

You make it sound as if I'm wanting to destroy the planet.

My whole argument was that there were more eco-friendly alternatives to recycling. We waste alot of time, money and resources on recycling materials that we could easily be reusing or not consuming in the first place.

 

I think a better answer would be to stop consuming, not stop recycling. I see full blue boxes out there every week at some houses.....ours goes out once a month for a family of four. Stop buying pre-packaged crap and start cooking real food. Some stuff comes with an outer wrapping, a box, and 2 or 3 inner wrappings. Stop buying soda, it's garbage for your body anyway....
I see ads for new disposable goods all the time...it's disgusting. Throw away dust rags, throw away wash cloths, ever heard of laundry? That's one step away from Paris Hilton and her wear-it-once habit...

 

If the logging and waste disposal industries were operated primarily by environmentally-conscious persons, perhaps these arguments would hold water. Unfortunately, the aformentioned industries are driven primarily by the profit motive rather than the goal of sustainability. Kalle Lasn's Culture Jam provides an excellent example: a Canadian logging company and the (supposedly progressive, at least better than the US) Canadian government worked together to squelch an ad campaign that would reveal the logging industries abuse of the land and flagrant disregard for environmental regulations. In an ideal world, all paper companies would carefully consider the effect of each tree they cut on the ecosystem as a whole. Unfortunately, we don't live in such a world. The need for these companies to sustain a profit drives the pace of business faster and faster, an operating procedure which is the antithesis of meditated, cautious, and environmentally-sensitive use of resources. Furthermore, the regulatory agencies entrusted with enforcement of logging and waste disposal regulations are continually at odds with the influence of business on some politicians. Former NJ governor Christine Whitman (granted, not the best environmental steward herself) resigned a few years ago from her post as head of the EPA, citing the impossibility of environmental progress due to George Bush's ties to the oil and other industries.

Psilonaut, I agree with you that numerous problems exist with our current methods of recycling. Elizabeth Royte's Garbage: On the Secret Trail of Trash goes into greater depth on the issue, as well as the less-than-idyllic practices of the "new" landfills in which you place a lot of faith. However, there are some advantages to our current recycling system. For one, the trucks used to transport recycled goods are technically a form of public transport; instead of individuals and families each using their cars to transport recyclables to a recycling center, the trucks are gathering recyclables from many families at a time. Diesel is a pollutant, but the gas mileage of diesel engines far exceeds most standard engines.

As in any issue, there are numerous arguments and facets to the issue of recycling. For now, at least the widespread popularity of recycling keeps environmental issues in the periphery of "everyday Americans" and others for whom such causes are not a primary concern.