Recycling a fraud?

[PapayaVagina]

Has anyone seen this? I just ran across it on my journal site, thought it was interesting, not sure how I feel about it.

http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/topics.do?topic=r

[Spookygirl]

I think that they are showing one extreme, and there is the other extreme too, people who recycle nothing. It probably is true, honestly. Of course recycling costs money and uses resources, but it is mostly a good thing. But people can take anything to an undesirable extreme...

[madrone]

I don't have access to it b/c I don't have a US IP. What's it say?

[TiredX2]

The summary:

Here's the truth: recycling is garbage. The recycling industry creates pollution, has to be subsidized by the government because it's cost ineffective, and is completely unnecessary. Contrary to popular belief, our landfills are not running out of space - we have enough room to last for thousands of years! So how did the bullshit of recycling get started?

[LongLiveLife]

It says that recycling creates pollution and is unnecessary, that landfills are not running out of space, and blah blah blah.

[TiredX2]

I honestly didn't understand the point.

Yes, people often make mistakes about what they can recycle and how. In our area at least it has been shown to be more cost effective to just take all the recycling in one container and have someone trained to seperate it at the facility (rather than having multiple containers). I guess I don't undestand the arguement *against* recycling. Is it actually BETTER to have tons of garbage sitting around than to deal with it. And IMO, the "fact" that there is plenty of space to dump it is classist (and in the US, racists as well).

[AngelBee]

I think that they are full of bullshit.

Were are all of these landfills? What happens when we do run out of space?

I will take the lesser of two evils thank you.

[heldt123]

So just because we have the space, we should use it for landfills and create a toxic environment??

[Clarity]

I don't recycle because it's cheaper and more efficient. I do it because it's the right thing to use and reuse existing materials rather than make more. Using more land for landfill, using more natural resources to make virgin material. In our large country, this is cheaper but not right. I expect to pay more, and do so willingly in order to waste less and reuse more.

[TiredX2]

Well said Clarity.

The need for a reward (/financial compensation/etc...) to do *anything* in our society is rather disturbing (Heck, its cheaper to just have a pile of cr$p in the backyard... why not? )

[PapayaVagina]

I'm going to add their disc to my netflix list just to see what kind of crap they're saying, I'm with you guys!

[madrone]

I now understand why they don't want anyone outside of the US looking at their site.

[root*children]

Originally Posted by TiredX2

Heck, its cheaper to just have a pile of cr$p in the backyard... why not?

:LOL

[HerthElde]

Hmmm, I completely disagree with the stance of the article, but I really don't think recycling is an answer - more like a temporary solution. It's not as evil as throwing garbage away, but it DOES cause unneccessary pollution.
Remember the 3R's? Well, most don't bother with reduce or reuse, because recycling makes them feel they're doing enough. They don't take into account that maybe it's better not to buy the soda in cans in the first place. "I recycle, so the impact is negligable", which IS a load of crap. Really, what we should be doing in our quest to reduce garbage output is finding more sustainable alternatives to our throwaway culture in the first place . . .

[madrone]

Originally Posted by HerthElde

Really, what we should be doing in our quest to reduce garbage output is finding more sustainable alternatives to our throwaway culture in the first place . . .

[PapayaVagina]

Well, I've watched their shows and I wish I hadn't wasted space even mentioning it. Their shows are ridiculous and completely inaccurate.