An alert reader sent me this story from the Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. recycling industry is breaking down.
Prices for scrap paper and plastic have collapsed, leading local officials across the country to charge residents more to collect recyclables and send some to landfills. Used newspapers, cardboard boxes and plastic bottles are piling up at plants that can’t make a profit processing them for export or domestic markets.
“Recycling as we know it isn’t working,” said James Warner, chief executive of the Solid Waste Management Authority in Lancaster County, Pa. “There’s always been ups and downs in the market, but this is the biggest disruption that I can recall.”
Remember when they told us that we needed to recycle because it’s good for the planet? Yeah, well now that they can’t make a buck off of it, they’re telling the planet to go screw itself.
No wonder they’re not picking up the recycling anymore.
And, this comes after years of reports of all kinds of brilliant ideas for recycling. Very strange indeed.
I read an article that that discussed how Sweden or Denmark burned all their trash to produce heat as a means to drive a generator that produced electrical energy.
No problems with pollution.
All that recycling accomplishes is to delay the inevitable disposal…