Michelle Malkin mentioned an article by John Tierney entitled "Recycling Is Garbage," but did not (accurately) link to it. A quick search on google found it here. I am not able to tell how accurate it is, but it is wonderfully politically incorrect, and very much in accordance with common sense. I am thus finding myself influenced by it to more strongly support a position I previously held on other reports. I have heard at some point that in Fairfax County at least, our recycling efforts produce more material to be recycled than the recycling centers can handle, and so the excess is diverted to landfills anyway. Given that, what is the point of the extra effort and hassle of recycling? But this piece goes beyond that, talking about the web of government and media action that has led to our current recycling mania. It isn't cost efficient, it isn't necessary, and it isn't helping. Any number of interesting quotes here.
Plastic packaging and fast-food containers may seem wasteful, but they actually save resources and reduce trash. The typical household in Mexico City buys fewer packaged goods than an American household, but it produces one third more garbage, chiefly because Mexicans buy fresh foods in bulk and throw away large portions that are unused, spoiled or stale. Those apples in Dittersdorf's slide, protected by plastic wrap and foam, are less likely to spoil. The lightweight plastic packaging requires much less energy to manufacture and transport than traditional alternatives like cardboard or paper. Food companies have switched to plastic packaging because they make money by using resources efficiently. A typical McDonald's discards less than two ounces of garbage for each customer served-less than what's generated by a typical meal at home.
Plastic packaging is routinely criticized because it doesn't decay in landfills, but neither does most other packaging, as William Rathje, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona, has discovered from his excavations of landfills. Rathje found that paper, cardboard and other organic materials-while technically biodegradable-tend to remain intact in the airless confines of a landfill. These mummified materials actually use much more landfill space than plastic packaging, which has steadily been getting smaller as manufacturers develop stronger, thinner materials. Juice cartons take up half the landfill space occupied by the glass bottles they replaced; 12 plastic grocery bags fit in the space occupied by one paper bag.
"I don't understand why anyone thinks New York City has a garbage crisis because it can't handle all its own waste," says James DeLong, an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington. "With that kind of logic, you'd have to conclude that New York City has a food crisis because it can't grow all the vegetables its people need within the city limits, so it should turn Central Park into a farm and ration New Yorkers' consumption of vegetables to what they can grow there."
And much much more, providing numbers and numerous examples of the flaws of the recycling mentality, the only thing lacking is the thing that defines the difference between an opinion piece for a news paper and a research article, he doesn't really provide the references or citations for his numbers and examples, you are left to trust to his unknown level of integrity. This article is a very interesting read that I highly recommend.
Update 20050301-1412: Michelle Malkin now links to the same page I do :-)