| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 97 09:41 WET From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Doesn t recycling have problems too? (Peter)
January 10, 1997
Dear Peter,
Of course. A close reading of some of the answers I ve given to other questionners will give a thumb-nail sketch of some of those problems.
I ll list the major ones that I can think of right now, below:
1. Lack of markets for certain materials
2. Lack of developed infrastructure for a completed cycle of recycling, including procurement.
3. Recycling of materials that don t make sense due to prices paid for them, other methods for disposal, geography (it is more rational to dispose of solid waste in landfills - (( shocking horrors recycling-as-religion freeks will say) based on geography.
4. Oversupply and under-demand.
5. Perception -frequently illegitimate, but sometimes legitimage - that the recycled feedstock remanufactured product is in some way inferior to the virgin feedstock product, to such a degree as to overshadow the benefits of recycling.
6. Some things are recycled only to be exported. Are we a global economy or a national economy? Who should recycling benefit? If you are a Fascist, for example, you ll use this as an argument against recycling. A Fascist is an ultra-nationalist who believes that capitalism should regiment society like the governmental military. This will not be a view held by many recyclers.
7. Other political problems enter the recycling equation, too. They themselves become a problem when they masquerade as being scientific questions or economic questions . I d put the article by John Tierney, Recycling Is Garbage (New York Times Sunday Magazine, 1996) in this category as well as many of the anti-recycling articles in The Wall Street Journal. But you should read them for the recycling organized opposition s view.