| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 11:00:51 -0400 (EDT) From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Would recycling be beneficial for a healthier environment (Tamar)
April 6, 1999
Dear Tamar,
Recycling is not a direct response to public health issues because public health is as well served by landfilling, waste reduction, and other means such as waste to energy and composting if those are managed in an up-to-regulatory-code way at least in the US. I cannot speak for your country. There is one instance where recycling is a clear, better alternative that I can think of that any of the others: rubber tires. In landfills, they creat public health problems and when incinerated, they can. They can't be composted, and waste reduction doesn't work while we remain a world of private vehicles.
Recycling of tire rubber is a clearly more public health conscious method.
If dirty recyclables are left in storage because of gluts in markets for them, they can become a public health hazard: that is an obvious response.
I guess in the end, the answer is, compared to what and then evaluate each situation for each substance being recycled, in specific comparisons.
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