That was a good article. It seems to me that recycling costs could be brought down to a sane level. That single stream method looks like a good place to start. With efforts like that, we should be able to get economies of scale working. I’d recycle once that happened.

Jon, I don’t see how your argument re cost-effectiveness makes sense as a producer of recyclable waste. You’re never going to get paid for your recyclable waste, so it’s never going to be cost effective for you. People like us recycle because we don’t want to have a toxic landscape. It’s the people that process the recyclables and purchase the recycled materials that care about the cost effectiveness.

It may not save me any money personally (aside from the handful of dollars Valparaiso would have charged), but when companies spend less money on energy to recycle than what would be required to create new products, I think that’s when recycling has become “worth it”. We’re not just talking about landfills, but also energy consumption, right? I just don’t want to support a process that doesn’t actually have a better effect on the environment. It sounds like it may eventually get there, though.

I don’t hate our environment, Nathanael. I just want my actions to have some kind of effect. One argument that makes sense to me is that the more people recycle, the more effective it becomes. So even if it’s not there yet, it will have to be once enough people recycle. I’m convinced recycling can work. In fact, I believe I’ve convinced myself it’s worth doing now, even though the benefits (right now) are negligible.

Jon, I know you don’t hate the environment, but I do think that recycling now can effect a remarkable change. From the Economist article, “Extracting metals from ore, in particular, is extremely energy-intensive. Recycling aluminium, for example, can reduce energy consumption by as much as 95%. Savings for other materials are lower but still substantial: about 70% for plastics, 60% for steel, 40% for paper and 30% for glass. Recycling also reduces emissions of pollutants that can cause smog, acid rain and the contamination of waterways.”