American recycling is stalling, and the big blue bin is one reason why

Washington Post via MSN ^ | 6/20/15 | Aaron C. Davis

[RipSawyer]

Just another proof that we live in an asylum without a roof.

[bert]

strangely believe it, but the recycling dis advantage for plastics has widened. Cheap gas makes plastics cheaper as the feed stock is more abundant ant less expensive.

Aluminum cans are a different matter.

I don’t think glass recycling was ever cost efficient especially since the market for glass containers is declining

I do not understand the economics of businesses recycling paper

[Norseman]

>>No matter how bad the kooks want it, The ONLY things worth home recycling are aluminum ... and electronics .... Period. Everything else is just for show. There is no shortage of sand for glass and trees for paper. These things are wildly energy-negative to recycle.<<

You might be exactly right, or you might be wrong on say, cardboard paper. I don’t know.

I do know, however, that if we would let the price mechanism work it would tell us. If no one’s paying for it, it’s not worth recycling. In fact, it’s then more likely that the act of recycling is using more resources than land-filling or burning in an incinerator.

Plus, if the pricing mechanism were relied upon, the material flow would adjust to changes in demand. If the price of aluminum cans fell, less would be recycled.

I once explained this position to a liberal and his response was an incredulous “So, you’ll only recycle something if you get paid for it?” to which my response was “Exactly.”

We just don’t trust markets anymore in this country, even though market prices are the most reliable indicators of value that man has ever developed. No single person, and certainly no government bureaucracy, can match the performance of market pricing in determining whether it makes economic sense to do something.

[RipSawyer]

When I ran a business back in the eighties there was a period when a man would come and pick up all the empty boxes and haul them away to take to Sonoco products co. He told me he was making about eighty dollars a day which was far more than he could make at any job he could get then. He was actually doing pretty well for a while and then I saw him no more. Someone told me that the market for cardboard was gone.

[ArtDodger]

“The thrust of the article belies that statement”
I would suggest not believing everything you read in an article. Scrap is a tremendously profitable business. Of course, when you put the president’s 6 (or 7) figure salary in the overhead column, they might not show any net income. But if one believes that, than it should be no problem taking the Clinton’s at their word that they are ‘dirt poor’.

[Balding_Eagle]

Scrap is a tremendously profitable business.

True, but only for a very small portion of the 'recyclables'.

The rest has to be gotten rid of, and often at a loss. That's why glass and paper are practically worthless.

[Balding_Eagle]

See post 43 and 44, the ones right above yours.

[hinckley buzzard]

In the 50's beer and soda bottles were all returnable for two cents apiece. As kids we scoured alleyways and trash cans for bottles to scavenge. Nonreturnable bottles and pop-top cans came onto the market about the turn of the decade and a tidy little source of pocket change for us kids disappeared. Needless to say, litter soared.

[Does so]

The ONLY things worth home recycling are aluminum

Miami went to tall, covered, bins when immigrants would precede collection trucks, and pick out all the aluminum cans from the shorter bins. :-\