Should I “Recycle” My “Recycling?”
Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …
I went to the local recycling center last weekend and the bin that held metallic junk was over-flowing with items.
I had an old lawnmower handle I needed to toss on it but I thought for sure it would cause an avalanche of sorts.
It didn’t.
The bins where I tossed my cans, plastics and old magazines in were pretty full, too.
The cardboard recycling units seems to be pretty full, as well.
It’s times like these that I wonder if any of this “stuff’ is actually getting recycled.
So, I did a little research.
Remember 1987 and the Mobro 4000?
That was a garbage barge that travelled up and down the eastern seaboard in search of a landfill where it could get rid of its’ 3,000 tons of New York trash.
It kept getting turned away because the places where they stopped all said they were running out of landfill space and couldn’t handle it.
Eventually, the Mobro 4000 returned to the “Empire State with its’ aromatic load of garbage.
Should’ve been New York’s issue to start.
However, the incident spurred the recycling effort in America.
Recycling programs blossomed.
Curbside pick-up started.
Youngsters were taught to separate green glass from clear glass.
Nearly 50 years later from the “smelly barge” incident, what’s the state of recycling in America?
Is it just a giant placebo?
Less than 10 years after the Mobro 4000 incident, the New York Times magazine ran an article entitled “Recycling is Garbage…There is No Landfill Shortage.”
One calculation I’ve seen claims ALL of the garbage produced in America for the next 1,00 years could fit in a landfill 100 yards deep and 35 miles wide.
Now, “NIMBY” comes into play.
“Not In My Back Yard.”
The United States has 3.5 billion square miles of land.
That big landfill trench would still give us a lot of room and less trash to worry about.
In 2019, FEE (Foundation for Economic Education) said half of all plastic collected in America ended up in landfills.
Is “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle” a boondoggle?
Part of the issue is when we all got our undies in a knot with the 1987 New York garbage barge story, we allowed our leaders to make decisions instead of consumers through the free market.
The additional fleets of recycling vehicles, facilities and necessary products outpaced what communities could recoup in actual savings.
Collection eats up between 50 and 60 percent of recycling budgets.
Now, we’re hearing more and more stories about “microplastics” which will be the hand-wringing worrying point if we don’t keep recycling.
Statistics reveal about 43% of us recycle today.
Those same statistics claim only 21% of residential recyclables actually get recycled.
The Executive Director of Recycle Across America says “recycling has been dysfunctional for a long time”
Others say the “Crisis of 1987” was a false alarm.
But, there are at least 7 states projected to run out of landfill space in the next 5 years and in 60 years, the U.S. will run out of EXISTING landfill space.
“Existing ‘ is a key word when you remember “NIMBY”.
China used to buy a lot of our recyclables.
Not any more.
Now some cities, like Philadelphia burn up to 1/2 of their recyclables in an incinerator and then convert that into energy.
I doubt that Philly incinerator is like the smoky, old thing we used to have in the basement of the home I was raised in Ohio.
Why recycle?
It takes 96% less energy to make recycled cans, 76% for plastic bottles and 21% for recycled glass.
A point on recycled plastic.
Eventually , it gets to a point where plastic recycling ends because the product degrades and with glass, well, there’s no real sand shortage in the world.
Now, the Fosters recycle because we built a convenient storage bin in the garage that we toss those items in.
Our guests know to rinse out their empty cans and bottles before tossing them in the bin to hold down the aroma and bugs.
I’ll even cut up pizza boxes and other cardboard containers which I then mix with my grass clippings in my backyard composter.
Makes for nice soil in our garden and flower plots.
Our little recycling efforts have cut us down to one 55 gallon trash bag a week.
Despite how this ultimately plays out, I’ll recycle because it’s a habit I’ve had for several years.
I also like that rich compost I can toss into our garden areas.
But in these times of DOGE and out of-control national debt, maybe it’s time to consider options.