Economic Downturn May Direct Your Recyclables to the Landfill Afterall
My boyfriend and I have developed a division of labor in our house. He drinks the beer and I recycle the bottles. Alright, that is a simplified version of our organizational structure, but it is true that I am the consummate recycler in our “family.”
That's not me...
I learned to be a good recycler from my grandparents, by whom I was raised. Back then, you had to clean out tins and remove the labels, soak glass jars so the glue would release those labels, and you even had to bundle your newspapers up with string. It was a lot of work, but it seemed important. As recycling has become easier, more and more items are recyclable and my pantry fills up quite quickly, necessitating more trips to a local recycler that handles whatever my curbside service doesn’t.
To be perfectly honest, however, I am starting to question my commitment to recycling. Perhaps other urban ecoists are starting to feel the same way. I am starting to become more and more pessimistic about the state of the world and where it is headed, but despite my doubt over whether or not my recyclables are really going to make a difference, I still find that I just cannot toss plastic in the trash.
And then, I start seeing reports that the recycled materials market is bottoming out.
In West Virginia, an official of Kanawha County, which includes Charleston, the state capital, has called on residents to stockpile their own plastic and metals, which the county mostly stopped taking on Friday. In eastern Pennsylvania, the small town of Frackville recently suspended its recycling program when it became cheaper to dump than to recycle. In Montana, a recycler near Yellowstone National Park no longer takes anything but cardboard.
There are no signs yet of a nationwide abandonment of recycling programs. But industry executives say that after years of growth, the whole system is facing an abrupt slowdown.
Sigh.
Jodi Hilton for the NY Times
recycling, recycle, recyclables, recycled materials, economic downturn, slowdown, economy, glass, plastic, newspaper
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