Is this true about recycling?

[MiataGirl]

http://www.xmission.com/~maddox/enviro.html

While this guy isn't exactly..the most trusthworthy source out there, this doesn't seem to be something he'd make up out of nowhere.

Recycling is just not economically feasible. It takes more fossil fuels and toxic chemicals to break down plastic than it does to create it! Aluminum is not even used enough to make recycling it worth while (there's plenty of it to go around), while recycling paper also uses up fossil fuels and requires nasty chemicals.

 

[AzNmAnJLH]

You must know him personally to have that much faith in his words.

 

[gopunk]

this guy is a dumbass. it is common knowledge that aluminum is much much much cheaper recycled.

 

[dolph]

the order is this:
reduce, reuse, recycle.
recycling is a good start, but it shouldn't be the end of your conservation practices.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

People like this with their "damn hippies" rhetoric are pure evil. That guy's site is cool though.

 

[IGBT]

Environmentalism rooted in real science..not faulty computer models..that the EPA admitted to be victim of, benefits all. The globalistic Environmental and liberal academic institutions are the last bastions of socialism. And are headed towards the ash heap of history.

 

[Muadib]

New York city might stop recycling because of the cost.

 

[Dragnov]

Hmm, sounds possible. However, other factors have to be taken into account like limited resources, where to get rid of the trash, etc. I mean isnt New York overflooding with trash and dumping it all in NJ.

Theres always shady practices. For example, the government urges you to buy new "energy efficient" fridges, and they will buy your old fridge and you will save money through energy costs. But the costs and pollutiong of making these new fridges and the labor/energy put into it doens't offset what you "save". Government has some deals going on with GE and stuff and the more new fridges you buy, the more $$$.

 

[B00ne]

This is utter bullshit.
He might be right on plastic, but for plastic like PE its better to burn it anyway - this way u almost get the energy out that u put into it. U do produce CO2 though.

On aluminium, I have never heard more crap than that. Aluminium is the one example resource of very succesful and absolutely necessary recycling. Does this guy even know what resources it takes to produce aluminium from the ore? In short Recycling plays a tremendous economic as well es ecologic role in aluminium production.

On paper: does this guy even know how paper is produced? Paper rercycling is extremely important as paper production is about the most ecological damaging industry. Paper recycling might not be clean but still a hell of a lot cleaner and (forest conserving) than new production of paper

 

[B00ne]

Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK
Hmm, sounds possible. However, other factors have to be taken into account like limited resources, where to get rid of the trash, etc. I mean isnt New York overflooding with trash and dumping it all in NJ.

Theres always shady practices. For example, the government urges you to buy new "energy efficient" fridges, and they will buy your old fridge and you will save money through energy costs. But the costs and pollutiong of making these new fridges and the labor/energy put into it doens't offset what you "save". Government has some deals going on with GE and stuff and the more new fridges you buy, the more $$$.

This fridge scenario is very possible. The fridge uses much more energy during its life time than the production of the fridge. It is true that newer washing machines, fridges, dish washer use much less water, energy and soap so it actually is environmentally better to buy new fridges ( and the like) rather after say 5-10 years rather than 20 (example). But if it is economically better for u - that u have to calculate.
But doing something for the environment usually involves higher costs - because we dont pay the full cost of our products yet ( we leave out the costs of environmental influence and resource diminishing (usually))

 

[Tominator]

Recycling has never been about economics. From that narrow view it does not make sense, but it is the correct thing to do for the environment.

By the time recyclables are collected, sorted, transported and then a completely different process is used to make them usable for the consumer, the end product is almost always more expensive than the same product made from scratch.

It is easily argued that that the process actually uses more resources than it saves.

 

[FoBoT]

there is a grain of truth in there

as far as aluminium goes, i thought it was one of the better recyled materials, due to the huge amount of electricity it takes to refine raw aluminium from ore

but for other stuff, like paper, i have seen stories on news programs (like 60 minutes) where community recycle programs were useless. they showed one town that took all of the recycle stuff and dumped it into the same hole as all the "normal" garbage, the entire
recycling program was a sham to get a town official re-elected

 

[B00ne]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
there is a grain of truth in there

as far as aluminium goes, i thought it was one of the better recyled materials, due to the huge amount of electricity it takes to refine raw aluminium from ore

but for other stuff, like paper, i have seen stories on news programs (like 60 minutes) where community recycle programs were useless. they showed one town that took all of the recycle stuff and dumped it into the same hole as all the "normal" garbage, the entire
recycling program was a sham to get a town official re-elected

now that shows more something about the state of the town government than about the usefulness of recycling.

I want to add something to the economic side of recycling. Where most of u are, u (probably) have space in abundance. But here space (soil or air) is a very limited resource, here recycling (any way: energetic, material ...) does have also real economic reasons, there is just not enough space to dump it all, or in other words dumping it, would be too freaking expensive - thats where recycling comes in