Monday, October 5, 2015

Recycling is Garbage

By Mark Perry

In 1996, New York Times science columnist John Tierney wrote an article that appeared in the New York Times Magazine about compulsory recycling titled “Recycling is Garbage.” Tierney’s controversial argument in that article can be summarized as follows: Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America. Tierney wrote, “Rinsing out tuna cans and tying up newspapers may make you feel virtuous, but it’s a waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources. Americans have embraced recycling as a transcendental experience, an act of moral redemption. We’re not just reusing our garbage; we’re performing a rite of atonement for the sin of excess.” Now you can understand why Tierney’s recycling article set the all-time record for the greatest volume of hate mail ever recorded in the history of the New York Times Magazine.

Because it was one of the first and most effective challenges to the naive, pro-recycling propaganda that has been used to successfully brainwash millions of American school children for the last quarter century, I’ve featured John Tierney’s classic recycling article on CD many times over the years (especially around the “green holy days” known as “Earth Day” and “America Recycles Day”), including hereherehere, and here.

It’s been almost 20 years since John Tierney taught us that “recycling is garbage.” Fortunately, he has just provided a recycling update in today’s New York Times with a new article titled “The Reign of Recycling.” So, what has happened over the last two decades? According to Tierney, “While it’s true that the recyclingmessage religion has reached more people converts than ever, when it comes to the bottom line, both economically and environmentally, not much has changed at all.” And what about recycling’s future? It “looks even worse,” says Tierney.

7 comments:

  1. I don't wash anything out. I do recycle though. It seems like it would make a difference.

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    1. So, you haven't read the article then? Tierney's whole point is that, though it seems like it would make a difference, it doesn't.

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  2. It is essentially forced labor (the sorting etc) and then the extra taxes paid.

    Since I'm already paying, I throw everything into one can. The idea of washing and playing with trash!

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  3. I don't get the protest against washing out a tuna can. I do so it won't stink. I also freeze chicken wrapper waste in the summer until garbage day cause that stuff stinks. That or I will throw it away at a gas station.

    Call me crazy but I don't like my garbage to stink up my garage. No it is never gonna smell like roses, but atleast it's bareable to be in the same room with a closed container.

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    1. Yes, wash out the tuna can so it doesn't stink. But then, if you use hot water to do so, don't think you're helping the environment when you recycle it. In the article, he shows that the environmental benefit of recycling the can is outweighed by the environmental harm from heating the water (assuming you live in an area that uses coal for its power plants).

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    2. Phathead,

      What a great idea to freeze the chicken wrappers. Thanks. Nothing stinks up a garbage can like chicken. Blech.

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  4. Two years ago, my city "gave" every resident a brand new 96 gallon Waste Management trash can to use for recycling. In addition to slipping everyone the cost of the new can in their property taxes, they also flooded our city with recycling propaganda. The anti-statist in me chafed at being forced to pay for this stupid trash bin for a recycling program that I knew to be stupid, so I turned it into a rain water holder which I use with my garden. Soon it will be converted into another useful self sufficiency tool when I will be using it to hold chicken feed for my non-registered backyard flock of chickens. They can force me to buy it, but they cant force me to use it for what they want.

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