Recycling

Recycling

Recycling is an attempt to ease the rate at which we waste our limited natural resources.  Many cities now have curbside recycling programs to reduce the number of landfills.  Many states and cities now have mandatory recycling laws that require return -use or payment of container deposits on beverages. But the United States has no mandatory federal recycling law.

Cry Wolf Quotes

Mandatory recycling creates waste and destroys wealth without solving any "problems." It is the equivalent of Soviet planning: the state first micromanages an economic activity and then builds an elaborate system of controls and subsidies to sustain it. Resources are wasted to generate recyclables, and then resources are wasted to encourage their use.

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Cato Institute

Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America: a waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources.

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John Tierney. The New York Times Magazine.
06/30/1996 | Full Details | Law(s): General: Recycling

Recycling itself can cause environmental harm...As a result, the environmental costs of recycling may exceed any possible environmental benefits.

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Lynn Scarlett, Reason Foundation and The National Center for Policy Analysis.
09/01/1991 | Full Details | Law(s): General: Recycling

Journalists...did a remarkable job of creating the garbage crisis...Mandatory recycling programs aren't good for posterity. They offer mainly short-term benefits to a few groups -- politicians, public relations consultants, environmental organizations, waste-handling corporations -- while diverting money from genuine social and environmental problems.

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John Tierney. The New York Times Magazine.
06/30/1996 | Full Details | Law(s): General: Recycling