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[phanatic]

This story from Wisconsin demonstrates what a joke recycling programs are:

For April Little, village administrator in Belleville, the potential loss of $18,482 to help run the village's $46,155 recycling program means dramatic cuts will likely be necessary--less material recycled and more waste into landfills

Comments

Technology and Economics compete with spurious applications of both

[capybyra]

We "can" efficiently and cheaply recycle percent X of many Consumer Items. It's why we won't/don't that bears examination. Some of it is common sense. Other parts are made of pure fail. Bags of CRUSHED cans as you said- makes sense. Same with bales of Cardboard or compacted, clean Office document paper. See Batliner Paper in KcMo about that one.

There's a percent of stuff that's inherently not practical or sane to contemplate conventional recycling for or of.

Accepting all that on the engineering level, moves on to the economics and social Realpolitik

It's unarguable that social manipulations browbeat people into nonsensical choices. It works the same with sensible ones. Recycling by Ad-Hoc/Meritocracy channels WORKS in many cases. Vs CRAP like the described"recycling box dumped in with the other trash" that becomes inevitable when Government mishandles suchlike.

Kansas City's Batliner Paper has made a niche fortune in shrewd exploitation of paper/cardboard recycling that has little connection to often NO connection with tax money. Just good old fashiones smarts at work. They've arranged sources for paper/cardboard that WORK for them.

Same with a few metals companies in this area. They arrange to turn scrap into cash the old fashioned ways. And it's not unique to any one area. Look up Nucor Steel. They run some plants that essentially turn scrap metal plus megawatts and BRAINS into products that are profitable

The sink or swim for recycling is rationality. Nope, there's not a reason in hell to landfill truly reusable materials.Nor is there any reason to play fairytale games about juice boxes being SATANIC as they're not recycable at all.

Other than perhaps by that "Very Hot Fire" called a Plasma Torch. IIRC Stericycle in KcKS was investigating the permitting for one recently.