I am all for recycling. However, I think it is interesting to look at the total cost of the effort. For example, if you calculate mileage at 30 cents per mile ( taking into consideration wear & depriciation of your vehicle ).
Let's assume one drives 10 miles round-trip to recycle their load. That would be $ 3.00. If the street value of the raw recycled goods is, say $ 22, then there was some sort of gain of $ 19. Then there is the time consideration. How much is your time worth? If you are a doctor that charges $ 300 per hour, then you could help the environment more by just working and donating money to the recycling effort. But if you are unemployed or serving community service, then your time isn't really lost, because it would have been spent on some equilavent task. Then you have to consider what becomes of the material at the recycling center. What are their cost to turn the aluminum can into raw aluminum? What pollution is created in this process? >From a physics point of view, there is no way that the entire cycle could be 100 percent efficient. Some of the lost money isn't wasted though, because you are gaining intangible things of value such as a clean park. And other monies used simply for park cleaning, possibly are reduced. And there are other subtle effects. For-profit recycling centers generate crime. They provide a easy way for theives to make money, which in turn is laundered, and used to buy guns, drugs and other unwanted things in your neighborhood. They can also attract vagrants in the area, that sleep nearby in the woods and under the bridges. There is also a corruption factor, as white-collar criminals step in to take over the major industrial part of the recycling effort. These are the guys that own and operate the big diesel trash trucks that cruze the neighborhoods picking up few recyclable material yet get a fat government contract, and the contractors that operate the landfills, and their lawyers, and the politicians that are secretly in cohoots with, etc. In summary, recycling can give you a warm fuzzy feeling, but the overall picture isn't rosy. On a related note, When I was a young kid going to the beach, it was littered with millions of aluminum tabs that were once pulled off of an aluminum can. I remember when a canned-drink company introduced a monkey to demonstrate the method for popping the top on the new integrated cans. Remember that ? That was a historical moment in my life. I haven't seen an aluminum tab on the ground in over 20 years. I believe I cut my foot on one as a young kid at Turner Falls while swimming. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
