Re:Well, you bought it. (Score 1)

People don't seem to understand that it ISN'T cheaper to recycle. In fact it sometimes costs twice or more what it does to remove it from the ground or whatever process is used to extract it from it's natural state. For example, hasn't anyone noticed that recycling depots don't pay for scrap anymore? Meanwhile they all seem to be going out of business. The reason for this is there is too much recycling (yes people are being good little socialy responsible recyclers) going on. The recyclers get stuck with tons of neatly separated glass, aluminum, steele, and TONS of newspapers and magazines that no one will buy from them because it just isn't economicaly feasable. Don't you think that if it indeed was more economical to recycle that the companies would be fight over who gets the old junk back? You'd see buy back programs and everything. I've worked for Waste Management for a while and this is the problem they keep facing. They are told to provide recycling service to people so they can feel good about themselves by recycling. All the while they were assured that when the infrastructure was in place that the recycling business would pay off. The began separating trash picked up on big conveyor belts and built special trucks to gather recyclable products for reuse. The infrastructure is now in place and there is a huge mass of neatly separated recyclable stuff just waiting for someone to want it. Tremendous expense has gone into creating this infrastructure and these nicely separated piles of recyclable goods, but the payoff never came. Waste Mangement companies are folding every where because thaey can't do anything with these huge masses of stuff that they can't get rid of. Now that it has been separated, they aren't allowed to just throw it back into the landfills (EPA would be slitting throats over that) and no one will even take it for free. This has caused some companies to file bankruptcy and have the government take their land fills and stuff and buy back thier garbage collecting trucks (not thier recycling trucks) and start all over again. Only this time they don't recycle, they just pick up for land fill. You see, until it actually becomes cheaper to recycle, people won't be able to. When it does get cheaper, you won't need to force people (or companies) to recycle or use recycled materials.