John Stossel, the Libertarian investigative journalist, has produced a new story about the myths of recycling, especially when it comes to plastic.

He points out that there are many cities in America that think they’re doing the morally right thing by banning plastic bags, which ends up backfiring in a number of ways.

He also notes that most of the green ‘religion’ that has become so common in America, is a product of the liberal media and that this has been going on for decades.

Science writer John Tierney debunked recycling claims years ago in a New York Times Magazine story, “Recycling Is Garbage.” It set a Times record for hate mail.

But what he wrote was true.

“It’s even more true today, the economics has gotten even worse,” says Tierney.

My city would save over $300 million a year if it stopped recycling. It would be smarter to just dump our garbage in landfills.

“Recycling is an industry that uses increasingly expensive labor to produce materials that are worth less and less,” says Tierney.

Because it’s not worth recycling here, much is shipped overseas to countries like Malaysia, here it’s just piled up — some of it from America. That pollutes even more. And what they don’t burn, they just dump in the ocean.

https://x.com/johnstossel/status/1867243766605828401?s=61&t=pr9sQbfDnRXI42Hsv2j5ag

Hey, instead of running ONE garbage truck 🛻

Lets run 4 of them instead - that’ll save the planet  :D

Meanwhile in Victoria - the Container Deposit Scheme

Whereby you drive your dirty car miles and miles just to get 10c for your stubby  ;D

It cost more in fuel putting out more emissions than the trash is worth… what a joke  ;D

https://cdsvic.org.au/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAqb6Ez7wmccRtx5gD0L_XDRkrNKlu&gclid=CjwKCAiA9vS6BhA9EiwAJpnXwwwq65F7fCAL5LuxXuSHF5C6RqwyhLaWL-aNc2_jCPoyqti4O2TrrhoCT-0QAvD_BwE

SerialBrain9 wrote on Dec 15^th, 2024 at 4:00pm:

Meanwhile in Victoria - the Container Deposit Scheme Whereby you drive your dirty car miles and miles just to get 10c for your stubby  ;D It cost more in fuel putting out more emissions than the trash is worth… what a joke  ;D https://cdsvic.org.au/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAqb6Ez7wmccRtx5gD0L_XDRkrNKlu&gclid=CjwKCAiA9vS6BhA9EiwAJpnXwwwq65F7fCAL5LuxXuSHF5C6RqwyhLaWL-aNc2_jCPoyqti4O2TrrhoCT-0QAvD_BwE

I appreciate that you're beginning to grasp the bigger picture. Transitioning away from coal and fossil fuels towards renewables and electric vehicles makes resource conservation and recycling far more impactful.

However, given your fixation on the usual energy lobby talking points. almost to the point of being indistinguishable from the usual cookers, what initially seemed like a positive step towards understanding now strikes me as little more than a contradictory attack line you've absorbed without realising what it actually implies.

Perhaps I was overly optimistic in thinking otherwise.

There should be a recycling documentary named "What Is Ghana? The Great Recycling Con."

Each year, tons of clothing discarded in the West pour into Ghana - enough to clothe every Ghanaian citizen, head to foot, for a decade.

Of course, nearly all of it is dumped and piles up along the coast or becomes rolling hills of synthetic clothing waste outside townships and cities, that do not rot and ultimately poison the water and land.

Same thing in Thailand and a host of poor countries, where hills of  electronics are dumped - most of which is incinerated - leading to poisoning of the environment and the air.

South Australia has operated a container deposit system for over 50 years.  There has never been any protests about it and only praise for it.  It works and it works well.  No drinks cans are on the roadways and in the parks.  We have people who frequently farm the rubbish bins for spare cans.  I am unsure why Victoria has a hard time but new systems frequently do until the users get used to them.  Tsk, tsk, tsk...  ::) ::)

MeisterEckhart wrote on Dec 16^th, 2024 at 10:45am:

There should be a recycling documentary named "What Is Ghana? The Great Recycling Con." Each year, tons of clothing discarded in the West pour into Ghana - enough to clothe every Ghanaian citizen, head to foot, for a decade. Of course, nearly all of it is dumped and piles up along the coast or becomes rolling hills of synthetic clothing waste outside townships and cities, that do not rot and ultimately poison the water and land. Same thing in Thailand and a host of poor countries, where hills of  electronics are dumped - most of which is incinerated - leading to poisoning of the environment and the air.

Shhhh… the greens don’t want to talk about this .. its one giant con which is costing the TAX PAYER Billions of dollars…

Its like the Wind Towers - it takes more energy to produce the useless things than what it puts back in energy in its lifetime - and at times - they are only turning because of power being fed back into them… then after its short life its just toxic waste that no one wants

SerialBrain9 wrote on Dec 17^th, 2024 at 8:48am:

MeisterEckhart wrote on Dec 16th, 2024 at 10:45am: There should be a recycling documentary named "What Is Ghana? The Great Recycling Con." Each year, tons of clothing discarded in the West pour into Ghana - enough to clothe every Ghanaian citizen, head to foot, for a decade. Of course, nearly all of it is dumped and piles up along the coast or becomes rolling hills of synthetic clothing waste outside townships and cities, that do not rot and ultimately poison the water and land. Same thing in Thailand and a host of poor countries, where hills of  electronics are dumped - most of which is incinerated - leading to poisoning of the environment and the air. Shhhh… the greens don’t want to talk about this .. its one giant con which is costing the TAX PAYER Billions of dollars… Its like the Wind Towers - it takes more energy to produce the useless things than what it puts back in energy in its lifetime - and at times - they are only turning because of power being fed back into them… then after its short life its just toxic waste that no one wants

And nevermind the mountains of discarded mobile phones that end up in 3rd-world countries to be 'recycled'.

Phones that are discarded merely because they're 'last year's model'.

SerialBrain9 wrote on Dec 17^th, 2024 at 8:48am:

Its like the Wind Towers - it takes more energy to produce the useless things than what it puts back in energy in its lifetime - and at times - they are only turning because of power being fed back into them… then after its short life its just toxic waste that no one wants

Who says?
'. In fact, most studies show that wind turbines produce more energy than it took to make them, with a carbon payback period of 5–12 months'

As children, we would crush up our cola cans and such. After a month, Dad would take the recycling to the recycling plant and get paid $6 for the bags of aluminium cans. Then Dad went to topped up the car with 10L of fuel. He thought it was a good use of his time.

Even now, he comes around every second Sunday to collect bottles and cans from my recycling bin. He might make $20 from doing this every fortnight. But it is better than having the bottles litter around town.