I found an article debunking recycling, via Libertarian Home, via Samizdata.
The author visited a school. His description of the way 8-year-old children are brainwashed in science classes makes me want to puke:
“Why can’t we keep throwing out garbage that way?” Dittersdorf asked.
“It’ll keep piling up and we won’t have any place to put it.”
“The earth would be called the Trash Can.”
The garbage will soon, like, take over the whole world and, like, kill everybody.”
Dittersdorf asked the children to examine their lives. “Does anyone here ever have takeout food?” A few students confessed, and Dittersdorf gently scolded them. “A lot of garbage there.”
He goes on to describe what a load of garbage Dittersdorf, director of environmental education for the Environmental Action Coalition, a nonprofit group based in New York, is talking:
Dittersdorf had masterfully reinforced the mythical tenets of the garbage crisis: We’re a wicked throwaway society. Plastic packaging and fast-food containers may seem wasteful, but they actually save resources and reduce trash. The typical household in Mexico City buys fewer packaged goods than an American household, but it produces one third more garbage, chiefly because Mexicans buy fresh foods in bulk and throw away large portions that are unused, spoiled or stale. Those apples in Dittersdorf’s slide, protected by plastic wrap and foam, are less likely to spoil. The lightweight plastic packaging requires much less energy to manufacture and transport than traditional alternatives like cardboard or paper. Food companies have switched to plastic packaging because they make money by using resources efficiently. A typical McDonald’s discards less than two ounces of garbage for each customer served-less than what’s generated by a typical meal at home.
So Rob finds yet another crackpot who reaches odd conclusions and doesn’t do their research:
The typical household in Mexico City buys fewer packaged goods than an American household, but it produces one third more garbage, chiefly because Mexicans buy fresh foods in bulk and throw away large portions that are unused, spoiled or stale. Those apples in Dittersdorf’s slide, protected by plastic wrap and foam, are less likely to spoil.
Hmm… So let’s see, plastic packaging is better becuase Mexican’s buy more fresh foods than they can eat before it goes bad. Isn’t the lesson here that Mexican’s shouldn’t buy more fresh foods than they will be able to eat?
Also, I don’t know where his evidence is for plastic wrapped apples lasting longer – we stopped buying them plastic wrapped from supermarkets becuase they don’t last as long as loose ones you can buy from the market
From the linked article:
Fifty years ago, for instance, tin and copper were said to be in danger of depletion, and conservationists urged mandatory recycling and rationing of these vital metals so that future generations wouldn’t be deprived of food containers and telephone wires. But today tin and copper are cheaper than ever.
Yet in actual fact, copper prices are actually at record highs
I got bored of reading after that, but I’m sure others with more perseverance than I could find more issues with this article
hmm.. for some reason the link I put in doesn’t seem to show up – the text ” copper prices are actually at record highs” is a link to an article on a metals website
Bear in mind the article is a few years old. I’d love to know where you got the copper prices info from. More relevant than the price is whether it is high because of a shortage or because of high demand.
Follow the link in the post (as pointed out in my second comment, for some reason the hyperlink doesn’t stand out that well as it’s a grey rather than black
Ah, I see it now. Looks like prices are heading down again:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=auGdg5kOCKWw&refer=canada
Without doing extensive research, I get the feeling that the price fluctuations are caused by changes in rates of extraction and consumption, rather than the ever increasing prices you’d expect as copper runs out entirely.
I can’t find anyone anywhere talking about copper running out. I guess claims of a “danger of depletion” were indeed unfounded.