Environmental and financial reasons that recycling doesnt work.

1. Save the Earth

2. “Common sense is a
set of prejudices
acquired by age 18”

3.  Feels good
 Saves energy
 Saves money
 Saves trees
 Saves landfill space
 Improves Environment

4. 1. Wastes money
2. Adverse affect on the environment
3. Wastes resources

5.  Mobro 4000 –1987
 NY garbage going to Louisiana landfill
 6 week voyage on east coast
 1989 EPA paper :
The Solid Waste Dilemma:
An Agenda for Action
J. Winston Porter –EPA assistant administrator
“We’re running out of places to dispose our trash”
“1/3 of the nations landfills will be full in the next
few years”
“If we wait, the problem will get worse”

6.  Heavy subsidies hide the true cost
 Cost to US taxpayers was $8 Billion
 Cost is 3x more than regular garbage
▪ $50 per ton for mixed garbage
▪ $150 per ton for recycleables
 $33 million in NY alone
 40% of garbage picked up for recycling ends
up in landfills

7.  New paper is wasteful
 Recycled paper is eco-friendly
 Using new paper contributes to deforestation

8.  Paper is made from trees
 Grown and sustainably harvested to make paper
 We have 3 times more trees now than in 1920
 Due to recycling efforts, large areas of these
forests are being sold off to build housing

9. 1. Special truck picks it up
2. Recycling center – uses energy, emits
pollutants
3. Truck to paper mill – could be miles away
4. De-ink and bleach - leaves behind a toxic
sludge
5. Pulp is turned back into paper on machines
that use more energy
6. Truck brings recycled paper back to printer

10.  Americans make 220 million tons of trash
each year
 Dirty
 Dangerous –methane gas
 Running out of landfill space

11.  Not near groundwater
 Site cannot be on a fault line
 3 feet of impermeable clay
 Trash is buried under dirt then converted into
park space etc.
 Methane is harvested and used for energy
 Powers 50,000 homes for 30 years

13.  Feels good
 Saves energy
 Saves money
 Saves trees
 Saves landfill space
 Improves Environment

14.  “Recycling may be the most wasteful activity
in modern America. It is a waste of time and
money, a waste of human and natural
resources”
-As reported in the New York Times on
June 30, 1996