You are viewing a single comment's thread from:

RE: Modern Life: Demand and Supply — the Recycling Dilemma

...reducing the use of resources and raw materials flies in the face of the foundations of capitalism...

If reducing material costs by avoiding the expensive process of producing raw materials is really a good option, markets should be embracing it. Aluminum is highly recycled because of the cost to refine the ore, and it pays. Steel is not as scarce or energy-intensive to mine and refine, but it pays to recycle. I think a better solution to plastics is to reduce reliance on disposables instead of trying to figure out how to recycle them, because the vast majority aren't really recyclable at all. And glass? I don't throw much of that out anyway, but bottle deposits used to make sense for re-use.