the sky is falling again

RECYCLING

Just because one time one trash barge could not get rid of its garbage from NYC does not mean that there is a lack of landfill space. Just because an area you remember as farmland as a kid now has houses does not mean that sprawl is overwhelming farmland. Whoever believes these things has never been on an airplane across the U.S. When you look down there is barely anything there - cities are quite rare - tons of room for landfills, plenty of farmland left. Ok now a primer for those who don't understand information: Prices are information (except to the centralized planning types). They say what/when/how to produce, what/when/how to buy, how much something is valued present and future. If farmland was scarce then food prices would increase and farmland would become more valuable and subdivisions would be bought up by farmers to make the way for new crops - problem solved. If landfills were scarce then it would cost a lot to have your garbage picked up. Just because recycling reduces the amount of solid waste a city outputs does not mean that it is resource or energy efficient. What if the cost and environmental harm were greater to pick up and sort all the recyclables from regular trash - both diesel truck emissions and human carbon dioxide emissions (and bureaucratic red tape)? When they pay me to pick up my glass/plastic/aluminum/paper then I'll sell it to them - until then its going in the trash.