It is impossible to reach a mandated recycling level unless you take all the people in New York City, put them in prison, and force them to recycle.…I think the law is absurd.
Journalists...did a remarkable job of creating the garbage crisis...Mandatory recycling programs aren't good for posterity. They offer mainly short-term benefits to a few groups -- politicians, public relations consultants, environmental organizations, waste-handling corporations -- while diverting money from genuine social and environmental problems.
Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America: a waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources.
Recycling has become the most primitive form of materialism: the worship of materials.
A 5 cent bottle deposit program typically spends $500 for every ton of cans and bottles collected, which makes curbside recycling look like a bargain. States without mandatory deposits...have proven that the most efficient way to reduce litter is to hire cleanup crews.
[Recycling] neither conserve[s] scarce resources nor help[s] to protect the environment.
Mandatory recycling creates waste and destroys wealth without solving any "problems." It is the equivalent of Soviet planning: the state first micromanages an economic activity and then builds an elaborate system of controls and subsidies to sustain it. Resources are wasted to generate recyclables, and then resources are wasted to encourage their use.
Recycling itself can cause environmental harm...As a result, the environmental costs of recycling may exceed any possible environmental benefits.
