Bullshit: Recycling

I love Penn and Teller. This is an amazing show. I wish we got it in Canada (something else to blame on the CRTC).



Basically, I do agree with what they're saying. Recycling aluminum makes perfect sense, as do certain types of plastics (though it drives me nuts to see these Granolas drinking bottled water when, environmentally, it is so much better to drink it from the tap). Personally, I see recycling newspaper as being close to a wash (doesn't matter much whether you do it or not), but when you start mixing in other papers (especially the glossy colour stuff) then it is nonsense to recycle it. Recycling anything else doesn't make sense, other then the "feel good" argument.

The thing is, there is something to the feel good argument. It raises awareness of environmental issues and helps to create a public that is willing to accept change. It's like David Suzuki telling us all to switch to compact florescents. In of itself, the impact of changing light bulbs is minimal, but it creates an awareness and a mode for change that make us more excepting of the more large scale changes that are continually coming.

Also, I think it has been widely forgoten that the origin of the recycling symbol was that there were three parts to the cycle - the three R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. And recycle was the least effective of these.

Mike