Recycling (plastics and glass) is bad for the environment. Putting it in the landfill and burying it is the best thing you can do (right now). That way it does not get into our streams or oceans. It cost more energy to recycle plastics to the quality required to make most consumer goods. That means more hydrocarbons are burnt and released into the atmosphere. That directly increases the effects of global warming. Plus by burying your carbon rich plastics, it creates a carbon sink.
Plus concentrating plastics and other wastes into a landfill will help future generations when the technology makes it more energy efficient to recycle. In America (where I live), we have tons of space for landfills. There is no need to live next to them. We have a choice. We can remain ignorant about recycling and pat ourselves on the back, or join me and put your waste in the landfill. That way we can help curb global warming and make a cleaner ocean (therefore planet) for our children. Do you not want a cleaner planet for future generations?
I don't want to insult anyone! I use the word ignorant in the correct way, people just don't know (and have not be made aware by our media institutions, besides NPR which had a good piece on recycling) of the down sides of recycling. Sure if you look at just the positives, it looks great. But that is not the world we live in and just due to the laws of physics, recycling is horrible for the planet. I was ignorant on the effects of recycling once. It just doesn't make since to load tons of waste plastic onto a boat, allow a large percent to fall off or get pushed off into the ocean, have the plastic get reprocessed into a low quality plastic in a country that doesn't care how much they polluting the air and water, shipped back to American as low quality plastic that has very little use or value.
We really don't have to worry about recycling metals. They are economical and people will find ways to recycle metals in a grass-roots ways. Paper might be the only recyclable one should consider going out of the way to recycle, although it has mixed results also.
