Along with the Green ideals of renewable energy, electric vehicles and perhaps, insect eating to replace meat eating, recycling stands as another leading Green myth. The recycling mania is seen at the local level, with most councils across Australia having distinct rubbish bins, with a special big one for recycling. But it seems, not everything one would expect, as I have had plastic rejected. With all the Green mania about plastic killing the planet, one would have thought that if anything was to be recycled, it would be plastic, at least from the ordinary people’s rubbish.
However, as documented by small farmer, John Klar, the entire recycling business is just a greenwash. Take glass for example. There is no problem getting the sand to make glass, so recycling in terms of preventing shortages is not an issue. But glass is heavy, increasing collection and transport costs. Glass can break, contaminating other material to be recycled such as paper, and requiring labour to clean up. And as far as landfill goes, glass does not pose any environmental problem at all, so it is usually better to just dump glass products rather than recycle.