Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________AN UGLY SHADE OF GREEN BY DAVID BACON (09/26/97)

The statement in your deck ("Recycling is great -- unles you live close to where it's happening.") that recycling is basically "great" shows that you have, I regret to inform you, been brainwashed by the flood of propaganda. With a few exceptions (i.e., aluminum cans, corrugated paper from commercial sites), recycling is harmful from an environmental point of view and lunatic as a matter of economics. Its true function is to let upper-middle-class yuppies feel virtuous without forcing them to change their lifestyle or bear the true cost of their virtue.
If you doubt me, consult my essay: "Wasting Away: Mismanaging Municipal Solid Waste," published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in June 1994.
-- James V. DeLong

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_______________AN UGLY SHADE OF GREEN BY DAVID BACON (09/26/97)
	The statement in your deck ("Recycling is great -- unles you live close to where it's happening.") that recycling is basically "great" shows that you have, I regret to inform you, been brainwashed by the flood of propaganda. With a few exceptions (i.e., aluminum cans, corrugated paper from commercial sites), recycling is harmful from an environmental point of view and lunatic as a matter of economics. Its true function is to let upper-middle-class yuppies feel virtuous without forcing them to change their lifestyle or bear the true cost of their virtue. If you doubt me, consult my essay: "Wasting Away: Mismanaging Municipal Solid Waste," published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in June 1994. -- James V. DeLong