Reading that recycling is “indeed worth it” from Mr. Cohen in last month’s Bridge, who makes his living as a recycling professional, is like hearing that yet another new school is indeed needed from the school department. I kind of question the motives of the source. The idea of recycling our garbage was initiated by “do-gooders” in the community who have been cursed with the conviction that we must do something to recycle even if it adds cost and more CO2 to the atmosphere.
The truth is that wasting energy and money to collect and store plastic will never pay. Did you ever try to wash the spaghetti sauce from the plastic jar that it came in? Can you imagine what you would do with a 1,000-pound bale of stinking, food-coated plastic? I would want to burn it in a furnace where the heat energy could be used to generate electricity to run my Tesla, if I had one. And all the concerned community members would still think they were doing their part by putting their used sushi containers in the recycle bin.
Check out this article on the NPR website that goes over the various problems with recycling plastic. ”Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse.”
Frank Breen
Philip Farm Road
