Not to imply that recycling is bad or that it shouldn’t be encouraged but as one who manages a privately owned recycling center for a living and owns a search engine devoted to private recyclers I can only add that when we recycle we are admitting that we have in-fact failed to find a better way to resolve the very problems we’ve created.

Also, while it is true that privately owned retail recycling centers aren’t perfect, our record for not sending what we take in to landfills remains far better than municipally funded recycling centers. You see, we pay for and then resell recyclables and anything we send to a landfill represents lost profits. Municipally funded recyclers, private or public can always recoup their losses from the taxpayers thereby profiting from landfilling.

I’ve noticed that the content of recycling bins has moved away from the items that are stated to be recyclable to all manner of trash, including the items you showed that foul separation equipment. Yet the recycling company and the city have done not one thing to enforce the content requirements, not even a mention of the problem by either one in newsletters or the local paper.

Why would any recycling company gladly accept anything rather than restrict collection to the things that can truly be recycled? It so happens that the company we use is ALSO a garbage hauler. Isn’t that interesting?

Residents here pay for recycling. What is earned from the recyclables is not enough to cover the cost of the recycling program. So the recycling company gets money from us regardless of what it does with the stuff it collects. Why shouldn’t the recycling company shut down its materials reprocessing facility and just haul the stuff to the landfill? They might make more money that way so why not?

In other words, the whole program could be a fraud – people diligently recycle only to have the material dumped anyway. I’m investigating.

Glass and metal, on the other hand, can be recycled over and over again.

We do recycle in our home and try to buy products that contain recycled content. I just don’t think that recycling is a sustainable solution to the plastic problem because it does nothing to stem the production of new disposable plastic.

The fact that plastic bottles cannot be recycled into new plastic bottles is an argument against producing them in the first place, isn’t it?
.-= Beth Terry´s last blog ..Recycle vs. Refill: Conversations with HP, Cartridge World, & Silo Ink =-.

Also, I’ve been diligently bringing my reusable bag whenever I hit the mall and refusing plastic packaging whenever I can. Small steps, but hopefully, I can get family and friends to follow too. =)

Great article, wonderful tips!

The first year my stepdad was part of the family, he wrote everyone’s name in MARKER on the gift bags and TAPED THEM SHUT! Imagine the horror at making the gift bags non-reusable :)

My partner’s family, not so much. But I am just learning to live with his relationship to them.

I use a few gift tags for small items but most of my gift tags are made from Christmas cards. My co-workers (and my company) know that I collect Christmas cards so I get a batch of Christmas cards every year. I take off the back with the message and signatures and use the picture as the gift tag. So before they are thrown out, I use them at least one more time!
.-= Billie´s last blog ..Bad Parenting? Check! =-.