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Just wondering how much it costs to run trucks around the city picking up recycled goods. Perhaps the cost is greater than the good.

"Perhaps the cost is greater than the good."

That is certainly the easy case, Carol. The bottom has dropped out of the scrap market, and this was a marginal business to begin with - but only because we generally do not include the full cost of doing business when we complete the calculations.

As an example - consider the above letter: "Employer placed worker in a very bad position" The boss cheated like hell to maximize his profit at the expense of Ms. Coleman.

As an example - consider the fishing and logging industries, which in general are given their raw materials (fish from the ocean, logs and minerals at give away prices off federal land - federal meaning we all own it .. or use to, see below).

We have overfished to the point of endangering stability, however when this issue is raised, the response for decades has been is "they have to fish or they'll be out of work". Ditto the logging industry - "They have to chop down old growth forests or loggers will be out of work". Well keep up that logic and they if not their sons will clearly be out of work - but argue against it and you're an obstructionist tree huggerin' hippy dope smoking commie liberal.

You are right Carol. So many people look at one piece without considering the whole. People can reduce the amount of packaging they purchase if they can't fit it all in their can. Reducing is even better than recycling.

Cloth diapers are also not as simple as it seems. Yes, the cotton is reusable, but how does disposable diaper waste compare to water and detergent use for cloth? Every environmental issue is a complex equation requiring some cost-benefit analysis--analysis many won't do because they just want the quick "look how much I care about the earth" regardless of the unintended consequences.

THE BELOW -

"A mining claim is a parcel of public land ... described in a ... form filed [for a] total federal fee of $135 on a 20 to 160 acre claimed parcel ... The federal government has interpreted this right to supercede all other potential uses of public land. In addition, the claim holder is not required to return any money to U.S. taxpayers for the value of the minerals extracted."

"A patent is a parcel of claimed mineral-rich public land which the federal government sells to the claim holder for $2.50 or $5.00 per acre ... [it] is no longer public land; both the land and the minerals contained in it become the property of the patent holder. Since 2000, the government has converted 15,600 acres of public property to private ownership, for a price capped at $5 per acre in 1872.

http://www.ewg.org/mining/howto.php

CAVEAT - I just found this link without really looking - but it is consistant with more detailed studies I have read, and is probably sponsored by obstructionist tree huggerin' hippy dope smoking commie liberals .. so I invite others to dispute the above, and I will be the first to waver.

http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Programs/minerals/mining_faqs.print.html

Government. Job. Creation.

Government. Job. Creation ...

Government give aways in the name of Job Creation but in the practice of Wealth Distribution .. upwards.

So here's the thing, Roger.

The generic We constantly whine about how inefficient government is (which is mostly but not completely true) .. but when a pretty clear example is displayed (see above) the liberals (which I am falsely labeled as being) get called obstructionist tree huggerin' hippy dope smoking commies while the conservatives (a false name if ever there were one) tout "Job Creation"

"Reducing is even better than recycling."

I do both mamab, smash my beer cans and then recycle them.

Good boy, Dan...you make me proud.

Thanks Carol, it really does save a lot of space.

Btw, do you city dwellers only get one city issued recycling can and it gets full before the two week pickup? Is that what Mr. Johnson is describing? In the county they pick up every two weeks but we can have as many cans as we wish.

Ah, the days when we took a speeding pick-up full of old tires and rolled 'em off in the ditch when there were no headlights from either direction...

Captain Hazelwood was an amateur.

There are 7 people in my house full time, and we rarely overflow our recycling can, even though we DO recycle. We buy in bulk when we can (10 lb. bags of flour, rice, pinto beans) and don't buy tons of stuff in huge boxes every week. Smaller families must consume an awful lot more stuff to be whining about their recycling cans. I can't imagine filling one every week, unless it is Christmas week.

Maybe you aren't recycling all the recyclables. A lot of folks don't realize how many things can be recycled. I live by myself and don't produce a lot of waste--usually less than half a regular trash bag of garbage a week and, if I didn't empty it each week, I could probably fill my recycle bin in 2 and a half, and that's me, by myself. Like I wonder if Dan is recycling the box out of which the beer came?

But, our Scout does make a point:

"Also, families who might not take the time to keep up with the recycling schedule may be less inclined to recycle altogether."

People might recycle more if it were easier. Heck, I have a hard enough time remembering when weekly trash day is and I have an alarm set in my phone to remind me!

Anyway, I wish Will luck in his journey to Eagle Scout and figure that this letter probably adequately fulfills a requirement to receive one of his Citizenship merit badges.

I think I wrote mine about adding a left turn lane to a busy intersection near my home...which they still have not done. Although last week, probably 9 years after my letter, they did add a left turn arrow to the stop light.