We now return to our regular programming

Greetings patient readers. My humblest apologies for my unavoidable absence last week, but the lungs were not working the way they're supposed to. Enough about me, however, did you miss me?

I'd like to spend some talking about recycling today. A subject near and dear to all our hearts. The future of our planet depends on it, right? Maybe. But then again, maybe not. We've got cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles, newspapers, colored paper, recycled white paper, scented paper, milk cartons, plastic packaging, organic food scraps, non-organic food scraps. The array of items that must be recycled in the name of our planet is truly dizzying. But shouldn't we take a minute or two and ask ourselves if all this work is really good for the planet after all? Let alone good for the economy or good for our mental well being.

Let's start with paper, that's easy. "Save a tree," people are always saying when they don't take a shopping bag from the grocery store or they toss their newspaper in the recycling bin. But are they really saving a tree by doing that? Are they making the Earth healthier? I don't think so. Think about it. Right now there is more forest coverage in the United States than there ever has been in the history of our country. Why? Because we are planting more trees. What are we planting more trees? Because trees are a renewable resource; they're a crop, just like corn. Planet a field of trees, let it grow, and then a 12-15 years later, come along and chop it down and plant some more. Simple. If we use more paper or wood without recycling it, we simply plant more trees. In fact, every time you recycle your paper, that means that fewer trees are being cut down and therefore fewer trees are being planted. That means that less carbon is being taken out of the air and global warming is increasing.  

So you can see that recycling paper not only doesn't save trees (quite the contrary, it means fewer trees), but also it leads to more global warming. This doesn't taken into account the amount of carbon monoxide spewed into the air by all those trucks picking up bins of paper from sidewalks all over America. I think we can all agree that's bad for the planet without a lengthy analysis, yes. The other thing it doesn't take into account, the fact that recycling paper produces more and worse pollution than producing new paper.

Now before one of you out there starts throwing around phrases like "old growth forest" and "ecosystem," that's a different issue. Recycling or not recycling has nothing to do with whether greedy developers and regulators make bad decisions or not. Sure we all want to keep old growth forests (though the issue is not as clear cut as you might think, pun intended), but the fact is that recycling or not recycling paper has no bearing on that issue, and shouldn't enter into that debate.

Well I had planned to address the other recyclables in this posting, but I see that I've gone on far too long, so I'll have to leave cans and bottles for another time. See you then.