Keeping The Feelings Going

Every week we sort garbage into three carts.

Duke professor Michael Munger examines the economics and logic of recycling. He concludes that mandatory recycling, which has spread to more and more communities including ours, is not economically justified even if we make allowances for a) the higher "true" cost of landfill sans recycling and b) the under-recognized value of some recyclables (e.g. aluminum cans).

For many people recycling has become a moral, even religious, imperative immune to analysis. And so it is that we have "a long line of cars, engines idling, waited to pull up to the recycling facility" and some communities encouraging the use of the dishwasher to clean plastics and cans before they are dumped in the blue containers.

Much of our motivation to recycle stems from a desire to feel good about ourselves, and now it appears that we are willing to pay an ever higher price to keep those feelings going. © 2013 Stephen Yuen