More recycling nonsense in Ottawa...

Ottawa looks set to expand recycling over the next year. Next up is the green box program that will recycle everything from table scraps to diapers. But, like most recycling programs, this one won't pay for itself...it will cost $14.3 million! And, there will also be some capital costs to provide the green carts and to build a processing facility! So, how will the city pay for this? Well, according to the Ottawa Citizen, it will be a user-pay system.

If you want to read a great booklet on recycling, go here, and download the "8 Myths of Recycling".

Recycling has always been one way of dealing with waste products. Starting about twenty years ago, however, a new viewpoint began to emerge—one that placed recycling above traditional methods of waste disposal.

Aroused by fear of a garbage crisis, and spurred on by the misleading story of the garbage barge Mobro, Americans—and others around the world—lost their sense of perspective on rubbish. Public rhetoric was increasingly dominated by claims that were either dubious or patently false.

This essay, "Eight Great Myths of Recycling," by Daniel K. Benjamin, exposes the errors and falsehoods underlying the rhetoric. It clarifies the appropriate role of recycling, based on history and market relationships.