Readers weigh in: Is recycling a ‘scam’?

by Colin Staub, Resource Recycling Magazine

After Resource Recycling highlighted conservative commentators who questioned the foundations of materials recovery, a number of industry professionals jabbed back, noting the economic strengths still inherent in recycling.

In July, a handful of opinion pieces in right-leaning publications attacked the recycling industry, suggesting that the current market downturn has illuminated problems inherent to the industry. For instance, a piece in Frontpage Magazine noted that “the recycling scam shipped garbage on dirty ships for dirty industries while pretending that they’re clean and green.”

Reader responses pointed to deeper nuance in the problems facing the industry, and they generally rejected the idea that recycling as a whole has been a con.

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