Recycling would work if we'd do more of it

Scientific American has a good article about a topic that I keep constantly thinking about: trash, wastefulness, and recycling.


Policymakers take aim at new recycling frontier: Solid waste, retailers and packaging

OK, this doesn't surprise me, but it does bother me:

"New York City generates six million tons of food waste annually, she said. Paper coffee cups are one of the major components of that, with 58 billion being used yearly in the U.S. If they were recycled, some $27 million could be saved in disposal costs, she said."

("She" is Annie White, from GlobalGreen).

I know I had an article earlier about actually recyling food, as is being tried in Britain; food is fuel, if it could be converted.

More on recycling: "Currently, solid waste is recycled at a rate of 20 percent. Implementing the state's Solid Waste Management Plan [this is for New York] "could reduce nearly 23 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions annually, save more than 250 trillion BTUs of energy each year—as much energy as is consumed by more than 2.5 million homes—and create 74,000 jobs," according to a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation projection included in the plan's executive summary."

That's my idea of a no-brainer for the environment. Recycling does work -- let's remember that.