Finally some recycling coverage considering opportunity costs
Sort of. Recycling is an interesting area of environmental spend that resonates with yuppie city folk to such a degree that it drowns out thinking of opportunity costs. It doesn’t necessarily always make sense to recycle more, ie. “zero waste” messaging. At all policy levels we should be asking what is the best way to spend the next dollar on environmental improvements.
We’re seeing the attention on plastics bring the larger issue to the forefront and there’s lots to talk about surrounding this. How bad are plastics? How much of the problems of plastics in waterways/oceans are caused by not landfilling them? How much of the recycling from the 90s and 00s was just shipping waste to developing countries?
Here’s what I’ve been seeing/reading:
