Man made global warming is real.

[mussa]

There is a series of videos about man and dinosaurs living together, to make you belive even morE! Go look it up methdeez nutz

HAIL SATAN

[Cerevant]

All I asked was for you to watch it and get back to me...you didn't. I understand you're at work, so watch it when you get home and let me know what you think.

Ok, watched it.  My reaction:

• It was entertaining, especially the part with the 10 recycling bins
• There are a lot of uninformed people out there
• It was a collection of hearsay vs. hearsay, very little substance to back up the claims
• They presented the pro-recycling side, then the anti - a negation of the pro side.  But they never went back to the pro- side and gave them the opportunity to defend themselves.
• This show did nothing to change my opinion about their (lack of) credibility

Here's and equally persuasive and biased view of why the anti-recycling crowd has their heads up their asses.

[ice grillin you]

penn and teller are delusional libertarians and consider recycling to be a violation of their individual rights...they arent anti-recycling they are anti being told to recycle....basically they are a couple of dopes who cant be taken seriously

[Cerevant]

And here I thought they were trying to make a buck by televising sensationalist pseudo-reality bullshtein.

[Eaglez]

Aluminum recycling is beneficial, and it in most cases is cheaper than extracting resources and using them to form those sorts of products, i.e. using less energy and other processing costs. And, as a result, there are a lot of corporations that run a nice profit on recycling aluminum and re-selling it to manufacturers. But recycling glass and plastic is pretty silly; the costs involved in reprocessing those materials wastes more energy, time, resources, and in most cases public monies. There is no net gain involved; you recycle glass and plastic, which is supposed to be good for the environment, but then you pour more pollutants into the environment through ways of collection, distribution, and re-processing of the damn things.

If someone wants to recycle non-profitable materials, go for it; but don't impose costs on me because doing so 'makes you feel good'. Let me opt out of it, and let the 'do-gooders' carry the tax burden to inefficiently produce products out of plastic and glass.

If recycling was so beneficial, and so cost efficient, we wouldn't need government to sponsor such programs. Governments are the most wasteful entities that exist, when it comes to providing services, because government is so unresponsive to price and other market incentives.

[SD_Eagle5]

Aluminum recycling is beneficial, and it in most cases is cheaper than extracting resources and using them to form those sorts of products, i.e. using less energy and other processing costs. And, as a result, there are a lot of corporations that run a nice profit on recycling aluminum and re-selling it to manufacturers. But recycling glass and plastic is pretty silly; the costs involved in reprocessing those materials wastes more energy, time, resources, and in most cases public monies. There is no net gain involved; you recycle glass and plastic, which is supposed to be good for the environment, but then you pour more pollutants into the environment through ways of collection, distribution, and re-processing of the damn things.

If someone wants to recycle non-profitable materials, go for it; but don't impose costs on me because doing so 'makes you feel good'. Let me opt out of it, and let the 'do-gooders' carry the tax burden to inefficiently produce products out of plastic and glass.

If recycling was so beneficial, and so cost efficient, we wouldn't need government to sponsor such programs. Governments are the most wasteful entities that exist, when it comes to providing services, because government is so unresponsive to price and other market incentives.

Thanks z, you summed it up nicely and saved me the time of writing a rebuttal.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Despite the lucidity of Eaglez' remarks, he obviously can't be trusted, like me, because he leans slightly to the right.  As you know, that automatically makes us both bad for the environment and probably sheep-fargers.

[ice grillin you]

Despite the lucidity of Eaglez' remarks, he obviously can't be trusted, like me, because he leans slightly to the right

well said

[MURP]

Penn and Teller are great.  Ever see their bottled water episode?

[SD_Eagle5]

Penn and Teller are great.  Ever see their bottled water episode?

One of my favorite. "You can taste the minerals in this one"

[Eaglez]

It's better than drinking the Kool-Aid, FF.

All anyone is asking is to consider the costs involved and whether, in the end, it truly is beneficial both economically and environmentally. Since there are many studies documenting that recycling certain products impose higher costs  economicially and provide no benefit environmentally, I don't see why those products have to be regulated as a 'public good'.

There is a need for some government intervention to regulate negative externalities in the environment and to provide public goods due to free rider problems (like the military and law enforcement), but there is no need for government sponsored recycling programs. The profitability of aluminum cans should be a sufficent incentive for people to save and recycle them, and that can be done in the free market -- not through government bureaucracies.

If all the recycling zealots want to pool their resources together and create little hippy co-ops for glass and plastic, be my guest; I'm sure there are some rich hippy philanthropists that would fund the project. Just don't do it with my money. 

[shorebird]

There is a need for some government intervention to regulate negative externalities in the environment and to provide public goods due to free rider programs (like the military and law enforcement), but there is no need for government sponsored recycling programs. The profitability of aluminum cans should be a sufficent incentive for people to save and recycle them, and that can be done in the free market -- not through government bureaucracies.

Last year I installed vinyl siding and replacement windows in three houses that had aluminum siding on them before hand. You can make enough money on the aluminum were you don't even have to charge customers for tearing it off. Cans, or clean aluminum was going for over 50 cents a pound 5 months ago. I was getting 38 cents a pound for the siding and old storm windows. One house netted $300.00 bucks for around a half a days work for two head. Minus hauling.  And that was a small 1200 sq. ft. rancher. $150 a piece, for 4 hours work, thats $37.50 an hour. I'll take it.

I recycle everything. From the cardboard that the new siding comes in, to the soda bottles we drink on the job. I have trash cans for everything. The guys at the landfill get upset when you don't recycle. Besides, you don't have to pay any fees if what you have doesn't get buried, so it really doesn't make sense not to do it.

Only thing is, my way of hauling all that stuff is by no means good for the enviroment, (Dio will tell you that) But I don't have much choice. You can't haul a 10,000 lb. (load capacity) dump trailer around in a hybrid. I'm not going to pretend to know what is causing globle warming, wether it's natural or man made. I don't think it should make a difference anyway. People should still be concious of the environment. But all this talk about SUV's and everything, I mean, what about Semi's and such? I live 3 miles from US RT. 50, probably one of the most traveled roads on the eastern seaboard. I'll would guess that 30 to 35 percent of the traffic on that road is sitting on 10 or 18 wheels. All these big ass diesel trucks, and well as diesel pickups, SUV's and cars, have no emmisions testing!! Not tell me what the farg is up with that?? Why aren't Al and co. going after the greater evil here?

[MURP]

Shore,  there are emissions tests in Philly for cars and such.  I dont know how many cities/states are involved in that though. 

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

It's better than drinking the Kool-Aid, FF.

Amen.

[shorebird]

Shore,  there are emissions tests in Philly for cars and such.  I dont know how many cities/states are involved in that though. 

For those little diesel VW Rabbit's and Mercedes? In Maryland, no desiel vehicle has emmisions testing. Not that it would probably make much difference. Even burning clean, those things belch out some terrible fumes.