>RECYCLING, that is: bundling the newspapers and loading them into my
>car and burning the fossil fuels necessary to take them down the the
>recycling center and putting them in the right bin -- THAT is what
>should be cost-effective or else, in my humble opinion, it is a grand
>waste of time.
What I've wondered for awhile now is whether or not all the recycling we do
is actually "environmentally"-effective. In other words, if we set aside
cost considerations for a moment (I know this may be difficult for many of
us) can we feel certain that the recyling we are doing in Moscow and
elsewhere is actually good for the environment?
I consider myself an environmentalist, but I sometimes feel strange using
fresh water to rinse cans and so forth. Am I doing the right thing? Does
anyone have some answers to this? Is the tradeoff of using fresh water to
rinse packaging material (cans, milk jugs, etc.) the environmentally sound
action? I'm really seeking some info. on this. I think we could all use
some additional information when it comes to questions like 1)what happens
to our recyclables when they leave Moscow and 2) how clean is the process of
converting recycled material back into useable products?
Greg Meyer