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To the editor:
Recycling is an idea that sound great. Ostensibly, it embodies great American principles like thrift and cleanliness. In reality, it is slothful and about as appealing as a movement to save the rattlesnake.
Woodbury, New Jersey, a quiet town a few miles away from Philadelphia, is a model in the realm of recycling. The pernicious movement started a long time ago with plain old garbage. At one time, it was separated to feed to pigs. That didn’t work out too well; the pigs got sick. But undaunted, the good folks of Woodbury kept at it. A campaign was launched and legislation passed. Now Woodbury’s garbage is separated into fourteen different categories. The legislation that was to keep taxes down and the town clean of street and pure of heart has turned into a file clerk’s nightmare and a rough approximation of the Third Reich.
It is also a mess.
Each category of garbage must be contained separately. Each category is picked up on a specific day. There is a $500 fine for misfiling. Inspections are frequent and thorough. A whole new bureaucracy has arisen. Taxes are headed skyward.
For example, clear and colored glass cannot be in the same container. Used light bulbs have a category all their very own. And blue glass cannot be mixed with colored or plain glass and must not encounter light bulbs. All glass and cans ... more about them later . . . must be washed and must not be broken.
This whole noble process falls apart if one visits a recycling center, a place that is designated for disposing of specific things either missed in the pick ups or too unsavory to have hanging around. The ground around glass centers is covered with smashed, ground or spiked glass. Newspaper centers look like papier mache factories. It seems there is more segregated junk than buyers for it. The only smiles are found on the faces of people who sell tires.
One visit to a recycling center causes the citizen to hang up the pick up schedules in a prominent place in the household and there is a great deal of discussion about whether tomorrow is corrugated cardboard day or whether it is the day for grass clippings. Stimulating talk like this
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