Pam, I only have ancient history, back in my Twin Cities Reader reporting days.
Then - and I believe, now - plastic was uneconomical to recycle. The city couldn't sell it for what it cost to collect, unlike other materials. Plastic has all kind of gnarly factors that prevent it from being a good collectable - lightweight (lotsa storage, little recyclable material) and most plastic stuff is a blend of material that's hard to remanufacture into pure resin (thus the park benches, etc. that you see out there. There may be growing demand for those, but the supply is also growing, probably faster). As I recall, even if you're ok with subsidizing collection/recycling because a) picking up and disposing of trash costs money, too and b) it gets stuff out of landfills, the subsidy with plastic was quite high. I'm pretty sure that's why the city dropped some plastic materials from its collection plan. It would be pretty tough to add a heavily subsidized good during a budget crisis, I think. Now I am reaching into gray matter that is really cobwebby, but I think the big push to recycle plastic came during the time of Minneapolis's infamous "plastic ban" movement when plastic grocery bags and stryrofoam containers first flooded the local market. The ban - a horror to merchants, for it would mean certain ubiquitous packaging would be blocked at the city borders - was derailed by the push to recycle. The problem, of course, was that the taxpayers then heavily subsidized the plastic-pushers with uneconomical recycling. I'll defer to more educated environmentalists about whether such future recycling subsidy makes sense economically or environmentally. I do think the "recycling" push was a politician's dodge to avoid an up-or-down decision to ban or not ban, and otherwise let plastic be judged by the same economics with judge other possible recyclables. As for disposal, I have read that plastics are among the safest things you can throw in a landfill (they're virtually inert and don't decay), but of course that has other problems. Burning has all kinds of obvious problems, though again, I'll let the garbage burner combatants have that out. I suspect this will engender as many strong feelings as the police issue. I hope we focus on Minneapolis policy (though I realize the effects go far beyond our borders). And perhaps some of the underlying economics - and the underlying sentiment for a ban - have changed in a decade. By the way, back when I had a morning radio show I suggested someone make a "home smelter" so we could mold our excess plastic sort of like those toys where you squirt goo into a mold and bake a toy creature. David Brauer King Field - Ward 10 > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Pam > Blixt > Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 4:55 PM > To: Issues Mpls. > Subject: [Mpls] Trash: Paper or Plastic? > > I need a change of subject from the police-- > _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
