Just about every advanced economy in the world has adopted varying degrees of recycling both because of the favorable economics and some cultural/ethical version of “tikun olam”. In NYC and other major metro areas which are literally running out of space to dump solid waste, recycling provides for a small reduction in the need to export trash to more rural states at great cost to taxpayers. Even in developing economies, recycling in its most basic form is an economic imperative and the “waste” of the affluent literally provides economic sustenance to the more impoverished segments of the population. In countries like India and China, there are literally millions of people who survive by sorting through the waste dumped at landfills to find whatever they can resell for a few dollars a day. It becomes a “scam” only when there is no economic or environmental rationale for a particular recycling program and it is being done for some abstract “conservation” reason.
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