Recycled Post

So a while back I argued that recycling is overrated. The basic point was that disposal space is cheap and recycling is expensive. We should only take measures to protect the environment if A) they really protect the environment and B) they are cost justified.

Recycling sometimes creates toxic by-products, which undermines A), and then my point about prices tended to undercut B).

Well, I recently read that recycled paper is in high demand, with the high price making municipal recycling programs profitable. This is a new development, apparently. China and India demand lots of fiber because they are deforested. Tentatively, then, we can assume that paper recycling is efficient, along with glass and metal. That's a lot of stuff that's worth recycling, so I'm going to endorse recycling as a good policy. It's unclear that the government needs to be involved, but so long as it's efficient I don't see a problem.

[UPDATE: My source is an article from the April 12 WSJ: U.S. Paper Recycling Hits Record
As Fiber Needs Grow, by Jim Carlton. See also this John Tierney article on recycling from 1996. I wrote both posts before reading the article, which anticipated many of my arguments.]