GreenYes Digest V97 #269

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Fri, 22 Jan 1999 17:04:22 -0500


GreenYes Digest Sat, 8 Nov 97 Volume 97 : Issue 269

Today's Topics:
Let's let Forbes lie. (4 msgs)
Let's let Forbes lie. -Reply
Notice for circulation regarding November consumer action (2 msgs)

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Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 11:34:31 -0500 From: NERC <nerc@mail.sover.net> Subject: Let's let Forbes lie.

This is a note regarding the latest mass media volley against recycling, published in the November 17 edition of Forbes magazine. =20

This article would be laughable, if it weren't published in a national magazine with broad exposure to the financial community. (Reason #8 is particularly funny -- see below.) But I hope that recyclers will just let it lie (bad pun intended), since direct responses would just give it more credibility than it deserves. And, America Recycles Day itself is the best response -- a proactive, non-reactionary, high-profile media event publicizing recycling on its own terms. This is in fact a perfect demonstration of the importance of America Recycles Day which even its critics within the environmental movement should acknowledge.

Here's a reprint of the article; I found it at www.forbes.com.

Why recycling is garbage=20

By Dan Seligman=20

Ten good reasons not to participate in America Recycles Day (Nov. 15).=20

1. We begin with the obvious. The core purpose of recycling is to conserve raw materials. But there is no present or prospective shortage of raw materials, so there is no need to conserve them. Airtight logic, eh? As economist Julian Simon keeps reminding us, impending shortages are invariably signaled in higher prices, but raw material prices keep falling (in real, inflation-adjusted terms).=20

2. There is also no shortage of landfill space. As guys from the Cato Institute keep mentioning, a hole in the ground 100 yards deep and 30 miles square could hold all the waste produced in this country during the next thousand years. To be sure, that assumes present rates of waste production. If we doubled the rate, we might have to dig another hole in a few hundred years.=20

3. There is a genuine shortage of leisure time in the land. This has obviously not occurred to the promoters of America Recycles Day, but bundling up newspapers and sending used LaserJet toner cartridges back to Hewlett-Packard can cut into the cocktail hour.=20

3(a). Washing cloth diapers at home is also a net subtraction from leisure time and is known to occasion feelings of revulsion among homemakers. It remains, however, the preferred solution of Earth Day celebrants, since cloth diapers are presumed to be biodegradable, and sending them out for washing results in a lot of pickups and deliveries by vehicles using evil fossil fuels. So what are homemakers to do? The record shows that seven to eight years ago they were being arm-twisted by environmentalists and regulators into buying reusable cloth diapers. More recently, common sense and Procter & Gamble public relations=97they are not completely antithetical=97have clearly prevailed. Disposable diapers today have an estimated 80% of the market.=20

4. The honorary chairman of America Recycles Day is a politician who goes around taking plainly illegal campaign contributions from a Buddhist temple.=20

5. Depending on whom you believe, the selfsame Vice President had something or nothing to do with the federal grants received by a recycling company called Molten Metal Technology, whose head contributed money to endow an academic chair in memory of Al Gore=92s sister.=20

6. The recycling laws are criminalizing people like John Mocombe, the increasingly famous amateur filmmaker. For folks who missed the Oct. 16 Associated Press story about John, he got arrested for trucking thousands of bottles and cans from New York, where they pay only 5 cents, to Michigan, where you get a dime. At last report, Mocombe was pleading guilty to fraud. And we still can=92t figure out what the crime was.=20

6(a). Additional essential details on the case: When asked whether his caper had been inspired by a somewhat similar story line in an old Seinfeld episode=97the one where Kramer and Newman use a postal truck for hauling bottles and cans to Michigan=97Mocombe denied it. He said he sought the dimes because he needed money to make a movie about the plight of the homeless. He also said he had been inspired by the idealism of Princess Diana.=20

6(b). Sudden afterthought on the Mocombe case: Maybe the crime was perjury.=20

7. Based on knowledge and belief, and supported by Jerry Taylor, director of natural resource studies at the Cato Institute, we would say recycling usually makes economic sense when it happens =93naturally=94=97 when it=92s not mandated by government=97and usually doesn=92t make sense when it happens only because it has been thusly mandated. Taylor says economic waste associated with mandated recycling probably runs into the tens of billions of dollars.=20

7(a). Recycling is a farce when municipalities spend heavily on it and then have to pay people to take away the stuff=97a standard scenario across the land. And recycling is a logical, totally inescapable development when the end product has some genuine market value. Several years ago, when newsprint prices were skyrocketing, cities all over America found themselves having to deal with freelance recyclers who got to be called =93paper rustlers=94=97characters who were snatching and reselling the bound-up papers at curbside before the municipal sanitation department came along. One of our favorite 1995 editorials was the one in the Houston Chronicle calling for jail and other stern measures to deal with the thieves while simultaneously worrying that this exercise shouldn=92t turn into =93harassment of the homeless.=94 Luckily or otherwise, the problem went away in 1996, when newsprint prices collapsed. Unfortunately for the homeless, the prices are still weak.=20

8. Amazing detail: Arguably the best, most devastating critique of recycling to appear in recent years was a long, fact-freighted June 30, 1996 article in, of all places, the Sunday magazine section of the liberal New York Times. The article, by staff writer John Tierney, says that =93recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America=94 and along the way shoots down just about every environmentalist claim for recycling you have ever heard.=20

8(a). Why, Tierney asks in the course of one shoot-down, do we have so many government mandates for recycling paper? There is certainly no shortage of trees. The data show three times as much virgin timber in the U.S. today as in 1920. And the newspaper recycling process is itself a source of pollution: =93fumes and noise from collection trucks, solid waste and sludge from the mills that remove ink and turn the paper into pulp. Recycling newsprint actually creates more water pollution than making new paper.=94=20

9. Proponents of recycling are lousy writers, as evidenced by every other sentence in Al Gore=92s Earth in the Balance, also by the following mangled verbiage recently noted on the Hewlett-Packard toner-cartridge- recycling Web site: =93We proactively avoid 154 hazardous materials from being used in our products=85.=94=20

10. We now live in a country where, to plagiarize a thought of Yale Professor David Gelernter, you are in big, big trouble if you promote the Ten Commandments in school, but preaching the recycling religion is increasingly de rigueur. Even though most of the kids getting indoctrinated were wearing disposable diapers just a few years earlier.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 10:50:35 -0800 From: Dave Reynolds <david_reynolds@prodigy.net> Subject: Let's let Forbes lie.

NERC wrote: > =3D

> This is a note regarding the latest mass media volley against recycling=3D , > published in the November 17 edition of Forbes magazine. > =3D

> This article would be laughable, if it weren't published in a national > magazine with broad exposure to the financial community. (Reason #8 is=3D

> particularly funny -- see below.) But I hope that recyclers will just > let it lie (bad pun intended), since direct responses would just give i=3D t > more credibility than it deserves.

Sorry, but I think this is just a poor excuse to relieve ourselves of our responsibility to take the time and put the facts together and communicate the real benefits of recycling. This deserves just as much response as Tierney's article. Don't assume that Forbes readers will be able to read through the fallacies and selective arguments set forth in the article. If readers do not come across any Letters to the Editor, then there is something that they WILL assume.... that the article was correct!

> And, America Recycles Day itself is > the best response -- a proactive, non-reactionary, high-profile media > event publicizing recycling on its own terms. This is in fact a perfec=3D t > demonstration of the importance of America Recycles Day which even its > critics within the environmental movement should acknowledge. > =3D

Sorry, but I do not agree with this, either. The article deserves a Letter to the Editor directly to Forbes. Since the article slams America Recycles Day, if Forbes readers do not see a printed response in Forbes magazine itself, then they will not even listen to what is being said during America Recycles Day.

If you want to roll over and die, I suggest that you get out of NERC and the recycling field all together. We need people with staying power.

> Here's a reprint of the article; I found it at www.forbes.com. > =3D

> Why recycling is garbage > =3D

> By Dan Seligman > =3D

> Ten good reasons not to participate in America > Recycles Day (Nov. 15). > =3D

> 1. We begin with the obvious. The core purpose > of recycling is to conserve raw materials. But > there is no present or prospective shortage of raw > materials, so there is no need to conserve them. > Airtight logic, eh? As economist Julian Simon > keeps reminding us, impending shortages are > invariably signaled in higher prices, but raw > material prices keep falling (in real, > inflation-adjusted terms). > =3D

> 2. There is also no shortage of landfill space. As > guys from the Cato Institute keep mentioning, a > hole in the ground 100 yards deep and 30 miles > square could hold all the waste produced in this > country during the next thousand years. To be > sure, that assumes present rates of waste > production. If we doubled the rate, we might have > to dig another hole in a few hundred years. > =3D

> 3. There is a genuine shortage of leisure time in > the land. This has obviously not occurred to the > promoters of America Recycles Day, but > bundling up newspapers and sending used > LaserJet toner cartridges back to > Hewlett-Packard can cut into the cocktail hour. > =3D

> 3(a). Washing cloth diapers at home is also a net > subtraction from leisure time and is known to > occasion feelings of revulsion among > homemakers. It remains, however, the preferred > solution of Earth Day celebrants, since cloth > diapers are presumed to be biodegradable, and > sending them out for washing results in a lot of > pickups and deliveries by vehicles using evil fossil > fuels. So what are homemakers to do? The > record shows that seven to eight years ago they > were being arm-twisted by environmentalists and > regulators into buying reusable cloth diapers. > More recently, common sense and Procter & > Gamble public relations=3D97they are not completely > antithetical=3D97have clearly prevailed. Disposable > diapers today have an estimated 80% of the > market. > =3D

> 4. The honorary chairman of America Recycles > Day is a politician who goes around taking plainly > illegal campaign contributions from a Buddhist > temple. > =3D

> 5. Depending on whom you believe, the selfsame > Vice President had something or nothing to do > with the federal grants received by a recycling > company called Molten Metal Technology, > whose head contributed money to endow an > academic chair in memory of Al Gore=3D92s sister. > =3D

> 6. The recycling laws are criminalizing people like > John Mocombe, the increasingly famous amateur > filmmaker. For folks who missed the Oct. 16 > Associated Press story about John, he got > arrested for trucking thousands of bottles and > cans from New York, where they pay only 5 > cents, to Michigan, where you get a dime. At last > report, Mocombe was pleading guilty to fraud. > And we still can=3D92t figure out what the crime was. > =3D

> 6(a). Additional essential details on the case: > When asked whether his caper had been inspired > by a somewhat similar story line in an old Seinfeld > episode=3D97the one where Kramer and Newman > use a postal truck for hauling bottles and cans to > Michigan=3D97Mocombe denied it. He said he > sought the dimes because he needed money to > make a movie about the plight of the homeless. > He also said he had been inspired by the idealism > of Princess Diana. > =3D

> 6(b). Sudden afterthought on the Mocombe case: > Maybe the crime was perjury. > =3D

> 7. Based on knowledge and belief, and > supported by Jerry Taylor, director of natural > resource studies at the Cato Institute, we would > say recycling usually makes economic sense when > it happens =3D93naturally=3D94=3D97 when it=3D92s not mandated > by government=3D97and usually doesn=3D92t make sense > when it happens only because it has been thusly > mandated. Taylor says economic waste > associated with mandated recycling probably runs > into the tens of billions of dollars. > =3D

> 7(a). Recycling is a farce when municipalities > spend heavily on it and then have to pay people > to take away the stuff=3D97a standard scenario > across the land. And recycling is a logical, totally > inescapable development when the end product > has some genuine market value. Several years > ago, when newsprint prices were skyrocketing, > cities all over America found themselves having to > deal with freelance recyclers who got to be called > =3D93paper rustlers=3D94=3D97characters who were snatching > and reselling the bound-up papers at curbside > before the municipal sanitation department came > along. One of our favorite 1995 editorials was the > one in the Houston Chronicle calling for jail and > other stern measures to deal with the thieves while > simultaneously worrying that this exercise > shouldn=3D92t turn into =3D93harassment of the homeless.=3D94 > Luckily or otherwise, the problem went away in > 1996, when newsprint prices collapsed. > Unfortunately for the homeless, the prices are still > weak. > =3D

> 8. Amazing detail: Arguably the best, most > devastating critique of recycling to appear in > recent years was a long, fact-freighted June 30, > 1996 article in, of all places, the Sunday magazine > section of the liberal New York Times. The > article, by staff writer John Tierney, says that > =3D93recycling may be the most wasteful activity in > modern America=3D94 and along the way shoots > down just about every environmentalist claim for > recycling you have ever heard. > =3D

> 8(a). Why, Tierney asks in the course of one > shoot-down, do we have so many government > mandates for recycling paper? There is certainly > no shortage of trees. The data show three times > as much virgin timber in the U.S. today as in > 1920. And the newspaper recycling process is > itself a source of pollution: =3D93fumes and noise from > collection trucks, solid waste and sludge from the > mills that remove ink and turn the paper into pulp. > Recycling newsprint actually creates more water > pollution than making new paper.=3D94 > =3D

> 9. Proponents of recycling are lousy writers, as > evidenced by every other sentence in Al Gore=3D92s > Earth in the Balance, also by the following > mangled verbiage recently noted on the > Hewlett-Packard toner-cartridge- recycling Web > site: =3D93We proactively avoid 154 hazardous > materials from being used in our products=3D85.=3D94 > =3D

> 10. We now live in a country where, to plagiarize > a thought of Yale Professor David Gelernter, you > are in big, big trouble if you promote the Ten > Commandments in school, but preaching the > recycling religion is increasingly de rigueur. Even > though most of the kids getting indoctrinated were > wearing disposable diapers just a few years > earlier.

-Dave Reynolds

------------------------------

Date: 07 Nov 97 14:50:00 (-0500) From: horace.morancie@gsa.gov Subject: Let's let Forbes lie.

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--UNS_gsauns2_2735890251--

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Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 16:51:20 -0500 From: NERC <nerc@mail.sover.net> Subject: Let's let Forbes lie.

Dave Reynolds wrote (amongst other things):

"This deserves just as much response as Tierney's article. Don't assume that Forbes readers will be able to read through the fallacies and selective arguments set forth in the article. If readers do not come across any Letters to the Editor, then there is something that they WILL assume.... that the article was correct!..."

"...The article deserves a Letter to the Editor directly to Forbes.=20 Since the article slams America Recycles Day, if Forbes readers do not see a printed response in Forbes magazine itself, then they will not even listen to what is being said during America Recycles Day."

Dave,

You miss my point entirely.

I'm not suggesting we roll over and die. And I'm not suggesting we don't respond to Forbes. I'll be writing a letter, and I hope Forbes is inundated just like the Times Magazine was after the Tierny debacle.=20 What I AM suggesting is that we shouldn't launch a broad based, high-profile effort from all quarters to tackle this point by point, especially outside of Forbes. To do so would be counter productive.

To sustain and gain support for recycling, we need to promote it on its own terms, with our own message, not in a defensive, tit-for-tat reactionary mode. Widepread citation of this article in other publications will only help to raise its profile and, unfortunately, lend it credibility. That's just the way it works. We'll get much more out of this approach than we ever will from coverage that explicitly reacts to some outrageous perspective that is clearly outside the mainstream. And yes, America Recycles Day is a perfect opportunity to do so (just as it was designed to be).

While letters to Forbes surely must counter its ridiculous points, the article is not worthy of a widely circulated point-by-point rebuttal similar to, for example, the excellent rebuttal to the Tierny article prepared by EDF. The most important points to make for the Forbes readership don't come up at all in this article -- the billions invested in profitable recycling companies in the last decade, and the entrepreneurial opportunities offered by recycling.

This article is absurd at a much higher level than it's specific points. It's starting point is absurd -- it's a conservative rag venting, blowing off hot air about what it perceives to be a liberal agenda associated with Steve Forbes' arch nemises -- Bill and Al.=20 Trying to get a rise out of its well-to-do readership, and probably succeeding.

I say let's get on with our own proactive agenda and not waste too much time with this nonsense.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 15:37:11 -0600 From: George Dreckmann <GDRECKMANN@ci.madison.wi.us> Subject: Let's let Forbes lie. -Reply

I agree with NERC on this one. Forbes is hardly recognized as an impartial and accurate source on environmental and solid waste issues.=20 Also, most of the twits who will believe this stuff will not be influenced by facts.

Another point, this was a humorous peice, so why not just laugh at a few of its better jokes and ignore the rest. =20

We need to focus our energies on the positives things wqe are trying to do, not expending our energy on this negitive stuff. Let's us set the agenda instead of following the anti's. A look at my program shows me that my participation hasn't suffered because of Tierney, Porter, et al because the public still wants to recycle.

Pax,

George Dreckmann Madison, WI

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Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 09:47:51 From: Betsy Dorn <betsydorn@mindspring.com> Subject: Notice for circulation regarding November consumer action

NOVEMBER - A TIME FOR CONSUMER PRO-ACTION By: Betsy Dorn, The Center for Life in Balance

This November, Americans are being called into action on three different occasions to change their purchasing and consumption behavior. November 15th is America Recycles Day, the theme for which is, =93Keep recycling working: buy recycled.=94 Through this event, Americans nationwide are= being asked to complete pledge cards reflecting their commitment to recycle more, buy products made from recyclable materials, and support their local recycling programs. =20

November 20th is the third annual Use Less Stuff Day, held on the Thursday before Thanksgiving to bring attention to the high-waste nature of the holiday season. Sponsors of Use Less Stuff (ULS) Day tell us that during the five weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's, Americans produce an extra one million tons of trash per week, compared to any other time of the year. Americans are asked, as part of the ULS campaign, to take steps to reduce the amount of waste they generate by cutting down on consumption, reusing products as opposed to discarding them, and avoiding unnecessary packaging.

November 28th is International Buy Nothing Day (always held on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year). Buy Nothing Day promoters are calling attention to our shop-=92til-you-drop lifestyle and urge people across the world to take a one-day time out from making purchases of any kind as well as to free themselves from credit card debt and a lifestyle of excessive consumption.

The hundreds of sponsors behind these three events share a common belief that the collective actions of individuals can make a significant difference in reducing resource consumption and waste generation in America. Coming at a time in our nation=92s history when people generally feel helpless with regard to changing the course of society, this can be a powerful and refreshing message.

American consumers are used to being told what to buy, but not how to exercise their purchasing power to bring about social change. Yet, companies working to promote their products in the marketplace recognize the power of consumer choice, as exhibited by their ongoing efforts to track consumer demand to ensure their products are at the top of the wish list. Hence, it stands to reason that if consumers demand environmentally sound products and products made by socially responsible companies, that is what businesses will supply and become. Indeed, it is the purchasing and consumption decisions made by individuals at home and in the workplace which drive the entire nature of business activity.

In addition to being prudent consumers, Americans have the important choice of being more than just consumers. Many people are finding that putting in long hours on the job to earn money in order to spend long hours shopping to buy things which then must be maintained, stored, moved from home to home, and ultimately discarded leaves little time to enjoy whatever else life has to offer. Buy Nothing Day, in particular, offers people an opportunity to become more conscious of their consumption habits and in so doing gain more control over how they want to spend their limited time and financial resources. This can be particularly appealing to those who would like to put more joy and happiness back in their holiday season.

So, in addition to giving thanks this November, Americans have three opportunities to join others across the nation in proactively conserving resources, generating less waste and improving their quality of life, particularly with regard to the holiday season. As stated by the sponsors of Buy Nothing Day, the shining hope for a revolution in human consciousness lies in the actions of everyday people.

For more information on how to make a difference, visit these web sites or contact the following organizations:

AMERICA RECYCLES DAY:

http//www.americarecyclesday.org (download pledge cards, find listings of contacts and events for each participating state)

NC events sponsor: North Carolina Recycling Association, 919-851-8144

USE LESS STUFF DAY:

http://cygnus-group.com/ULS/ULSDAY/ULSDay.html

National Sponsor: Use Less Stuff Report, Ann Arbor, MI, 313-668-1690 NC sponsor: NC Div. of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, 919-715-6500

BUY NOTHING DAY:

http://www.adbusters.org/Pop/buynothingday.html

International Sponsor: Powershift Advocacy Agency, The Media Foundation, Vancouver, B.C., 800-663-1243 or 604-736-9401

There is currently no official NC sponsor. Interested parties may contact the Center for Life in Balance, 919-387-9059

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 16:11:27 -0500 From: Cindy/Mike Shea <mcshea1@gte.net> Subject: Notice for circulation regarding November consumer action

Dear Betsy,

Thanks. This is a great, well written reminder of the many public=20 education/participation opportunities coming up this month. I'll pass it along to the=20 editors of the St. Petersburg Times -- a refreshingly progressive paper in= this=20 otherwise not so progressive area. I'll also forward it to a few county commissioners,=20 recycling coordinators, etc.

Starting next month, I'll be contributing regularly to a web journal on community=20 sustainability, so please keep me on your circulation list. (The current site is=20 http://edesign.state.fl.us The energy service will remain there and the= =20 sustainability side will be at http://sustainable.state.fl.us Please feel free to=20 offer any suggestions regarding what you'd like to see or improve.) I got this posting=20 on Green Yes.

All the best, Cindy Pollock Shea Promoting Sustainable Development

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End of GreenYes Digest V97 #269 ******************************