Trash and the Recession

So I was reading this article that a friend of mine forwarded about the decline in landfill waste since the beginning of the so-called "recession," and how in California, which traditionally has the busiest landfills, rates have dropped in some places by 30%! This naturally brought a smile to my face, especially when the article quoted people who were saying "finding second uses for oversized packaging such as cereal boxes and for disposable glasses and plates before tossing them in the recycling bin." SCORE!

The smile slightly soured though, when I continued the article and got the numbers, as it often does, for example with "clean coal." What exactly is this decline in real figures? Well, in one landfill, only 66,000 tons were deposited in the landfill...in December. Sixty six thousand tons. In one month. And this is what they are calling the biggest decline they've ever seen. Tons. Food for though.

Also distressing, at least for its showing how razor thin the edge is our economy sits on, is because of the lack of consumerism, recycled materials such as cardboard and plastic, have dropped in commodity prices, sometimes by up to 90%. So, many recycling operations are shutting down because of lack of profits to be derived from post consumer goods. Some cities that have curbside recycling programs have discovered that they can no longer profit from the sale of those recycled materials, and so have laid off their sorting crews, and now just dump all the recyclables in the landfill with everything else.

My city has just in the last two weeks started its own curbside recycling program. I wonder what they're actually doing with it all.