Recycling is a Waste of Time!

Battle of Ideas 2007, Royal College of Art, London

Speakers:
Suzy Dean,
Thomas Deichmann,
Julia Hailes,
Julie Hill,
Rob Lyons

Blurb:

With rubbish a major political issue, and threats from councils that residents might be fined if they do not sort their waste correctly, recycling has become a hot political issue. But, why bother to recycle? The benefits are far from indisputable. According to advocates of the new green orthodoxy, recycling is essential if we are to reduce pollution and alleviate global warming, but given its limited impact on CO2 emissions, it often seems as if the imperative to recycle has more to do with conspicuous 'good citizenship' than efficient waste management. Perhaps recycling is not only an inconvenient, but an unnecessary part of our daily routines.

Some have hailed the recycling industry of Mumbai as an economic model that we should all take notice of. Many inhabitants of the Indian city spend their time sorting dumped rubbish for recycling. But, how does this resource efficiency match up to our standards of human efficiency? Might a certain amount of wasted material be a price worth paying for the freedom to spend time on other things?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• battle
• ideas
• institute
• 2007
• politics
• debate
• recycling
• environment
• green
• rubbish
• waste

[smallblueclouds]

I also heard the voice of Brendan O'Neil in the audience (or am I imagining that?).

[smallblueclouds]

Julie Hill came across as a slightly sour faced petulant teenager, "I don't like what I hear, so there's no point in talking to you".

[friendofthefunk]

@MrApplewine Environmentalism is like Sharia law? Oooooookay.

[friendofthefunk]

The German guy is full of crap. To say there is room for methodological improvement in recycling is one thing, but to oppose recycling on principle is absolutely absurd. If he's that bothered by the idea that people should think about what happens to their garbage (a weird, extreme position in itself), then fine -- let the sanitation departments separate the waste, as is done in many places.

[MrApplewine]

Recycling is a religious practice to show devotion to the Earth. It is part of the Earth religion or environmentalism or green religion as it is often called. There is nothing wrong politically with having a religion, but merging it with a government is not moral and the political ideology of environmentalism is not the same as the religion. The same is true with Islam. The religion is fine, but not the political ideology. A sharia environmentalism is very bad for freedom and human life.

[MrApplewine]

"the key resource on the planet is human inventiveness" So true. Bravo. The green faith must be separated from government, just as Islam and Christianity. The greens must not be allowed to implement a Pagan Sharia any more than the other faiths. The green faith is much more modern and uses pseudo scientific material, so it is harder to separate. Recycling and global warming are two green faith beliefs.