Recycling has been a major part of the ecological movement for
almost as long as there has been an ecological movement. It's
popularity began with public awareness of the amount of waste
going into landfills, and the popularity of the environmental
movement as a whole (Rachel Carson's Silent Spring having much
to do with it). Today, recycling programmes are popular not only
because i this sense of ecological stewardship, but because of
the market. Petroleum and woodpulp prices are high enough that
using recycled materials is just as costly or more economical.
In all the efforts ecologists have been pushing (especially
where i work, at the Éco-Quartier), i feel there is not enough
of a push towards waste-free living. It's very simple for people
to simply recycle all their waste and think that they are doing
something good for the environment. Because in way recycling is
not good for the environment, it is just slightly better than
throwing something into a landfill. It still takes energy to
transport those rec