Recycling is the Wave of the Future

One of my favorite TV shows is called American Pickers. It's on the History Channel and it's about two guys who are "pickers." They travel the country in their van looking for old pieces of junk that they can resell and make a profit. What makes the shows interesting is that they come across some really unusual items and rare pieces of Americana. There's also another show that focuses on guys that go around in New Jersey and pick up scrap metal. It's on Spike and it is called "Scrappers."

It seems that shows that focus on recycling are very popular these days. More and more people are into recycling because it not only helps the planet, but sometimes they can make a buck or two.

My brother was into recycling long before it became fashionable. He went around with a magnet around his neck and a big canvas bag on his back. With his beard he looked like a bald Santa Claus. He was looking for pieces of copper that he could resell at the junk yard. He got them from old abandoned buildings.

Some times he recycled old copper that was still in use. A former ironworker who was not afraid to climb up high, he sometimes cut the copper guttering off of churches and factories and resold it. At least he was recycling.

According to the Healthy Planet Magazine, people are recycling a lot more than they used to but there is still a lot that they needlessly throw away, billions of dollars a year worth of stuff they could recycle "Throwing away resources is throwing away jobs and economic opportunities. Given the current state of the economy, we need to capture these lost resources and use them to put Missourians back to work."

Recycling has changed quite a bit over the years. You used to have to separate all of your recyclables into different bins, but now I have a bin outside my house that I can put what they call "single stream recyclables" into.

The materials are automatically sorted when they get to the dump or scrapyard so they can be used again. Unfortunately, sometimes materials that aren't separated beforehand are not of the highest quality. There are always trade offs.

One fascinating use of old plastic is to turn it into lumber that is used to make park benches and patio decks. It can be painted, it's durable and it never rots. Old tires can burn forever and pollute the air, but some of them are being recycled into binding material for road beds. And the list goes on creating new employment opportunities and help for the economy. With our limited resources recycling is the wave of the future.

Source: http://www.thehealthyplanet.com/aug2010_market.htm