Smalltime's Solution for Maximum Recycling

After much careful thought on the issue I have come to this conclusion: transportation costs make recycling unprofitable. Trash companies had the ultimate business model until the green movement showed up to ruin it. Think about it, you drive out and pick up the garbage and drive back and bury it in the ground. That is one round trip of fuel per truck per pickup. Now you have a second dumpster for cardboard. There is a second truck and a second round trip of fuel and handling cost for something you used to just bury. 

I found the answer to this problem by looking at two other industries, pallets and scrap metal. Pallet pickers do all the legwork and absorb all the fuel cost to get the pallets back to a central buying location. Likewise with aluminum can pickers. The incentive is there for individuals to go out do all the dirty work and pay all the inbound transportation cost. Here is how we get at the millions of pounds of plastic and glass that are left behind in this process.

1. Have a national return for deposit law on glass and plastic bottles
2. Municipalities would begin issuing scavenger permits at say $100 per year (added revenue for strapped cities and towns)
3. Permits holders assume their own risks by engaging in scavenging and cannot sue property owners for injuries or other losses while scavenging.
4. The scavengers absorb all inbound costs. 
5. Large companies, like Waste Management simply build the buying centers and buy from the public.

Remember that recyclable materials are feed stock for industry just like raw materials are. If you introduce more recyclables into the marketplace, then you reduce the raw material usage. In the case of plastics there are enormous amounts going into the landfills and plastic is so easily melted down and reused it is a travesty in my view.

Since no one reads anymore, I will post a video with this same plan soon so stay tuned.