[Manglano]

At least, properly separated, it degrades and can be reprocessed into more paper and cardboard. The US exports CRT televisions and chipsets for electronics with such minimal production quality as to be considered destined-for-disposal.

In some regions, pirated materials derived from metals, petrochemicals, and advanced dyes are immediately destroyed and shoveled into landfills: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/steam-rollers-c...

The brown paper bag and the Anchor Hocking jar are going to come back in a big way...

[ctrl-j]

> The brown paper bag and the Anchor Hocking jar are going to come back in a big way...

As well they should.

Back when I was growing up we weren't taught to recycle, we were taught the three R's.

1. Reduce 2. Reuse 3. Recycle

And those R's were supposed to be in order of priority.

[cat199]

> The US exports CRT televisions and chipsets for electronics with such minimal production quality as to be considered destined-for-disposal.

and is far from unique in doing so..

[Aloha]

I'd love to buy more of my stuff in glass.

[Manglano]

Even something as simple as being able to have a clerk fill my jar with a weight of instant coffee would cut down my recycling mass by an average of about 50g per week and eliminate some plastic. Glass doesn't have a limit on recycle phases if handled correctly but all plastic other than PLA has a pretty short recycle lifetime.