Like sharks smelling blood, the libertarian, smaller-government crowd again is blabbering about municipal recycling being "worthless" and "an economic disaster." It's time a new voice be heard that counters the rantings of the anti-recyclers. And 1 have a nominee for that new voice. Municipal recycling is going through a hard patch. An unrelenting market downturn in all commodities has resulted in some local recycling programs recovering ever more tons at the same lime they generate record low revenues. Numerous elected officials, even many who generally are supportive of the economic and environmental benefits of materuils recovery, are carefully assessing governmental recycling program budgets. As a result, a handful of small programs have been abandoned (see the "Programs in Action" department in this and previous issues).
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