California's largest recycling
business closes, 750 laid off
Associated Press,
by
Staff
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
8/6/2019 10:42:50 AM
SAN JOSE, Calif. — California's largest operator of recycling redemption centers shut down Monday and laid off 750 employees.
RePlanet closed all 284 of its centers, and company president David Lawrence said the decision was driven by increased business costs and falling prices of recycled aluminum and PET plastic, the San Jose Mercury News reported . The move came three years after RePlanet closed 191 of its recycling centers and laid off 278 workers. Now many San Francisco Bay Area residents have few or no options for redeeming their recyclables, which is especially concerning for those who live in poverty or experience
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Gruntmedic 8/6/2019 11:25:54 AM (No. 144255)
Most of it winds up in landfill anyways.
3 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Axeman 8/6/2019 11:39:12 AM (No. 144274)
Minimum wage + taxes + regulations + energy +++ != jobs.
5 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 8/6/2019 11:46:40 AM (No. 144283)
Recycling was always a scam on anything but, POSSIBLY, aluminum because it uniquely uses a lot of electricity to smelt from ore. Much less energy is used to remelt recycled aluminum.
Most other products use the same or more energy and more effort to recycle them than to use virgin materials. And frequently, the recycled material is low quality. Recycled paper makes those dingy gray rough formed drink trays that some fast food restaurants use, or egg flats for 144 eggs, low cost, low profit products.
Like all "green" BS, it is uneconomic, unworkable and produces (mostly) inferior products. Aluminum is pretty much a unicorn in recycling, but even pop cans aren't bringing enough to justify a special trip to drop them off, even with a couple of huge trash bags in the trunk. You have to be "going by" the recycling place to make any sense.
9 people like this.
Liberalism and progressivism are scams...
6 people like this.
Unfortunately, most of what's put into recycling bins is contaminated, or becomes contaminated.
If you're not washing the jelly jar, or the milk carton, the pasta sauce container, and just dumping it into the bin, it's not ready for recycling.
Same with those plastic plates, if there's still food on them, it's not ready for recycling either, and likely now will contaminate other items you have in the "green" bin.
And, once China stopped taking this type of mixed recyclable materials there were fewer places to sell the stuff.
So, the local recycling facilities had a harder time making the economics work.
4 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
couchguy 8/6/2019 1:06:22 PM (No. 144360)
Recycling has always been a scam. Make the braindead feel good about themselves for separating their garbage. If it's worth re-using it's called scrap. See steel, brass, aluminum, copper etc.
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 8/6/2019 1:36:57 PM (No. 144409)
#7, you are exactly right. The poor dump it out the side of the car when they are done, where ever they are.
6 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
GO3 8/6/2019 1:42:39 PM (No. 144417)
So, can I recycle my little blue bin now, or should I just throw it in the trash with everything else?
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
davew 8/6/2019 2:08:21 PM (No. 144439)
So does this mean that the stores will stop collecting the CRV fees when I buy soda and beer in aluminum cans? I didn't see that news report.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/6/2019 2:17:18 PM (No. 144449)
I hate to see people lose their jobs but this is funny as hell. They probably went broke supplying each household with six different colors of bins to separate their recyclables before the truck came by and dumped them all into the same bed. Lunacy at its finest.
4 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
HotRod 8/6/2019 2:52:57 PM (No. 144484)
Did the AP staff mention the cost of doing business in California? Like taxes, regulations, cost of living for employees, etc? I wonder how many of the employees were illegal immigrants?
3 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Old Army Vet 8/6/2019 6:32:49 PM (No. 144666)
As usual, liberalism leading nowhere.
3 people like this.
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Comments:
Recycling is just about dead. It costs far more to collect and sort it than will ever be realized when sold (if it can be sold at all).