The economic slump has resulted in an enviro-wacko’s dream: plummeting consumption. But with that drop in consumer over-indulgence has come a very predictable consequence:
Faced with a dramatic slump in the recycling market, the director of the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority has cut 20 of his 24 employees’ work week to four days from five, shuttered six of the authority’s drop-off stations and is urging residents to hoard their recyclables after informing municipalities with curbside recycling programs that the center will accept only paper until further notice.
“The market is just not there anymore,” Steenstra said.
Just months after riding an incredible high, the recycling market has tanked almost in lockstep with the global economic meltdown. As consumer demand for autos, appliances and new homes dropped, so did the steel and pulp mills’ demand for scrap, paper and other recyclables.
I say it was predictable, but that only applies to people who actually understand rudimentary economics, which liberals and environmental activists don’t. They just look at the obvious (evil corporations having trouble) and cheer. They don’t see, until it’s too late, the loss of jobs that, yes, trickle down as a result.
It reminds me of the big luxury tax put on yachts some years ago, which got the left all soak-the-rich giddy, until stories began circulating of boat builders going under and their employees being laid off. They never learn.
