We should be asking why we are creating so much waste and how we can reuse it, rather than sweeping it under the carpet

News that the recycling chain has all but collapsed because of failed demand in China has produced the usual wringing of hands and a startling lack of alternative voices.

In terms of straight news reporting – last night’s BBC news for example, and today’s broadsheet coverage – the mountains of rubbish are presented as a “crisis” symptomatic of problems with the global economy. For the Daily Mail, this crisis is symptomatic of something else as well, not just a global crisis but proof that recycling is yet another pointless nanny-state demand on the already overburdened lives of the taxpayer. The paper hasn’t yet run the headline “Waste of time” but it can’t be far off.

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/recycling-credit-crunch