The recycling craze isn’t the perfect, planet-saving method many environmental enthusiasts want you to believe, according to the CBS “Evening News.” [1]
It seems recycling may be deadly.
“The business of recycling is a big part of the reason people are piling their trucks full of junk,” said CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes on the July 11 “Evening News.”
According to the CBS Web site report, “the mess [from trucks full of junk] causes some 25,000 accidents a year.”
The story focused on “saving lives” as Katie Couric referred to it because at least three people mentioned had been killed by debris. Drivers were killed either by falling pieces of material or as a result of dodging large objects left in the road.
“There’s been an increase in both the scrap metal and scrap paper and cardboard,” said Officer Kenneth Duke of the California Highway Patrol. “There’s been a big increase in – in people collecting all the cardboard and bringing it to the recycling center.”
Still, mandatory recycling legislation is gaining steam throughout the country. For example,
Statistics from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries [4] indicate scrap metal now accounts for 60 percent of the scrap materials recycled in the