Glass houses

Neither feel-good indoctrination nor government compulsion can spare the effort of "going green" from cold economic realities. Take recycling. No one dares question why we recycle glass when it's not cost effective or especially good for the environment.

Yes, glass is easy enough to set aside on garbage day. Many states already require consumers to pay deposits on glass bottles, so separating jars from trash isn't a big deal in homes or businesses.

But imagine the horror of some Wyoming residents when it was reported that glass placed in recycling bins across the state -- nine tons per week -- winds up in a Cheyenne-area landfill. It's used to buffer concrete-walled wells that pump toxic fluids out of the dump.

"We are stockpiling it in a desperate search for a market," said landfill foreman Monty Landers.

In fact, only 25 percent of glass is recycled nationwide, according to the EPA. That doesn't compare favorably with plastic at 31 percent, aluminum at 45 percent and steel at 63 percent.

Why are so many Americans going through the motions of feeling environmentally responsible when they'd save themselves time and trouble by just throwing glass bottles in the garbage? Although glass can be recycled over and over again, and melting down glass to make new bottles isn't terribly expensive, new glass is made from an exceedingly cheap and common resource: sand.

No green activist will ever have to worry about ending this country's dependence on foreign sand. Nevada's got that need covered for at least the next 50 millennia.

In addition, recycling glass requires untold millions of gallons of water to wash used bottles and jars. Then there's the expense -- and all the emissions -- of fueling trucks to collect glass bottles and jars, then transporting the haul to processing and manufacturing facilities.

Wyoming doesn't recycle glass because there isn't a recycling center close enough to make it worth the cost. Yet there's no shortage of politically correct glass recycling bins anywhere.

Meanwhile, governments race to build expensive solar panels that don't provide a return on investment for nearly 50 years, and windmills that produce power less than 5 percent of the time.

So what if it makes no economic sense? That's the price of making you think you're saving the planet from dangers that don't exist in the first place.