Below is a post which was edited and re-printed in the Laredo Morning Times, on June 9, 2014, under the Letters to the Editors. I am grateful to the editorial staff for printing the letter and for editing which maintained the integrity of my original thoughts. However, some content was cut due to a constraint of space. For anyone interested, here is the original posting from my Facebook page. Of course, as usual, if anyone wishes to debate me, enlighten me, or ask more questions, I can be contacted at: darrell.mills@yahoo.com.
Corrupt Politicians and Environmental Hacks Scam Taxpayers
I still cannot believe the "hub-bub" over the plastic bag ban and the recycling program. I find it ridiculous that a councilman would go through residents' trash to "monitor" forced compliance with recycling ! The idea of recycling is another scam perpetrated against taxpayers. First, the program has nothing to do with reducing the waste. It has to do with making money. Contrary to popular belief, recycling does not reduce manufacturing's carbon foot print; it increases it! I hear arguments about how long it takes a plastic bottle to decompose in a landfill, but how long does glass sit in a landfill? Any less than plastic? Of course not! However, the city subsidized private company cannot profit from glass, so we are deceived into thinking it benign and plastic much maligned. Why is glass any less a threat to environment sitting in a landfill than plastic? Pretty poor logic, isn't it? Recycling only works when industries reduce their mining, forestry, water and coal burning activities. This is not happening! In fact, many industries are increasing these activities. People recycle without realizing they are not reducing any carbon foot print, but actually increasing it. So, in fact, the fraud is being perpetrated on a global scale. If recycling is to achieve its goal of conserving resources and reducing the carbon foot print of manufacturing, it is only logical industries must be forced to comply with recycling programs. To penalize the consumer for the wastefulness of manufacturers will accomplish nothing, except to continue to allow manufacturing to profit from the ignorance of the consumer.
Why not be egalitarian in approaching recycling?
If the city is going to compel citizens to recycle, shouldn't the city be compelled to do the right thing and recycle all materials regardless of profit? I mean councilman Vela, can we place a price tag on environmental responsibility? If this is the right thing to do, why isn't everyone doing it; or being forced to do it? Second, I hear that the city cannot make apartment complexes recycle because they have private vendors pickup their trash. Well, in the past those residents used to pickup their own blue bags and the city picked up those bags, regardless. But the real deception is the city claims to have no recourse where private sanitation companies are concerned. WRONG! Those privatized vendors have a franchise contract with the city. While these contracts are valid for 25 years, the city has a clause allowing them to alter the terms of the contract to protect the publics' interests. Nobody is telling the public about this clause! Now why isn't anyone insisting on city wide recycling if it is so important? What is good enough for some citizens should serve all citizens well and promote equality.
Business as usual in Laredo
Lastly, this recycling program is really nothing more than a sham to subsidize a third party private company because a member of the corporate entity has a family tie to a sitting member of the city council. There is no reason the city cannot and should not run this enterprise. The truth of the matter is the city secured the $12mil bond to update equipment in the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) and buy the blue bins. First Recycling did not invest dollar one! Think about this: the third party recycling company does not own anything connected with the recycling program, except the profits derived! The city owns the blue bins, the trucks which pickup the recyclables, the taxpayers pays for the fuel which powers theses trucks, the taxpayers pay the salaries for the labor who pick up these recyclables, the city owns the facility the trucks provide door-side delivery of the recyclables to, the machinery used to bale the recyclables, and to add insult to injury; the taxpayers even pay the $1.25 per ton to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to dispose of what does not get recycled, but ends up in the landfill. The city scams its residents because they say every city in Texas is recycling. This Tu Quo Que fallacy( Latin for you too) that other cities are doing it too is not a good defense. Would this defense work on a cop to avoid a ticket or on a supervisor to avoid a write up? No! And it shouldn't apply to excuse corrupted politicians or hack environmentalists who want to justify their existences. Real environmentalists are screaming about Fukushima still spewing radioactive water into the Pacific, the unlined pits in New Mexico which hold nuclear waste and threaten our Rio Grande, or even the Mexican cities along the border who dump raw sewage and industrial waste into it, or any number of imminent environmental threats! But no, they crusaded for a ban against plastic bags and recycle-for- profit- Ponzi schemes. Residents, we deserve and are paying for twice a week pickup; the city should provide it, and relegate recycling to a voluntary endeavor without regard to profit, but with regard to good environmental stewardship. One final note, Jay St. John you are a sell out.
