Incredibly well written and executed. They break down the pros and cons of recycling point by point. The only regretable thing is that they only had 30 minutes, this should have easily been an hour. I've had my suspicions about recycling, but it's an outright fraud. The other reviews on here complain that they don't educate us on making less waste. We do produce too much waste as a country, but that's not the point of this episode. It's not called "How to Make Less Waste", it's called "RECYCLING" and they stuck to the topic. It's not a valid criticism to say that the episode didn't cover a topic they didn't set out to cover. They set out to uncover the fraud and self-perpetuating business that recycling has turned into and how most of it is doing more harm than good. This episode spurred my interest and I've done a lot of research on this and they're right. Recycling paper is more harmful to the atmosphere than making new paper. That's staggering. I believe in less polution to keep our air and water clean, but if you've ever driven by a recycling plant you will roll up your windows for quite a few miles. New York City even stopped their recycling reprogam all together for about a year because it was too expensive. When they did that it removed the guilt of throwing things away for a lot of people and then haven't gone back even when the program was reinstated.
I was very pro-recycling in high school and we even had an organization to collect and recycle for the entire school. I feel a bit used from that effort and wish I had known about this sooner.moreless
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Episode Summary
Exposing the reality behind recycling, a supposedly pro-environment activity that in actuality creates pollution, has to be subsidized by the government because it's cost ineffective, and is completely unnecessary because, contrary to popular belief, our landfills are not running out of space.''''Special Guest Experts include:''''Amanda Enclade (Recycler)''Neil Seldman (President, Institute for Local Self-Reliance)''David Wood (Executive Director, GrassRoots Recycling Network)''Daniel Benjamin (Professor of Economics, Clemson University)''J. Winston Porter (Former Assistant Administrator, EPA)''Angela Logomasini (Director of Risk and Environmental Policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute)''Joe Howard (Information Officer, Sanitation District, Los Angeles County)''Kreigh Hampel (Recycling Coordinator, City of Burbank)moreless
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Penn Jillette
Himself
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Teller
Himself
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Bruce Kimmel
Fake Recycling Bureaucrat
Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions
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Trivia
ADD TRIVIA- New recycling rules used in the recycling stunt: Beige- colored paper White- labeled metal cans Purple- plastics that have come in contact with food Yellow- wet food items Brown- lightly soiled toilet paper Red- biohazardous items Edit
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Notes
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Quotes
ADD QUOTES- Benjamin: Once you build a landfill, after you fill it in, you put a layer of dirt on top, you plant some stuff on it, and you turn it into a park or a golf course. Penn: [as footage of a landfill park plays] IT'S NICER THAN MY YARD! Edit
- Porter: Well, some people have criticized me and others of saying there was a crisis back in the late eighties as far as landfill space. I don't think I said that. I think I expressed concern. Penn: Mr. Porter? Concern is when you raise an eyebrow and say "Is this gonna be a problem?" and start doing your homework to see if it is. YOU put out a F*CKING paper with the seal of the federal government on it where you said: "We're running out of places to dispose our trash", and "1/3 of the nation's landfills will be full within the next few years", and "If we wait, the problem will get worse". WE thought there was a landfill problem because YOU, the g*dd*mn, lazy, loser government expert, SAID there was a problem. And you arranged to spend EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR of OUR money solving it. I know. It's our fault. We should never ask anyone in government to assess a situation. THANK YOU for the annual EIGHT BILLION DOLLAR reminder. J. Winston Porter, you could not have been more wrong if your name were W. WRONGY WRONGENSTEIN! So thank you very much for starting an entirely USELESS ecological movement. SH*T! Edit
- Penn: [while a photo of Porter shaking hands with Ronald Reagan is on screen] Just look at him...smiling..shaking hands with that moron...you've almost gotta feel bad for Reagan. Edit
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