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"Paper and paper goods, that is to say, trees."
If my used paper had any value, then businesses would offer me money for it. I don't see any adds in the paper from anyone offering to buy my used paper from me. Therefore, it desn't have any value.
As far as trees, well, the trees come from private companies. A tree is just like any other crop. You plant it, you wait for it to grow, you harvest it, and then you plant a new crop.
"Oil and petroleum products, that is to say, plastic of all sorts -- toys, disposable pens, food packaging, plastic bags, containers of all kinds."
I don't see any ads in the paper offering to pay me money for my used plastic.
And the world has plenty of oil.
Ever since people started using petroleum over 100 years ago, there have been people who said, "In 10 years from now, the world will be out of oil." They have always been wrong. These people don't understand economics. They don't understand the law of supply and demand.
Also, we already have the technology to make plastic from plant products. And we can grow as many plants as we need.
"Metals of all types."
I don't see any ads in the paper from people offering me money for my used metal.
"Food of many different types and kinds -- any dumpster diver can tell you that he or she can eat well based on just what people throw away uneaten."
If you think that this food has value, then I have a proposal for you. Stop going to the supermarket. Get all your food by taking it from other people's garbage cans.
"Landfill -- how many acres of perfectly good land are taken up with the offal that people dispose of?"
If we took all the garbage that people in the U.S. are predicted to make over the next 100 years, and put in in one landfill that was 150 feet deep (tpyical landfill depth), it would be a square only 9 miles on one side. This is an insignificant percentage of the land in the U.S.
"That's just a short list. There's a good book called "Garbage" by the editor of the "Atlantic Monthly," a guy named Cullen Murphy, that could tell you lots more about it."
If this garbage is so valuable, then why don't I see any ads in the newspaper from people who are offering to buy it from me?
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