Mining’s permanent pollution

[MineralMan]

6. Recycling of metals does reduce demand to some degree.

I'm afraid, though, that global demand is growing much faster than the amount of metals recovered through recycling. Then, too, metal recycling, itself, is a somewhat dirty, unpleasant industry. That industry, too, is being off-shored. I wrote all of the content for a website for one of the largest metal recyclers in the Twin Cities of MN, so I got a close look at that industry. Most of what they recover goes into containers and is shipped to China for processing. That processing is an undesirable industry in most places in the USA today. So, we're sending that away, too. Even the recycling location is grandfathered in at its current location. No new facility like it could be located there today. It's a noisy, smelly and dirty business, but an essential one.

This country is rapidly diminishing as an industrial nation. Industry is dirty. Nobody wants it nearby. So, we're sending it elsewhere. Down that road is something unpleasant, I'm afraid.