Recycling and Killing the Electric Car

I. Recycling Garbage
"Half the plastic and much of the paper you put into it did not go to your local recycling center. Instead, it was stuffed into giant container ships and sold to China." "In addition, Americans are notorious for putting pretty much anything into recycling bins from dirty diapers to lawn furniture, partly out of ignorance and partly because China gave a decades-long pass on making distinctions." A 2015 study co-authored by Jenna Jambeck, a University of Georgia scientist, found that 1.3 to 3.5 million metric tons of plastic flowed into the ocean from China. As early as 2013, China began warning people who recycle that it intended to address its own environmental problems and would limit contamination of recycling imports to 0.5 percent. "(The mixed bales of paper and plastic the United States was shipping to China typically had 30 to 50 times that level.)" "Bales of mixed paper that previously sold for $155 a ton could barely fetch $10." [1]

Berkeley, California's curbside bins have two compartments: one for paper, one for everything else. "This minimizes the contamination from food residue and liquids from bottles and cans that makes recycling paper difficult, if not impossible." "Washington is considering a product-stewardship bill that would require manufacturers to oversee end-of-life management for all sorts of plastics, recyclable or not, and California is pondering a similar measure."

II. When Recycling Isn't Worth It
Sometimes recycling isn't worth it, for example, with disposable packaging, recyclable choices more often than not result in more harm to the environment. David Allaway, a senior policy analyst for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and his colleagues show that some non-recyclable materials that end up safely requested in landfills have a lower impact on the environment than their recyclable alternative. "The recyclable packaging sometimes causes greater overall harm when it comes to climate, water conservation, ecotoxicity,  eutrophication, smog acidification, or other forms of pollution and depletion." [2]

III. Killing the Electric Car
" ' The Koch network is opposing pro-EV policies at all levels of government in public utility commissions, state legislatures,and the US Congress,' says David Arkush, managing director of Public Citizen's climate program." "In 2018, the American Energy Alliance introduced an ALEC resolution to enact punitive annual fees for driving plug-in vehicles -- and many states took the bait." " 'The electric vehicle market is growing extremely fast,' Arkush says. 'They're popular, peppy, and clean -- and increasingly they're cheaper than conventional cars when you factor in lower costs of maintenance and savings on fuel.' " [3]

IV. Defining Fatherhood
"In classrooms, especially in Europe, blood-typing of mother and child  became a method of ruling out putative fathers." "In the political rhetoric of personal responsibility, fatherhood often became synonymous with financial support." [4]

Nora Milinich, professor of history, and author of "Paternity: The Elusive Quest for the Father," which covers developments in Europe, the United States, and Latin America, wrote that: " 'Modern paternity's promise that biological kinship can and should be known has almost a century after its emergence, came to full fruition.' 'Science has definitely vanquished social and legal (mis)understandings of paternity, kinship, and identity.' "

Footnotes:
[1] Edward Humes, "You Can't Recycle Garbage," Sierra, July/August 2019.

[2] E.H., "When Recycling Isn't Worth It," Sierra, July/August 2019.

[3] Ben Jerveiz, "Who Wants to Kill the Electric Car This Time?" Sierra, July/August 2019.

[4] Margaret Talbot, "A Family Affair," The New Yorker, July 1, 2019.