Just Bury Your Trash

The article argues that, for many common items, landfilling is more environmentally efficient than recycling or reusing, citing energy analyses that show plastic bags require only 0.6 MJ to produce versus 17.5 MJ for cotton bags, and that steel, ceramic, and cloth products need hundreds of uses to surpass disposables. Metal recycling remains an exception, saving up to 95% of the energy needed to produce aluminum from ore.