Another idea is to educate citizens about the fact that recycling is not just good for the environment, but also for the economy.

I think that if Hollywood would produce a movie in which a homeless pauper found a job in recycling, more people may decide to recycle.

Nevertheless, I would not recommend rewarding contributors and penalizing nonparticipants because altruism is (perhaps) the only assurance that current nonparticipants won't later mix junk with the to-be-recycled.

People have this strange idea that recycling is a modern concept invented by environmentalists. In fact the aluminum, paper and glass you mention as being profitable have all been recycled for a very long time (centuries, in the case of paper and glass.) Other things which are often profitable to recycle include other non-ferrous metals, and bulk ferrous metals. Surprise, those too have been recycled for a long time.

The problem is that many other things are not at all profitable to recycle, in fact some are extremely costly to recycle. For example many used building materials create a lot of bulk in landfill, but recycling them actually uses more fossil fuel than just mining more raw materials!

So while the sentiment is appreciated, it is really is quite a bit harder than that.

Incidentally, using the garbage for energy has been done too. In the 1870s, England introduced a public health law which made local councils responsible for collecting garbage every week from every household no matter how poor, and providing every household with potable running water. Many councils killed two birds with one stone by burning the garbage to run steam-powered water pumps. The practice eventually died out because burnign garbage creates severe air pollution.

excellent idea. frickin' crims are good for nothing in society, so put them to productive work!!!

I'm all for this, robc! But robotics to protect the prisoners from Hazmat? What is protecting the workers who already recycle our garbage?

An idea... why not use some of the recycled aluminum to have the prisoners keep on making our license plates?

One of the ways cities make money from recycling is by charging residents to take their already-sorted recyclables. I object to this part.

I think your robots would be costly--I'd rather just burn it all and get back only the metal and plastic.

Prison should be boring--that's the big deterrent--if it's just a job, you might as well be on the outside.

Waste-to-energy plants are very popular in the second-and third-world countries, but they produce Dioxin and CO2, both not-so-popular now. They've been used for at least three decades and they reliably reclaim glass and metal from the combustion.

Of course, I believe our landfills here in the US produce the same CO2 and Dioxin, albeit at a slower rate, so as not to be noticeable.

for Yaakov, The 'Best Picture' of 1947, 'The Best Years of our Lives' ends with Fred the-former-flyboy-pauper getting a job recycling airplanes. Great movie.

Guys,

I do not see robots doing this....I picture prisoners using robotic arms as the garbage goes by their station.....sort of like the system used at the airport to move the luggage...the garbage moves by and is scavenged over and over.....

Prisoners are used because they are very cheap...and they can run the stations 24/7. Stations are climate controlled and have a radio that can be listened to.

Rob