Recycle-or-die belief not based in reality

W.J. Tomasic's Sept. 21 letter bemoans the condition of post-consumer and post-industrial bottle recycling and blames it on ``the Asian monetary crisis'' and ``severe declines in virgin resin pricing.''

He then takes a gratuitous swipe at the APC with his statement that these things have ``combined for major recycling percentage reductions far in excess of the imagination of the American Plastics Council.''

The problem, if there is one, is not the imagination of the APC, whose members have poured hundreds of millions of dollars down the recycling rathole to support consumption levels with relatively insufficient demand based on the good sense of sound markets. The problem rests with those with a recycle-or-die philosophy, who hope against reality that markets will do as hoped for; rather than independently of hope, as markets and superior technologies always do.

We've heard Tomasic's closing thought before: ``If things aren't bad enough already, further decline is possible, and there is definite evidence that there will be no improvement in the foreseeable future.''

Paper grocery bag manufacturers bewailed the same inevitability for years, as long as they and their environmental cronies could get away with bashing plastic bags. But finally consumers got it: Plastic grocery bags ain't so bad. And grocery stores got it better: Plastic bags are best.

What say, recycling? What's good, what's better, what's best?

George A. Makrauer

ComAd Management Group Inc.

Treasure Island, Fla.