Editor:

In Marsha Kaye's letter published May 22, she says: "Let's do the math. It's cheaper to recycle!" Unfortunately, she has only done half of the math -- the half dealing with collecting segregated garbage. It is not recycling until the segregated garbage has been processed and returned to commerce as useful products.

As one who worked in the recycling industry until retirement, I know that aluminum cans can be remelted and made into new aluminum cans cheaper than aluminum can be mined and made into cans. Bulk paper (newspapers, magazines, telephone books) can similarly be pro-cessed into paper products cheaper than new paper can be made from trees. However, from everything else in household waste, including plastics and glass, it costs more to make new products from them than to make new products from raw materials, and the quality of products made from recycled materials is poorer. Consumers are not going to pay more for a poor product when they can pay less for a good product. That is why recycling of household trash other than bulk paper and aluminum is uneconomical. As for my own household, there are paper collection bins in the parking lot where we grocery shop, so we take our bulk paper there on the way to buy groceries and it doesn't cost the city a thing.



George A. Mortimer

Farmington