The Toll On Our National Psyche from the Absence of a Truly Comprehensive and Nationwide Recycling Program

Of all the sources of shame that Americans experience as they reflect on the collective record of American society, the continued absence of a comprehensive and fully nationwide recycling program has to rank near the very top of that list.

No matter how "successful" any particular American military strategy overseas may be on any particular day, American society's failure to achieve full success at recycling and natural-resource conservation comprises a year-round source of failure and humiliation for our entire country.

What makes this issue doubly alienating is the astounding failure of our U.S. Congress and U.S. President in the year 2011 to publicly acknowledge our "throw-away society crisis" and insist on immediate implementation of a nationwide recycling program inside the United States of America.