> I have already paid my portion of the 'enormous energy expenditures'.
Unless your country has a truly effective carbon-offset plan, then the price you paid for that aluminium likely does not take into account the environmental externalities of producing it. Furthermore, the pure energy costs of producing aluminium – environmental externalities aside – are actually state-subsidized in a few places, so what one pays may not entirely cover the production.
> This is a multi-billion dollar business! This stuff is getting shipped all over the world.
As I said, the market and legislation being what it is, it is entirely possible for companies to make money from recycling, while at the same time an individual’s decision not to aid that recycling has an environmental toll. It may indeed be desirable to enact laws that redirect some of those recycling profits back to consumers, but in the meantime, simply refusing outright to sort your rubbish is still a jerk thing to do.
> ...simply refusing outright to sort your rubbish is still a jerk thing to do.
Don't really have any other option where I live since there's just a couple of shared dumpsters for the apartment complex and the neighbors across the street would probably get upset if us apartment dwellers filled up their recycling bin on a regular basis.
Though, now that I'm thinking about it, my collection of years worth of fast food bags I have sitting in a cupboard might just end up in one of those bins next garbage day...
Unless your country has a truly effective carbon-offset plan, then the price you paid for that aluminium likely does not take into account the environmental externalities of producing it. Furthermore, the pure energy costs of producing aluminium – environmental externalities aside – are actually state-subsidized in a few places, so what one pays may not entirely cover the production.
> This is a multi-billion dollar business! This stuff is getting shipped all over the world.
As I said, the market and legislation being what it is, it is entirely possible for companies to make money from recycling, while at the same time an individual’s decision not to aid that recycling has an environmental toll. It may indeed be desirable to enact laws that redirect some of those recycling profits back to consumers, but in the meantime, simply refusing outright to sort your rubbish is still a jerk thing to do.