“Recycling is the philosophy that everything is worth saving except your time” – I still don’t know who coined the quip, but I repeat it every chance I get. If that’s not enough for you, though, here’s Mike Munger on Econlib:

If yard waste were a resource, then trucks would drive up and down streets in your neighborhood, bidding up the price of your bagged grass clippings. That doesn’t happen. Ipso facto, yard waste is garbage. No amount of wishful thinking, or worship of nature as a goddess, can change this basic calculus.

Or if you prefer the spoken word to the written, here’s Munger’s EconTalk podcast on the subject.

I’ll be visiting California later this month. The draconian recycling regulations and ethos of the “Golden State” are yet another reason why I’m ever so glad to live in Virginia.