It recently got coverage in popular media -- but those familiar with sanitation operations and secondhand materials markets know that recycling has been subject to market demands for those materials for its entire existence. Recycling has never operated outside of the realm of economics.

The reasons changes to recycling programs are slow are:

1. People don't pay attention anyway

2. If the price of plastics go way up 5 years from now, you'll never retrain people to recycle again

3. Recycled metals are still valuable