Should we start mining old landfill sites for plastics and other recyclable material?

I don’t see why not! I think it could be worth it. Then we wouldnt have to cut down as many trees to get new stuff. All the stuff at the dump is just going to sit there anyways.

No need to go excavating the landfills. Americans currently recycle only 5 percent of all plastic that enters the use stream. We just need to do a better job of catching it before it gets to the dump.

Plastics recycling is just barely economically worthwhile as it is. Until very recently, it was cheaper to make products from virgin resin than from recycled resin. So if you add in the cost of recovering plastics from landfills, identifying the kind of plastic, and cleaning them up enough for recycling, manufacturers would pay far more to use “dump” plastic than virgin plastic. Tough sale.

That could be dangerous. A lot of old landfills have been closed in accordance with the regulations of their state. If done properly, they are capped, secured and monitored. Opening them up and digging around could result in dispersion of hazardous materials and (more) pollution to the surrounding area.

Who knows what we might let loose. Not yet anyway.

I’ve had a similar thought…
I wasn’t thinking of plastic though, I was thinking more of aluminum and metals….

absolutely yes.

I know! Let’s just get plastic from the North Pacific trash vortex, which is now twice the size of Texas.