One-Off Recycling Programs Create Hassle

The recent spate of new recycling programs that target only certain items is beginning to seem a little silly.

Whole Foods (WFMI Quote) has launched a pilot program that collects No. 5 plastic, containers marked with "5" inside the recycling symbol. Ikea and Home Depot (HD Quote) now take customers' compact fluorescent bulbs for recycling.

These corporate green efforts seem helpful and nice in their own right, but taken as a whole they don't add up to an efficient way to recycle things we use in our everyday lives. The stack of theoretical recycling bins and bags I would have to have in my kitchen to take advantage of all of these programs would be absurd. ...