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"Foiled" by the Environmental Bandwagon
Over the last 10 to 20 years, virtually every media outlet and environmental group has jumped on the "green" bandwagon. This is particularly evident in the efforts of many groups to foster increased recycling rates. Many industries have joined in as well, particularly the aluminum industry. And that makes sense, as it only takes about five percent as much energy to recycle/reprocess aluminum as it does to smelt aluminum from raw bauxite ore. Add to that the cost of transporting the raw ore to the U.S., and it should be abundantly clear why aluminum producers are among the most ardent proponents of recycling. So what's all this leading up to? Good question.
During a recent trip to the grocery, I picked up a shiny blue box of aluminum foil. The price was $1.99. While I never mention specific names, this national brand has been around forever, and I'm sure you can figure out which one I am talking about. Two shelves below were shiny green boxes of aluminum foil (made by the same manufacturer), which were proudly marked "Made from 100% Recycled Aluminum." The price was $2.99. Wow! OK, so what's wrong with this picture? If it only requires five percent of the energy inputs to recycle aluminum, why was the price 50 percent higher? Considering that as of 2009, in the U.S., 54 percent of all aluminum produced was the recycled variety, who's to say that the stuff in the blue box wasn't made of 100 percent recycled aluminum as well? By my reckoning, the price for the recycled aluminum foil should have been less.
Think about it. If you buy soda, there's a good chance the cans are made of recycled aluminum, but you don't have to pay extra for "environmentally friendly" containers, right? So why would the aluminum foil guys do this? The reason is simple. It's greed. Their marketing strategy is to exploit your environmental sensitivity and your desire to go "green" by jacking up the price on something that is cheaper to produce with recycled material than it was the first time around. It's a "green" alternative all right, and I'm the one who's green, green with envy.
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