econlife - Why We Should Care About Curbside Cardboard Crime by Elaine Schwartz

In 2016, the dumpsters in Madrid got smaller holes to prevent cardboard theft.

It didn’t work.

Called “beige gold,” curbside cardboard is picked up by cities and then sold for recycling. But in Madrid, where thieves were arriving first, authorities have estimated a multi-year €16 million (close to $19 million) revenue loss. Now, New York and California are also reporting cardboard thievery.

Recycling Revenue

We had had the perfect setup. The shipping containers that arrived here from China were going home empty. Decades ago, Chinese entrepreneurs figured out they could pay us for our trash, recycle it into raw materials, and then remanufacture it. By 2016, we had been sending upwards of 700,000 tons a year of trash to China. The system let cities get the recycling revenue that could support trash management.

But then, during January 2018, China said it was banning most trash imports. The decision was a whopper.

China had two reasons:

1. The waste was too dirty. After all, our Amazon boxes are okay but not all of the plastic and foam inside. And beyond that, we discard our clothes hangers, shoes and garden hoses. Most then go to sorting machines that inadequately separate the filthy and hazardous materials from everything else. China used to get it all. Now they are saying “No.”

2. They are more affluent. China can afford to purchase the new materials they need to make carpets and pipes and all they send us. They can import new plastics.

When China limited the kind of cardboard it would recycle, price plunged as their demand curve shifted to the left:

However, there are still markets for recycling cardboard. Like most commodities, used cardboard’s supply and demand push price up and down. Currently,  recycled cardboard is selling for somewhere between £70 and £80 per ton in England (with price spiking to £130 a ton when coronavirus first spread).

Our Bottom Line: Tragedy of the Commons

Because curbside cardboard, the ocean, and the air are shared resources, some of us mistreat them. Called the tragedy of the commons, thieves take the cardboard, we overfish, and factories pollute. The reason is the “commons.” When no one owns a resource, there is less incentive to care for it.

For years, the recycling revenue that came from China created an incentive for municipalities to recycle. Now, with China banning most of our trash and cardboard, it has disappeared.

My sources and more: Thanks to Marginal Revolution for alerting me to cardboard theft and this BBC article. From there it made sense to look at recycling in The Atlantic, an NPR report, WSJ, and from a WTO press release, Please note that several of today’s paragraphs were in a previous econlife post.

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

econlife - Where to Find an Electric Vehicle’s Emissions by Elaine Schwartz

What if every car on the road is electric? Wyoming would need 17 percent more electricity. while for Maine, it’s a whopping extra 55 percent.

Because each state has a different grid mix, your zip code matters when you buy an EV.

The Grid Mix

Each state has a different grid mix that determines the emission expense of an EV. One state’s primary electricity source could be natural gas or hydro-power. Another’s could be coal or nuclear plants.

This is the summary:

But let’s take a closer look. (Unless otherwise indicated, all graphs are from the U.S. Department of Energy/Alternative Fuels Data Center):

Washington state gets 63 percent of its power from hydro-related sources:

Quite different, New Jersey depends on natural gas and then nuclear power. Combined, they provide almost 95 percent of New Jersey’s electricity:

Meanwhile Kentucky gets almost three quarters of its electricity from coal powered plants. Combine that with natural gas and hydro sources and you are almost at 100 percent:

Again different, California depends on natural gas but hydro and solar are up there too:

And finally, Texas power comes from natural gas but here we have to add coal and wind too:

Our Bottom Line: Emissions

Whether zooming in on the country, a state, or your garage, the closer we look, the more we see about how much an electric vehicle helps the environment.

A mathematician once told us that the length of the British coast is infinite. Yes, when you see it from a distance, it appears to be an unbroken measurable line. However, the closer you look, the more you see. There are small inlets that have tinier indents. They go on forever, getting smaller and smaller.

Do enjoy this brief zoom that starts large and winds up with a dendrite area:

Our emissions data reveal the same phenomenon.

To determine the actual emissions benefit of an EV, we need to look upstream at the well-to-wheels factor and compare it to direct (tailpipe) emissions of internal combustion machines. Well-to-wheels refers to the electric grid mix. It takes us to fuel production, processing, and distribution.

Next, we should even be thinking about when you charge your car. Midnight, when demand tapers, is much better than the early evening because your power plant has peak capacity that we should try to utilize. In addition, we can check if your state has installed charging stations. Policy planners could even consider the way EVs store electricity when fully charged.

So, where are we? To find the emissions created by your EV, we need to know your zip code.

My sources and more: My subscription to the Fact of the Week from the DOE came in handy yesterday. It took me to each state’s grid mix that, like me, you could find it tough to stop looking at. From there, The Washington Post discussed at grid optimization. Then, to take an interesting leap, I recommend this Yale Daily News Benoit Mandelbrot obituary on fractal math. (Please note that my Mandelbrot discussion was in a previous econlife post.)

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.

econlife - The Best Reasons For Later School Start Times by Elaine Schwartz

Last September, a bill flopped in the California state legislature. Advocating an 8:30 (or later) start time at schools, it fell far short of the votes it needed. Currently they are reconsidering.

I wonder if those lawmakers know they are really talking about the GDP.

The Wake up Call

In California. the average school start time is 8:07. By moving it 23 minutes later, we could diminish tardiness and car accidents. Researchers hypothesize also that graduation rates would rise.

Studies show that teens would go to bed at the same time but sleep later if school began after 8:30. They would also get better quality sleep during the morning hours. In dollars, a Rand study reports that after the initial cost, the benefit to California alone would be $10 billion ($83 billion for the entire U.S.) if you just project fewer auto accidents (20% of teen accidents from sleepiness) and higher graduation rates. From there, they say, students then move onward to better jobs and more of an economic contribution.

The predicted gains in state domestic product could be considerable:



As did I, you might suspect that some of this reflects a statistical leap. But even when we consider the high cost of compressed bus schedules and lighting for later activities, the basics make sense.

Our Bottom Line: Human Capital

Really, we are just talking about human capital. As a resource that fuels economic growth, human capital includes our education, entrepreneurial spirit, and health. With U.S. economic growth at a 2.2% rate for Q1 (2018) and 4.1% for Q2 (2018), maybe we could sustain the increase by giving adolescents a bit more sleep?

And finally, I could not resist this xkcd cartoon. After all, the impact of sleep deprivation extends far beyond teens.



My sources and more: This LA Times article tells about the California schools sleep bill rejection while this site has the update. But for a report chock full of detail, do look at the original paper from Rand or this summary.

Please note that I repeated several phrases from a past econlife post on the same topic.

Ideal for the classroom, econlife.com reflects Elaine Schwartz’s work as a teacher and a writer. As a teacher at the Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, she’s been an Endowed Chair in Economics and chaired the history department. She’s developed curricula, was a featured teacher in the Annenberg/CPB video project “The Economics Classroom,” and has written several books including Econ 101 ½ (Avon Books/Harper Collins). You can get econlife on a daily basis! Head to econlife.