Going green in the new hip thing. Buy organic… Buy products made from renewable resources… Get an eco friendly car… Turn off your Lights… Recycle… Blah.. Blah.. Blah..

But when trends like this hit, it always make me suspicious of what the true driving factor is. Do Americans really love the earth so much that they are willing to separate their garbage and spend more money on every day products? It’s happening, I clearly can see that more people recycle now than ever before. Come Tuesday, my neighborhood has more green and orange recycling bins out than trash cans. And my local Mega-Marts are carrying more natural and eco friendly products. Some of which I have adopted. — Regardless, what ever the driving factor is, it’s working.

Then today I saw this story about thieves in Washington DC robbing the city blind of its metals. People having their gutters stolen. Bleachers having their seats taken. Even people stealing the exhausts off of cars — To help fuel the rising demand for recycled metals. Interesting. Huh.

This reminded me of a story I read a year back. After the hurricanes in Florida, groups of workers were going house to house and removing collapsed screen enclosures for free… Free? Yup. Because the aluminum that made up these structures was fetching $1000’s of dollars at the recyclers. Some say tragidity shows how generous Americans are, which isn’t totally untrue, but I think the common dollar might be a larger influence.

So, I’m curious about how long it’ll be until people start beating the County recycler to the bins. Someone is making money off of us. Perhaps it’s not enough to break even — But after much searching, I can’t find any recent statistics adjusted for the new trends and metal prices… — So who knows? Are we being played? Or do we really just care about our environment?