by Richard Shedenhelm

About the author: Richard Shedenhelm is a library technical assistant at the University of Georgia in Athens and the publisher of Summa Philosophiae, a monthly philosophical journal.

One of the foremost difficulties facing American cities is where to put the refuse generated every day. It is widely thought that the United States is literally burying itself in garbage—producing mountains of waste and running out of places to put it.

The alleged crisis has prompted a renewed interest in incineration, source reduction, composting, and recycling. Recycling has been the most popular, and the most costly. Outside of saving natural resources, saving our landfills is the most frequently cited reason for recycling.

If the crisis mentality that shrouds the issue of landfills is found to be largely a matter of political...