> The idea that this is bought solely as waste and the market is made up of people picking over things in a landfill simply isn't correct. I'm sorry, you are c

> The idea that this is bought solely as waste and the market is made up of people picking over things in a landfill simply isn't correct. I'm sorry, you are correct. I got wrapped up in the metaphor and forgot the point. I think we fundamentally agree. At the core we have commodities whose market value is driven aggressively below the cost to bring it back into the market. The forces causing this are legion and (unfortunately) economically rational in broad strokes. The "disposal" acts like a subsidy that inflates the market value enough to bring those costs back into profitability, or at least cover the final disposal cost. Take everything above to its logical conclusion, the customer pays for disposing unsold inventory via margins and the citizen pays to donate via taxes. Even this price is pushed down by corruption at the expense of people in Africa and fuels all the behavior above. In all of our defenses, we're here deep in the weeds on HN precisely because this outcome is madness!