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There is a spectrum of recycling attitudes that runs from jolly hockey sticks on the one end to a sense of utter futility on the other. It is, say some of my worthier relations, positively good bracing fun to save the teabags and the old lettuce for the compost heap, to avoid using a new plastic bag when you could make do with an old one, to imbue your every consumption with a frugality that reflects well upon you, and helps save the planet.

This optimism is assailed a thousand times a day by the various objectors to recycling. First there is the statement, delivered as finally as though coming from the lips of Nobel laureate, that whatever recycling is under discussion actually uses up more energy than not bothering. I was told very solemnly yesterday that building a hybrid car’s battery creates more emissions than could ever be saved by driving the thing. Better, said the objector, to run a nice, comfortable BMW.

Secondly, there is what should now be christened the new China Syndrome, in which it is pointed out that, on the global scale of things, mucking about putting glass in one place and orange peel in another is an expectoration into the vasty ocean. Did you know (yes, you almost certainly did) that the Chinese economy creates more pollution in a millisecond than could be saved by British recycling in a millennium? So don’t bother.

Recycling is a waste of time

Rob Lyons: For all the fluffy talk of a caring, sharing future, environmentalists are ultimately more concerned about stuff than people

Thirdly, there is the response from those who react to being asked to do anything even vaguely public-spirited, like a hungover teenager asked to clean up her bedroom. It is nanny-statish, it’s telling grown-ups what to do, it’s trying to penalise people for wanting to live their own lives in their own way. As if (and this is what teenagers believe) we didn’t have to share the housework on this blue-green orb.

If pushed, I go with the idea that you should do your best, and that this places you in a better position when asking others to do the same. This is not to say that I don’t find it all a pain. I never really cared that much for cars, but part of me quite fancied a BMW at some stage in my life if I could ever afford it, and now I don’t think I can justify it. I’ll survive.

Click here to read Rob Lyons's response: Recycling is a waste of time

A Battle of Ideas debate on "Recycling is a waste of time" will take place on Saturday, October 27 at 17.15

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David Aaronovitch is a columnist for The Times and Times Online