Reasons To Recycle

[ Target Science: Waste Not, Want Not. ]

REASONS TO RECYCLE

Recycling does more than save natural resources. It also saves energy, helps reduce pollution, and creates jobs.

Port of Long Beach ships recycled material

Jobs and the Economy

The California Integrated Waste Management Board estimates that meeting the state's 50 percent recycling goal will add $2 billion to California's economy and create over 45,000 new jobs over the next seven years. 15. Californians Against Waste has published a series of articles titled "Recycling Means Business in California" demonstrating how recycling makes good economic sense. John F. Ruston and Richard A. Denison, Ph. D. have published a report on the economic benefits of curbside recycling, and state there are many other advantages as well.

The recycling industry is growing fast and many Fortune 500 companies are getting involved. Collected materials are being exported from Los Angeles ports (which recently surpassed New York ports in total cargo handled1) as raw materials to feed the fastest growing manufacturing economies of the Pacific Rim countries. For example China does not have vast forest reserves, so it imported $230 million of wastepaper exports from California ports in 1994, and now imports a total of over $1billion in recyclable materials per year 2.

The bulkiest and heaviest materials exported through Los Angeles ports from Orange County are scrap-paper, fibers, and metals destined for the manufacturing centers in Asia. 3.

"The imbalance between imports and exports is a problem and the whole country faces it," said Eugene J. Milosh, president of New York-based American Assn. of Exporters & Importers. "...we ship a lot of scrap metal and paper because we produce and consume so many more finished products than most other countries that we produce a lot more waste." 4

Recycling is Good for Business

"Industry has gotten on the recycling bandwagon because it's good business," said D'Anne Mount, a spokeswoman with the Solid Waste Utility of Seattle. 5
Industry is interested in recycling because now it is more than a fad, it has become a structural part of the way we manage our resources. Three reasons for this development are:

President Clinton in 1993 directed the federal government, one of the world's largest paper consumers, to buy recycled paper with 20% postconsumer content (pc). The Exectutive order also requires that paper with 30% pc-content be purchased after 1998.
Major corporations, with the help of organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund, have made major commitments to recycling. For example, McDonald's Corp. reported recently that it has spent $1 billion since 1990 on recycled goods for its restaurants, from paper tray-liners to carpeting.
Paper manufacturers have built and retooled more paper mills to handle recycled paper, bringing 86 new mills on-line since1990. They plan to invest $10 billion in recycing technology, according to the American Forest & Paper Assn.

Companies that used to worry about whether recycled products would sell, now worry instead about finding enough of the recycled raw materials that they need. The days of over-stocked recycled materials of 1994 and 1995 are over. "Prices are up for everything," said Lisa Rabasca, editor of Recycling Times, an industry newsletter. "Mills and plastics plants find themselves scrambling for feedstock, paying top dollar for material that they often got for a minimal fee only two years ago."5

A Seattle recycling company stockpiled a mountain of glass which once covered 1.5 acres and stood 45 feet high. Finally they approached local contrantors about using glass in place of sand and gravel for roads and foundations. That did the trick and the pile of glass was reduced by 90% in a few months.

The Integrated Solid Waste Management Office of Los Angeles often helps link contractors and manufactures with businesses with recycled raw materials to sell. With the City's help, much of the building debris from the 1994 Northridge earthquake was recycled back for other uses. Also, companies such as Recycler's World offer information online to make it easier for suppliers and manufacturers to buy and sell recycled materials.

Recycling Industry Matures

Perhaps the best indicator that recycling has matured as a self-sustaining industry is the emergence of the electronic recyclables marketplace, a new project of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Cities and collection centers are now able to find prospective buyers for their glass and plastic by logging onto a computer network. Paper will be added soon. Companies in the recycling business say they are better prepared than ever to weather the next economic downturn because of industry investments and a more reliable demand for used newspaper.7

Lisa Rabasca, editor of Recycling Times, an industry newsletter, cautions that the recyclables market, like any commodity, will fluctuate. What is needed to stablize prices is for consumers to buy recycled products. "We have become masters at separating trash," Rabasca said. "Now the challenge is to go out and buy things with recycled content. That's the only way markets will stay strong for recycled materials."5

Outside the United States, demand for recyclables is growing as developing countries look for new sources of materials. In 1994, nearly 8 million tons of recovered paper was exported from the United States, often bound for South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, according to the American Forest and Paper Assn. Much of this paper departed from Los Angeles, the world's largest port for exporting recyclable materials.

Weyerhaeuser, the giant forest products company, now owns 28 recycling facilities in the United States and Canada. It is also buying back used paper from customers such as Kmart. The wood products industry found that using old paper as raw material is more cost-effective than cutting down trees.7

Recycling Paper

The EPA states that paper mills create more pollution than any other industrial sector; more than the auto industry or chemical industry. This is primarily because the chlorine used to bleach paper white is a major source of water pollution and dioxin.
It takes 500,000 trees to make America's Sunday newspapers every week.
Rethink Paper is a project by the Earth Island Institute to provide more information on paper recycling.

Recycling Aluminum and Other Metals

The production of aluminum consumes a large amount of electricity. Recycling aluminum saves 90% of the energy required to make aluminum from scratch.
The energy saved by recycling one aluminum can will run a TV for 3 hours. Or another way to look at it is that throwing away 2 cans is equal to the energy of one can of gasoline, or the equivalent of the amount of energy used daily by each of one billion humans living in less developed countrys.
Recycling aluminum reduces related air pollution by 95%.
Even though the recycling rate for aluminum is about 50%, every 3 months Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial airfleet.
We throw away enough iron and steel to supply all American's automakers continuously.

Recycling Glass

The energy saved in recycling one glass bottle will light a 60-watt bulb for 4 hours.
Glass produced from recycled glass saves up to 32% of the energy, reduces air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%.

Other Resources

Americans use about one billion gallons of motor oil each year, and 350 million gallons of that end up in the environment. It only takes one quart of motor oil that is disposed of improperly to eventually contaminate 250,000 gallons of ground water. Yet recycled oil can be used again for fuel.

Related Web Sites

CIWMB Economics and Recycling

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