Recycling Makes Dollars and Sense

Jennifer Thompson

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling is one of the best environmental success stories of the late 20th century. In fact, formal recycling programs have diverted over 100 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators. Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. There are many, many benefits to recycling including:

• Recycling r educes the need for landfilling and incineration.
• Recycling saves energy and prevents pollution caused by the extraction and processing of virgin materials and the manufacture of products using virgin materials.
• Recycling decreases emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute global warming.
• Recycling conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals.
• Recycling helps sustain the environment for future generations.

So if it truly makes this much sense to recycle, then why doesn’t the federal government simply mandate that we all do it? The primary reason is that recycling is a local issue and its success and viability depends on a community’s resources. In some communities, recycling programs are simply not economically feasible. One might argue that not having a viable recycling program within a community is not an option either. Sure, implementing a recycling program cost money but it also cost money to dispose of waste. And, if communities pay for trash collection and to manage the local landfill already then they should expect to pay for recycling too.

While landfill space might be plentiful on a national level, communities on the East Coast of the United States have less available landfill capacity and higher landfill costs. Especially in these communities, recycling not only offers a host of environmental but economic benefits as well. According to The U.S. Recycling Economic Information Study, more than 56,000 recycling and reuse establishments in the United States employ approximately 1.1 million people, generate an annual payroll of $37 billion, and gross $236 billion in annual revenues. According to the report, the number of workers in the recycling industry is comparable to the automobile and truck manufacturing industry and is significantly larger than mining and waste management and disposal industries.

Aside from the economic benefits, recycling saves energy too. Harvesting, extracting and processing the materials used to manufacture new products is an energy-intensive activity. If we can reduce the need for this portion of the manufacturing process by using already available products, then this could equate to huge savings in energy consumption. Recycling aluminum cans, for example, saves 95 percent of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from its virgin source, bauxite.

Recycling also impacts global climate changes. The manufacture, distribution, and use of products—as well as management of the resulting waste—all result in greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the upper atmosphere, occur naturally and help create climates that sustain life on our planet. Increased concentrations of these gases can contribute to rising global temperatures, sea level changes, and other climate changes.

On average, each person in the United States generates approximately 4.5 pounds of trash per day. Whatever your reason for recycling, it just makes good sense.