Les Jones: Economics of Recycling

January 14, 2004

Economics > Economics of Recycling

Kevin at Smallest Minority is blogging about cities facing the economic realities of recycling.

I used to have bins for plastic, glass, newspaper, mixed paper and aluminum. Then I found out the market for everything but aluminum had gone to pot, and most municipalities were paying people to take plastic and glass off their hands. Worse, in some cases it was cheaper to make plastics out of raw materials, so the recyclables were just taking the scenic route to the landfill. At that point I quit recycling everything but aluminum, the one household recyclable that pays for its own recycling.

As Kevin points out, the landfill issue is overblown. As I recall from research done by "garbage anthropologist" William Rathje, things like soda bottles and disposable diapers account for a small part of a landfill. Refuse from building construction and demolition take up most of the space, along with newspapers and magazines.

Posted by lesjones

Interested-Participant linked with Recycling - Turning Tax Dollars into Thin Air

Comments

Market forces dictate that eventually the cost of recycling will pay off. As landfill starts filling up, counties have to find new places to dump their garbage and as nobody wants a landfill in their backyard, it gets harder and harder to find locations, which will drive up the price. Remember, it does cost money to take the garbage from your curb and get it to a landfill site and there is the proportional cost of buying and maintaining landfill on each piece of garbage.

For example, Toronto, Canada is having trouble finding new landfill sites right now and has been dumping its garbage 4 hours away in Michigan..not a cheap proposal.

Posted by: Manish at January 14, 2004

I'm not sure how much of the waste stream can be diverted from the landfill. Ratje says 40% at most, but that may be household recyclables, not counting construction and demolition waste.

I look at the recycling containers at my local recycling centers and figure they're picked up maybe once a week. Then I look at the garbage trucks going through my neighborhood every day. I don't think the recycling containers can keep up.

Posted by: Les Jones at January 14, 2004

Thought your readers might get a kick out of this...
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Posted by: Low Fat Designs at September 10, 2004

Well that is why we should have more sites like this www.directdisposal.com/html so that we can exchange recycling information.

Posted by: Paul at October 17, 2004