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Recycling

The third R, recycling, is the waste management practice that most people are familiar with. (For specific information on recycling at Stanford, please click here.) If an item cannot be reused, recycling is an excellent way to keep that product out of the landfills and save natural resources at the same time. Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. After collection, recyclable materials like glass, metal, plastics, and paper, are separated and sent to facilities that use them to make new materials or products. The recycling process generates a host of environmental, financial, and social benefits.

A man tossing his recyclables into a container There are three steps that ensure the overall success of recycling: collecting and processing recyclable materials, manufacturing recycled-content products, and purchasing these products. The collection of materials differs from community to community, but there are four primary methods: curbside collection, drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and deposit/refund programs. After collection, recyclable materials are sent to recycling centers to be sorted and prepared for sale as marketable commodities for manufacturing. Just like any other commodity, recyclables are bought and sold according to market prices, and these prices fluctuate according to the principles of supply and demand. The company that buys the recyclable materials will use them to replace virgin materials in the manufacturing process. Today, more and more products are being manufactured with recycled content. Household items like newspapers, paper towels, aluminum and steel cans, and plastic soda bottles often contain recycled materials. The recycling loop is completed when consumers purchase these recycled products. Remember that if you’re not buying recycled, you’re not really recycling! As long as consumers demand more environmentally sound products, manufacturers will continue to meet that demand by using recycled materials.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, recycling is one of the best environmental success stories of the late twentieth century. Here are some recycling facts and figures from the EPA website on solid waste.

While waste volume grew a scant 0.3% in 2000, recycling collections rose 6.6 %. As a result, the national recycling rate rose from 28.1% in 1999 to 30.1% in 2000. According to the USEPA, about 23.9 million tons of municipal solid waste were generated in the US in 2000. Waste generation per capita fell 2.8% in 2000 to 4.5 pounds per person per day, primarily due to decline in the use of paper and paperboard. Recycling collections totaled 53.4 million tons and composting activities diverted an additional 16.5 million tons from the landfills. In 2000, steel cans were recycled at 58.6%, yard trimmings: 56.9%, aluminum cans: 45.0%, paper and paperboard: 36.6%, glass bottles: 25.9%, durable goods: 16.6%, plastic bottles: 8.9%, other non-durables: 6.1%, and food scraps: 2.6%. As you can see, we have success in some areas, but we can still recycle much more and much better!

During the past few decades, recycling (and composting) has undergone a surge in popularity and success. Analysts project that Americans will be recycling and composting at least 83 million tons, or 35 percent of all municipal waste, by 2005.
While recycling has grown in general, recycling of specific materials has grown even more drastically: 42 percent of all paper, 35.5 percent of all plastic soft drink bottles, 59.5 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 61 percent of all steel packaging, 92 percent of all automobiles, and 64.3 percent of all major appliances are now recycled.
Twenty years ago, only one curbside recycling program existed in the United States, which collected several materials at the curb. By 1997, 9,000 curbside programs and 12,000 recyclable drop-off centers had sprouted up across the nation. As of 1997, 380 materials recovery facilities had been established to process the collected materials.

Recycling Links

Steel Recycling Institute :http://www.recycle-steel.org
Aluminum Association: http://www.aluminum.org/
American Plastics Council: http://www.plastics.org/
The EPA’s list of Recycling Publications: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/recpubs.htm
American Forest and Paper Association: http://www.afandpa.org/

Benefits of Recycling

Recycling has many positive attributes to society including conservation of natural resources, a cleaner environment, reduction of landfill deposits, and expansion of an industry that can create thousands of jobs in California in the years ahead. 9 jobs are created for every 15,000 tons of solid waste recycled into a new product whereas only 1 job is created for every 15,000 tons to the landfill. In addition, recycling contributing $8 billion to the national economy. In California alone created 34,000 jobs and contributed over $1.6. billion to economy.

For more information on the environmental benefits of recycling at Stanford, click here.

Big Picture Issues

Closing the Loop/Buy Recycled

If the true potential of recycling as both an environmental protection and economic stimulus is to be realized, consumers are the answer. With increase demand for recycled content products, the value of recycle material may outstrip the cost of recycling. This in turn will foster business dedicated to the environment and manufacture of recycled-content products. If you are not buying recycled products, you are not recycling because you are not closing the loop or completing the process. Buy Recycled - you are sending messages to the companies of the product you buy. Direct your power. For information on buying recycled paper, click here.

Zero Waste

According to GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN), "Zero Waste is a goal, a philosophy, a design principle, a process, a whole system approach, which aims to conserve the earth's diminishing resources, prevent rather than manage waste, convert discarded materials into products and jobs instead of trash, and replace incinerators, landfills and dumps with sustainable enterprises that offer employment and foster local self-reliance. Learn more about Zero Waste on GRRN's website at www.grrn.org/zerowaste/zerowaste_index.html.

Creating Jobs from Discards

The philosophy of Zero Waste creates jobs from discards by viewing used materials as valuable resources instead of garbage in need of disposal. A pile of "trash" represents jobs, financial opportunity, and raw material for new products, as recycling industries create many more jobs than waste disposal companies. Research shows that, per ton, sorting and processing recyclables alone sustains ten times more jobs than landfilling or incineration. Some recycling-based paper mills and recycled plastic product manufacturers employ 60 times more workers on a per-ton basis than do landfills. Check out "Zero Waste: A New Systems Approach Gaining Global Ground" to see the source of this information and to learn more about jobs from discards and zero waste.

End Tax Subsidies on Virgin Materials

Federal tax and spending subsidies for timber, mining, energy and waste disposal discourage recycling. Welfare for Waste: How Federal Taxpayer Subsidies Waste Resources and Discourage Recycling, a report released in 1999 by GrassRoots Recycling Network, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Materials Efficiency Project and Friends of the Earth, identifies 15 tax and spending subsidies pouring $13 billion over 5 years, or an average of $2.6 billion a year, into industries that compete directly with recycling. These are conservative estimates and do not include billions of dollars more in state and local subsidies. These subsidies give companies that use virgin materials, such as timber, oil and mineral resources, and waste disposal industries, an unfair advantage over recycling companies. Resource-efficient recycling and reuse businesses, which tend to be smaller, community-based and run by entrepreneurs, struggle against subsidized competitors. Favoritism to virgin materials originated in the late 1800's with federal and state subsidies intended to develop the American West. But these policies are dangerously outmoded and have the effect today of wasting taxpayer money, encouraging environmental destruction, pollution, lost job opportunities, and trashing of resources. Current demand for energy and natural resources, many of which are non-renewable, cannot continue without fostering ever greater environmental and economic degradation. Eliminating these subsidies is an essential step toward creating a more level playing field on which recycling can compete. It conserves resources and saves taxpayer dollars at the same time. To read the Welfare for Waste report, click here.)

Sustainability

In October 1999, world population passed the 6 billion people mark. The number of people living on our planet is growing at an extremely rapid rate, as world population reached one billion in 1804, three billion in 1960 and then doubled in just 40 years to 6 billion before the year 2000 (Environmental News Service). Population growth forces the planets limited resources to provide for more people, as demand for food, water and other necessities increase. A study by the Sri Lanka based International Irrigation Management Institute predicted that one fourth of the world's people will face chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water by the year 2050. Crop lands continue to shrink, and global per capita grain output has been stagnant for more than a decade (Environmental News Service).

To achieve a sustainable future, we must not only control population growth but also reduce consumption in industrialized countries. While America has fewer people than many undeveloped countries, we have a significant impact on the planet because Americans use many more resources than the people of undeveloped countries. For example, Americans use about 100 gallons of water per person per day for personal purposes such as drinking, cooking, washing, and disposing of wastes, compared to a world average of 22 gallons per person per day. Including irrigation and all other uses, Americans use 1,350 gallons per person per day, much higher than the worldwide average of 475 gallons (Water Resources: Agriculture, the Environment and Society). Even though Americans account for only 5 percent of the world's population, the U.S. consumes 26% of the world's energy and create 25% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions (American Almanac, New Consumers). The nations of the world must join together to control population growth and reduce consumption to prevent environmental destruction and ensure a healthy planet for ourselves and future generations.

Remember, it is not trash until you trash it and it is not waste until you waste it.

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