Recycling
Recycling
Beginning in the mid-1960s and growing alongside the environmental movement, recycling became an important aspect of municipal waste management and symbolic of personal actions to help clean up the environment. In earlier times various kinds of recycling took place; they consisted in diverting products from the waste stream before discard. Boy and Girl Scout troops collected old newspapers to raise funds—as those old enough may still remember. Beer, sodas, and milk moved in returnable glass bottles; and because most of these containers finally broke in centralized facilities like bottling plants, the residues were also collected and sold to glass companies. During World War II the government solicited metals and the public set these aside to help the war effort. Finally, automobiles that had reached their final hour were recycled, as they still are, in scrap yards—by far the most massive consumer products, alongside appliances, thus disposed.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "environment" was first used in its current sense in 1956. It did not become a household word until the 1960s. Long before that time, however, recycling was a major industrial activity carried out for economic reasons but under different names: in metals it was the scrap trade, in paper the waste paper trade in two branches—newsprint gathered by volunteers and cardboard gathered from offices and warehouses; there was also a trade in broken glass ("cullet"), in rags, and in waste oil. Farmers collected restaurant wastes to feed to pigs and recycled the fertilizer value of farm animal wastes as manure. And farm and garden wastes have always been composted. None of these activities has changed and, in fact, are the recipients of wastes today extracted from the municipal waste stream. Certain forms of recycling, however, are relatively new. They include reprocessing of auto tires into rubber, synthetic fuels, or paving materials; the recovery of lead from batteries; plastics recycling; and relatively experimental methods of converting organic wastes to fuel ("bio diesel"). Then, as still today, manufacturing wastes were either immediately recycled if suitable or used for fuel to power production activities—common in wood and fiber-using operations.
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE RECYCLING
The movement toward municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling was probably sparked by the introduction of steel cans to package soft drinks and beer in 1953. These containers made a contrast with the returnable bottle, at that time still the dominant mode of beverage packaging; cans did not bear a deposit and were soon littering roads. Keep America Beautiful, a business-sponsored organization, began operation in 1953 as well and attempted to persuade the public not to litter. KAB's most memorable ad image was the Indian chief with the tear in his eye—sad over the despoliation of the countryside. The public noticed that packaging was proliferating and turning into a form of marketing—and solid waste tonnage was growing more rapidly than population. The "throw-away" society was born. In 1965, the first federal law on solid waste, the Solid Waste Disposal Act, passed Congress coinciding with the introduction of aluminum beverage containers that year: you could crush them in one hand! Amended versions of the act gave recycling more and more prominence until the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 made recycling of MSW a national policy. But RCRA had no mandatory provisions. With the exception of mandatory deposit bills at the state level and local laws mandating separate collection of recyclables from waste, recycling at the national level continues still as an injunction rather than as a regulatory program.
Economics
MSW recycling has always required subsidy because scrap prices do not cover the expensive separation of commingled wastes by hand or machine. At the same time, disposal of wastes, whether by the relatively expensive method of incineration or the lower-cost use of burial in landfills, is less expensive than waste separation with a portion recycled and a larger portion disposed of—even when scrap revenues were factored in. For these reasons MSW recycling has been essentially funded by the public sector and by the population's contribution of labor in separating wastes.
Even when collection, separation, and concentration costs for material components are subsidized, economic conditions cause demand for waste-derived commodities to cycle up and down. This has led to programs to increase the "recycled content" of goods produced. Companies advertise high recycled content as a way of inducing environmentally aware consumers to select their products. Where technically feasible, and the waste markets sold for a lower price than "virgin" raw materials, producers also realized a cost benefit.
Quantitative Trends
Based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), MSW generation was 236.2 million tons in 2003, of which 176.4 million tons (75 percent) was in the form of potentially recoverable materials. Of this subtotal 31.4 percent was recovered for recycling in 2003, most of it in the form of paper (72 percent). The bulk of recovered paper was in the form of old newspapers from households and corrugated cardboard from businesses. About 48 percent of all paper and board, 36 percent of metals, and 19 percent of glass is recovered; the lowest recovery rate is associated with plastics (5 percent), the highest with nonferrous metals, primarily lead batteries (67 percent). The low rate of plastics recovery is explained both by the many types of plastics on the market, the difficulties in sorting them, and the fact that some cannot be remelted.
Of the 60 million tons of organic and miscellaneous wastes not included in figures above, cities recovered about 17 million tons in 2003, 28.2 percent, the great bulk of it in the form of composted yard trimmings. For context, it is worth noting that MSW represents a mere 3 percent of total waste generation in the United States, which, based on EPA's estimates, stood at around 7.84 billion tons. The overwhelming mass of this waste, however, is the form of mine tailings. Industrial waste generation in the major categories like metals, paper, plastics, and glass is very low because production wastes are immediately recycled.
Recycling rates appear to have increased since the beginning of the recycling movement, but reliable numbers are not available. The reason for this is that waste generation by type of content is not routinely determined; in some surveys (such as the one cited above) commercial wastes are included, in some they are left out. Very substantial paperboard recoveries have always been associated with commercial sources—long before recycling took hold; and in the olden days much newsprint was diverted from MSW when demand for waste paper was high. One source, cited by EPA, Biocycle Magazine, showed recycling increasing from 19 percent in 1992 to 33 percent in 2000, with increases in every year in between. Such data, however, are not based on scientific or census-like measurements and, while no doubt capturing a trend, are more impressionistic.
Energy Recovery
Conversion of MSW to energy, referred to as waste-to-energy, was proposed and demonstrated early in the history of waste recycling—on the model of industrial practice. Waste-to-energy conversion is tracked by the Energy Information Administration. Data provided by EIA indicate steady if somewhat cyclical growth in energy production from solid waste. Generation, expressed in equivalents of British thermal units (BTUs) was 0.354 quadrillion Btu in 1989 and had reached 0.571 quadrillion Btu by 2003. In 2003, the breakdowns of the total were 1) combustion with heat or electric power recovery at 51 percent, 2) capture of methane gases from landfills, 26 percent, and 3) heat recovery from agricultural byproducts, sludges, tires, and other biomass components of waste, 24 percent. In 2003, waste-to-energy represented 9.4 percent of all renewable energy consumption—more than 3 times the amount provided by solar and wind energy combined.
INDUSTRIAL RECYCLING
Commercial recycling, as distinct from industrial recycling, tends to be reported as part MSW which EPA defines as consisting of residential, commercial, and institutional sources. Commercial operations in which bulk packaging is routinely handled have always routinely collected corrugated board for sale to waste paper dealers: it is the highest grade of waste paper available and demand for it tends to be fairly steady. With the rise of environmental consciousness, offices have also participated in occasional programs of collecting waste paper used in business operations. These programs have had a mixed history—intensifying in times of high waste paper prices and slacking off in others. Unlike corrugated collection systems which are strongly institutionalized and integrated into operations, employee programs in which two separate waste cans are used, one for paper, one for all other waste, require constant management attention. Such attention is rarely sustained, with the result that programs fade away until once more reinstituted with a new initiative.
Like cardboard recovery in retail and warehousing operations, industrial recycling is strongly supported by economic motives and is hence both routine and well-managed. In industry recycling takes three basic forms: 1) reuse of production wastes in the course of normal operations, 2) use of scrap as the principal or only raw material input, and 3) the reuse of post-consumption waste products.
In the first case, reusing production wastes, the waste may be trimmings or residues from production runs which are simply collected and reintroduced at the beginning of the process. An example might be a forging operation in which defective forgings are simply remelted. Another distinct instance is an operation which uses a portion of its raw materials, namely a waste product, as a fuel. An example is a saw mill that collects wood bark in debarking operations and uses it, with other wood-wastes, as fuel to power a boiler house which runs the sawing operations.
Electric steel mills that convert scrap metal into new steel products are the best-known example of an industry which runs exclusively on scrap. Waste-oil refineries are another example: they receive spent lubricants, filter out impurities, and blend the results into various low-end products.
The steel, paper, and glass industries are examples of operations which use both "virgin" materials and waste to make new products. Certain paper mills that produce paperboard (used in folding boxes, as backings for writing pads, and in other stiffening applications—some-times coated on one or both sides by virgin sheets) and some mills that make newsprint also rely exclusively on waste paper. Others blend in portions of waste paper with new fiber. In glass, cullet is segregated by color and if clean enough is used in clear glass; if of dark color, cullet is used in dark-colored glass.
By far the largest recycler of post-consumption scrap is the steel industry. Its products are very durable and widely used in products that are readily collected for recycling (like auto wrecks and appliances). According to the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI), the industry routinely recovers more than 70 percent of its output again as scrap; the industry reached a 75.7 percent recycling rate in 2005. Rates vary from year-to-year reflecting economic conditions. The lowest apparent recovery rates in steel coincide with the greatest dispersion of the product. Thus recycled can recovery accounted for 63 percent of steel used in cans and reinforcing bar recovery for 65 percent of re-bar production in 2005, but rates were 102 percent for autos, 96 percent for appliances, and 87.5 percent for structural beams and parts. These rates are calculated by expressing scrap collected from a category (e.g., appliances) with total steel consumed by that category; hence, in the case of autos, more steel was recovered from cars in 2005 than used in cars that year.
THE ENERGY LINK
In the energy-intensive industries—like steel, paper, aluminum, and glass—use of waste materials reduces energy costs because the wastes are already at a higher state of purity than incoming raw materials like ores, logs, and sand. To be sure, energy is required for collecting and transporting such "previously owned" raw materials back to production plants again. In many cases shredding or cutting the waste products requires additional energy. Autos are partially disassembled—seats and engine and electronics are removed. Newsprint requires deinking—another energy-consumptive activity. But energy use is almost always less than required in processing virgin raw materials. For this reason easily accessible products, especially those that are bulky and thus already "aggregated" (like junked cars), are the most easily recycled. Those that require a high degree of sorting and consume the most resources at the front end and are least reused. If energy costs rise in the future—as indeed they are very likely to do—recycling will intensify. In such an environment, human labor ("calories") will become less expensive than machine labor ("BTUs"). As we approach an era of very high energy prices, recycling may offer—as it already does—significant opportunities for small business enterprises in mining our wastes for gold.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Davis, Mackenzie L., and Susan J. Masten. Principles of Environmental Engineering and Sciences. McGraw Hill, 2004
Green, Jen. Waste and Recycling. Chrysalis Books Group, 2004.
"Set Up an Office Recycling System." Business Journal—Milwaukee. 11 February 2000.
"Steel Recycling in the U.S. Continues its Record Pace in 2005." Press Release. Steel Recycling Institute. 25 April 2006.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. "Municipal Solid Waste." August 2005. Available from http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/mswaste/msw.html. Retrieved on 16 May 2006.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2003. April 2005.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Recycling." Available from http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/recycle.htm#Figures. Retrieved on 15 May 2006.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Summary of the EPA Municipal Solid Waste Program." Available from http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/solidwastesummary.htm. Retrieved on 16 May 2006.
Darnay, ECDI
Recycling
Recycling
Recycling is a method of reusing materials that would otherwise be disposed in a landfill or incinerator. Discarded materials that contain glass, aluminum, paper, or plastic can be recycled by collecting and processing them into raw materials that are then used to manufacture new products. Recycling has many benefits: it saves money in production and energy costs, helps to conserve stocks of virgin resources, and decreases the amount of solid waste that must be disposed in landfills or incinerators.
The concept of recycling is not a new one. At the beginning of the twentieth century, about 70% of the cities in the United States had programs to recycle certain useful materials. During World War II, 25% of the waste stream was recycled and reused. In 1960, however, only 7% of the waste stream was recycled, but since the early 1970s this has risen along with environmental consciousness, and the recycling rate was about 17% in 1990. In 2005, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the recycling rate in the United States was 32%.
Process
Recycling is a four-step process. The first step is collection and separation from other trash. The second is reprocessing into a raw material, and the third is manufacturing into new products. The final step is the purchase and use of recycled products by consumers, including individuals, businesses, and government institutions.
Although this is a simple formula, recycling faces much controversy and is governed by complicated legislation. Key issues in the debate are how to make recycling more practical, and how to create favorable economics by developing markets for recycled goods. Many states are trying to encourage recycling by passing laws to favor recycling activities, such as tax credits, disposal bans, or regulations governing the recycled content of certain materials (such as newspaper). Although there is disagreement about how some of these laws and regulations should be designed and implemented, there are two issues that are more-or-less agreed upon. One is that fees for the disposal of garbage need to reflect the full costs of that service, and the other is that consumers should be charged for the amount and types of material that they discard.
The biggest problems that recycling faces are poor markets for many recyclables, and poor technology to accomplish effective recycling. There must, of course, be sufficient industrial demand for recycled materials and, also, a healthy demand from consumers for products manufactured from those materials. For example, in the northwestern states, it is relatively easy to recycle newspaper, because there are paper mills in the region able to perform this function. In other areas, however, there is more difficulty in recycling newspaper because there are no local mills. These
may areas suffer significant fluctuations in the price paid for used newspaper, leading to financial instability in their recycling programs.
Legislation
Legislation has a powerful role to play in encouraging or creating both a supply of recyclables and a market for recycled goods. For example, places with legislation mandating a deposit-refund system for containers (such as soda bottles) have acted to increase the supply of recyclable material. As of 2005, the U.S. states of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont had passed laws requiring deposits or refund values on beverage containers. This sort of legislation requires that consumers pay a deposit for each container of soda, beer, or other beverage that they buy from retailers, and later obtain a refund of their deposit when they return the container for reuse or recycling.
Bans on the disposal of certain materials are another useful method for diverting waste from landfills and incinerators, and thereby increasing the availability of recyclable materials. Bans are a controversial approach, but they can be successful in prompting consumers to participate in recycling programs. Items that are commonly banned from disposal sites include lead-acid automobile batteries, tires, yard trimmings, and used motor oil.
Other kinds of laws can also help increase the demand for products manufactured from recycled materials. Some states require that more than a certain percentage of products be comprised of recycled material. This mandate has helped to save newspaper recycling programs, which were collapsing in the 1980s. A number of states (including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia require a minimum content of recycled fiber in newspapers printed within their jurisdiction.
Some government agencies require that labels list the environmental benefits of certain kinds of products, including their content of recycled materials. This gives consumers an opportunity to use information about environmental issues before making an informed decision to purchase particular goods.
Policies
Utilization rates and procurement polices are other methods used to promote the use of recycled material by industry. Utilization rates allow greater flexibility than minimum-content rules. The manufacturer is still required to use set amounts of recovered material in their manufacturing process, but they have more latitude in selecting how the material is used. For example, a manufacturer might use the material for its own products, or arrange to have the recovered material used elsewhere.
Procurement policies are mandates that require large government agencies, which have enormous purchasing power, to set aside some portion of their budget for the purchasing of recycled products. This helps to create more favorable economics for recycling. For example, the EPA requires that a certain proportion of its purchases, and also that of other federal agencies, involves such products as recycled paper, re-refined motor oil, and other items made from recycled materials. A disadvantage of affirmative procurement policies is that prices may be higher for recycled products, and there may be problems with the availability and quality of some goods.
Recycling collection programs
There are four commonly used methods for collecting recyclable materials: curbside collection, drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and deposit/refund programs. The fastest growing method is curbside collection. There are three major ways in which recyclable materials are collected through curbside programs: mixed wastes, mixed (or commingled) recyclables, and source-separated recyclables.
Mixed-wastes collection is essentially a modification of the conventional municipal waste-collection process. It involves the sorting of recyclables at a central facility, using a combination of automated methods (such as magnets to sort iron-containing material) and hand-sorting. An advantage of this method is that it does not disrupt the regular schedule of trash pick-up in the community.
Mixed recyclables are separated from other trash by householders and businesses, so that two streams of material are picked up at curbside: trash and recyclables. This method has a lower contamination level of the recyclable stream than the mixed-wastes collection system. Public education is necessary if this program is to work well, so that people know what is recyclable and what is not.
Source separation involves householders and businesses performing a higher level of sorting before pick-up. The advantage of this method is that the recyclable materials are well sorted and can be sold at a higher price. The disadvantages are that source separation requires a high participation rate, as well as additional or complex collection vehicles.
Drop-off centers are central places where householders or businesses can take their accumulated recyclables, rather than having them picked up at-site. This method requires public education and a high participation rate if it is to be effective. Like other collection systems, it works best if there are positive incentives to encourage participation (such as monetary redemptions), or negative ones to not participating (such as landfills refusing to accept recyclable materials, or charging a significant fee to take them).
Redemption or buy-back centers are similar to drop-off centers, except they purchase recyclable materials. Buy-back centers pay a unit fee for such recyclable materials as newspapers, soda cans, glass, and plastic bottles. This system is also effective for the collection of metals, such as aluminum, lead, and copper.
After recyclables are collected and sorted by any of these methods, they are sent to a materials recovery facility (MRF), where they are prepared for re-manufacturing. A MRF can typically process 25 to 400 tons of material per day. Sorting is done both manually and mechanically. Newspapers are usually the major paper item, but MRFs also sort corrugated boxes, telephone books, magazines, and mixed-paper materials. MRFs also process aluminum, glass containers, plastic bottles containing polyethylene terphthalate (PET), and milk and detergent bottles containing high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
Recyclable materials
Numerous materials can be recycled or reused from the waste stream, including: aluminum cans and other materials, automobiles and steel appliances, clothing, construction waste, copper piping, furnishings, glass, lead-acid batteries, used motor oil, paper (cardboard, high-grade paper, newspaper, mixed paper), plastic bottles, tires, wood waste, and yard trimmings and other organic materials (which can be composted).
All of the above items can be reprocessed into new products. Recycled paper, for example, can reprocessed into newsprint, writing paper, tissue, packaging, paperboard, and cellulose insulation. Plastic bottles can be reprocessed into auto parts, fiberfill, strapping, new bottles, carpet, plastic wood, and plastic bags. Some other materials can be reused directly with little or no processing, including used clothing, furniture, and lumber.
Composting
Composting is an increasingly popular method of recycling organic materials. It is an ancient practice; and low-technology farmers around the world have always composted manure and other organic materials for application to their crops. In fact, composting is one of the central activities in all methods of organic agriculture.
Any raw, organic materials containing vegetable or animalmatter can be successfully composted. The composting reactions are mostly carried out by bacteria and fungi, along with other microorganisms and invertebrates of many kinds (earthworms can be highly effective in this regard). Composting proceeds best if the material is kept warm and is occasionally turned to increase the availability of oxygen. Composting can be done by individual householders, or in large, centralized, municipal facilities. The end-product is an amorphous, organic-rich material (or compost), which is extremely useful as an amendment to increase the organic-matter concentration of soil and enhance its tilth. Compost is also useful as an organic fertilizer. The compost can be given or sold to local horticulturists, or to farmers.
Household materials that can be readily composted include: tree leaves, lawn clippings, vegetable and fruit peelings and other food leftovers, seaweed, shredded cardboard, newspapers, other kinds of paper, dryer lint (if derived from cotton and other natural fabrics), livestock manure, hair, feathers, and meat. Eggshells and wood ash can also be added to increase the nutrient content and neutralize acidity. Materials that should not be added to composters include: seed-bearing weed residues, walnut or eucalyptus leaves (these contain natural chemicals that can be toxic to cultivated plants), or dog and cat dung.
Preparing the compost
Excellent compost bins can be purchased, or they can be easily built using chicken wire and a wooden frame. The bottom of the bin should be lined with dried grass, leaves, or shredded paper. As additional organic matter is added to the pile, it can be watered if necessary and mixed to increase oxygenation. An efficient temperature for composting is from about 130 to 140°F (54 to 60°C). Depending on the organic mix and time of year, a properly humidified compost will develop within two to six months. Many gardeners have been composting their organic matter for years. It has only been in the past decade or so that the broader public has been encouraged to compost on a larger scale.
The compost man
Clark Gregory is a soil scientist who has been a driving force in the growing popularity of composting. When he was the composting supervisor for Fulton County, Georgia, Gregory became known as the compost man. He claims that up to three-quarters of the material that is typically discarded in landfills is potentially biodegradable through composting. Gregory advocates the use of large-scale, comprehensive composting programs in all local communities, as a way or drastically reducing the amounts of solid waste that have to be land-filled. In many municipalities, just the composting of soiled paper, yard clippings, and food scraps would reduce the solid waste stream by 40%, while also helping to reduce the cost of garbage collection and disposal.
Economic benefits
Composting programs have highly favorable economics, compared with the land-filling of organic waste. For example, a composting program in Seattle, Washington, is saving taxpayers about $18 per ton of organic waste, and is diverting about 554 lb (252 kg) of garbage per household out of landfills each year. Similarly, the town of Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, instituted a leaf-composting program that generated 11,000 tons of compost for use by local gardeners, while saving $138 per ton previous spent to truck the leaves out of state for land-filling. The town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, composts more than 0.5 million cubic feet of leaves each year, producing humus that is sold for $5 per cubic yard, while saving $200,000 annually in disposal costs. Islip, New York, saves $5 million each year by composting grass clippings, which were once exported along with other garbage by barge to the Caribbean. If every county in the United States instituted composting
KEY TERMS
Composting— The process by which organic waste, such as yard waste, food waste, and paper, is broken down by microorganisms and turned into a useful product for improving soil.
Decomposers— Bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that break down organic material.
Humus— Organic material made up of well-decomposed, high molecular-weight compounds. Humus contributes to soil tilth, and is a kind of organic fertilizer.
Incinerator— An industrial facility used for the controlled burning of waste materials.
Landfill— An area of land that is used to dispose of solid waste and garbage.
Manure— Animal dung.
Microorganism— Bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic organisms.
Organic material— Vegetable and animal biomass.
Prefabricated— Manufactured off-site, usually referring to a construction process that eliminates or reduces assembling.
Virgin material— Material resources that have not previously been used for manufacturing or some other purpose.
programs of these kinds, the overall net savings could be $1.6 billion per year.
Zoo-Doo
Some zoos have become creative in composting and marketing the manure of their exotic animals. The Zoo-Doo Compost Company sells composted animal manure to novelty buyers and to organic gardeners. More than 160 zoo stores and 700 other retail outlets carry Zoo-Doo for sale to gag-gift buyers. In addition, gardeners buy larger quantities of the Zoo-Doo, which has a favorable nutrient ratio of 2-2-2 (2% each of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), and is an excellent soil amendment as well as an organic fertilizer.
Recycling is a major industry, involving the reuse of substantial quantities of paper, plastics, metals, and glass. The benefits of recycling include conservation of natural resources, energy savings, and reduction of the need for waste disposal.
Researchers, environmentalists, and program administrators all agree that creativity will be one of the keys to solving many waste problems. Many landfills are nearing their carrying capacity, and most of the older ones were closed by the year 2005. As of 2004, less than 1,700 active landfills existed in the United States. By the year 2008, the EPA predicts only 1,234 landfills will be available. (Although the number of landfills has decreased, the size of the average landfill has increased. Overall, the total capacity of landfills in the United States has gone up.) Recycling, composting, and reusing are all environmentally and economically beneficial ways of greatly reducing the volume of the solid waste stream.
See also Waste management.
Resources
BOOKS
Beatley, Thomas. Green Urbanism. Washington DC: Island Press, 2000.
Boone, Christopher G. City and Environment. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006.
Braungart, Michael, and William McDonough. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press, 2002.
Matthews, John A., E. M. Bridges, and Christopher J. Caseldine The Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Environmental Change. New York: Edward Arnold, 2001.
McConnell, Robert, and Daniel Abel. Environmental Issues: Measuring, Analyzing, Evaluating. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Miller, Donald, and Gert de Roo, eds. Urban Environmental Planning: Policies, Instruments, and Methods in an International Perspective. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005.
Register, Richard. Ecocities: Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature. Gabriola, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2006.
OTHER
Tufts University. “Facts Pages: History and Statistics of U.S. Waste Production and Recycling.”<http://www.tufts.edu/tuftsrecycles/USstats.htm> (accessed October 24, 2006).
Recycling Resource. <http://www.resource-recycling.com/indices.html> (accessed October 24, 2006).
Kitty Richman
Recycling
Recycling
Introduction
Recycling is the process of collecting used materials, separating them into types, and using them to manufacture new products. All industrialized countries encourage recycling today, for several reasons. First, landfills—open pits into which garbage is dumped, then covered withdirt—have become expensive to operate. Recycling, by reducing the amount of trash that has to be buried, saves cities money. Second, recycling reduces the extraction and manufacture of fresh materials by mining, drilling, and logging, which reduces harm to the environment. Third, making products from recycled materials uses less energy than making the same products entirely from fresh materials. Since making most types of energy causes greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide to be released to the atmosphere, recycling combats global warming.
Although recycling of basic metals such as steel and copper has been a profit-making business for over a century, recycling of municipal waste—ordinary garbage—is sometimes criticized by skeptics as inefficient, a useless practice motivated by environmental guilt-feelings rather than economic rationality. Few governments have, however, been persuaded by such arguments, and several scientific studies have shown that most recycling programs do benefit the environment.
Historical Background and Scientific Foundations
Since metalworking was first discovered about 4,500 years ago, metals have been recycled because it is easier to re-use metal than to extract it from ore (metal-bear-ing rock). Since the Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700s, societies have became more and more dependent on metal, making bridges, the frames of tall buildings, and steam engines out of iron or steel (a alloy of iron and carbon) and, later, electrical machinery out of copper. In the mid-twentieth century, aluminum also began to be used in large quantities. Businesses devoted to recovering used metal sprang up in the 1800s along with increased demand for metal. These business turned a profit by collecting scrap, sorting it, and selling it to metal manufacturers.
National security has also motivated recycling. During World War II (1939–1945), the United States and other combatant countries experienced shortages of rubber and metal because international trade was disrupted by the war. They therefore ran campaigns marketing recycling as a patriotic act. For example, one slogan promoted in the United States in the early 1940s urged, “A rubber tire saves seven men / When melted down and used again” (to help make an inflatable life-raft).
The modern environmental ethic of recycling, which seeks to reduce usage of primary resources and lessen environmental harm, is a more recent invention. The very word “recycling” did not begin to be used for the re-use of materials from consumer trash until 1970, when the modern environmental movement was just coming into being. In the space of a few years from the late 1960s through the early 1970s, millions of people became aware that their industrial society was producing vast amounts of pollution and garbage. The idea that industrial materials might be used in an endless cycle, like the water, air, and minerals of natural ecosystems, was attractive because it promised to re-shape industrial society along sustainable, natural lines.
A few curbside pickup recycling programs, where trucks traverse the streets of a town to pick up separated trash materials in front of homes, were begun by U.S. cities and towns in the early 1970s. However, the recy-cling movement grew slowly because of an economic chicken-and-egg problem: There were already well-established markets for steel and aluminum, but without markets for recycled paper, glass, and plastic, there were
WORDS TO KNOW
COMPOSTING: Breakdown of organic material by microorganisms.
E-WASTE: A term describing electronic equipment at the end of its useful life. E-waste is the fastest-growing type of waste in the world.
SUSTAINABILITY: Practices that preserve the balance between human needs and the environment, as well as between current and future human requirements.
too few places to send such materials once they had been collected. At the same time, a market could not develop until sufficient amounts of recyclables were available. Supply and demand had to grow together, which took time.
In the meantime, bottle bills (also called deposit laws) began to be passed. Bottle bills are laws that require a surcharge, usually a nickel or a dime, to be charged on certain beverages (beer, soda, sometimes bottled water). This money is collected by sellers and bottlers. When consumers return the beverage containers, they are given back the deposit in cash. The first bottle bill in North America was passed in the Canadian province of British Columbia in 1970; in 1971, Oregon became the first U.S. state to pass a deposit law. By 1985, 10 states had passed deposit laws. Hawaii became the eleventh state with such a law in 2005. At that time, about 30% of the U.S. population lived in a deposit-law state.
Meanwhile, similar concerns about the environment and recycling were being felt in Europe. On July 15, 1975, the European Union adopted its Council Directive on Waste, which read, in part, “Member States shall take appropriate steps to encourage the prevention, recycling and processing of waste, the extraction of raw materials and possibly of energy there from and any other process for the re-use of waste.” In response, European countries began to develop recycling programs of their own. In 1991, Germany adopted its Green Dot (Grüne Punkt) program, an industry-funded system for recycling packaging. By 2008, 23 European countries were participating in the program, which requires companies selling packaged products to contribute to the cost of recovering and recycling their own packaging. The more packaging a company puts on its product, the higher the fee it must pay to the Green Dot program. This encourages companies to use less packaging, as well as to fund recycling.
In the United States, interest in recycling surged in the late 1980s, when national discussion of landfill costs and other trash-disposal options was triggered by the strange journey of the garbage scow Mobro, which was loaded with over 3,100 tons of municipal trash from Long Island in New York State. The Mobro wandered the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States looking in vain for a place to unload. Mexico, Belize, and the Bahamas all refused the garbage, as did Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas. The trash was eventually incinerated in the Long Island town where it came from, but not before triggering national discussion of landfilling, incineration, and recycling. At that time, 80% of U.S. trash was put in landfills, 10% was incinerated (burned), and only 10% was recycled.
Weeks of headlines about the Mobro, combined with rising prices for landfilling, moved communities to institute recycling programs. By 2008, the United States was recycling 32.5% of its solid municipal waste, including household trash. Fifty-two percent of paper, 31% of plastic carbonated-beverage bottles, 45% of aluminum beverage cans, 63% of steel cans, and 67% of refrigerators, stoves, and other large appliances were being recycled. This was similar to recycling rates in other industrialized countries, though some ranked as low as 18% (United Kingdom) and others as high as 80% (Japan). Yet progress had not been inexorable. In 1992, the U.S. beverage container recycling rate was 53%; by 2005, it was down to 33%, and Americans were failing to recycle 144 billion beverage containers per year, including 54 billion aluminum cans, 52 billion plastic containers, 30 billion glass containers, and 10 billion miscellaneous cartons and pouches.
How Recycling Works: One Successful City Program
In 2008, San Francisco, with a population of about 760,000, had a recycling rate of 70%, the highest of any large U.S. city. Using a fleet of specially designed garbage trucks that run on biodiesel fuel and have a separate compartment for recyclables, the city collects mixed loads of paper, cans, and bottles.
Except for organic wastes such as food scraps and lawn clippings, all recyclables from curbside pickup are trucked to a central facility where 155 employees processed 750 tons of glass, metals, plastic, and paper every day (as of 2008). When a truck arrives at the centers, its recyclables are dumped onto conveyor belts that take them to a station for sorting by hand. Workers pull out plastic bags, which can jam machinery further down the line, and any objects of unusual shape or size. Spinning disks then separate paper from dense objects like bottles and cans.
On the paper line, brown (corrugated) cardboard is separated by hand from mixed paper (magazines, envelopes, office paper, paperboard). Plastics are separated by hand into three streams, namely HDPE (high-density polyethylene, type 2), PET (polyethylene terephthalate, type 1), and mixed (all other plastics). Magnets pull out steel cans from the stream of glass and metal containers. Aluminum is not normally affected by magnets, but a method called eddy-current separation is used to push aluminum out. In eddy-current separation, rapidly rotating magnets below the trash stream cause electrical currents to flow in aluminum objects. The aluminum objects are temporarily magnetized by these eddy currents and are pushed away from the rotating magnets.
After plastic, steel, and aluminum have been removed from the container stream, only glass is left. This is separated into clear, brown, amber, and green streams, all re-used separately.
The materials thus recovered are then sold to processors to be made into new materials. San Francisco’s recycled paper, for example, is shipped to China, where it is used to manufacture paper packaging for manufactured goods, many of which are shipped back to the United States. The city can charge a higher price for its waste paper because its special garbage trucks do not crush glass bottles when they are collecting recyclables, meaning that the city’s paper has an unusually low rate of contamination by glass fragments.
In 1996, researchers hired by the city confirmed that 19% of the waste going into its landfills consisted of food scraps and garden waste. (Nationwide, about 12% of the landfill waste stream consists of food, lawn clippings, and the like.) In 1997, the city began a program to compost food scraps from restaurants; by 2008 it was composting 300 tons of food scraps per day. Composting entails grinding up the scraps of food, plant trimmings, soiled paper, and other organic waste and allowing them to be partly digested by bacteria for about 60 days. The resulting soil-like material has little odor and makes a high-quality fertilizer that is sold to California vineyards as organic compost.
In 2008, the mayor of the city, Gavin Newsom, was planning to send the city’s Board of Supervisors a proposal to make recycling of household trash, including food scraps and yard waste, mandatory rather than voluntary. Residents who did not recycle would face suspension of garbage pickup. The goal was to raise the city’s recycling rate to 75%, a figure mandated for 2010 by the city council.
Paper and cardboard
In 2007, 56% of paper consumed in the United States—54.3 million tons—was recycled, about 360 pounds (163 kg). This was over twice the 25 million tons recycled in 1990.
Paper and cardboard are recycled by shredding them and adding their fibers to the pulp stage of paper manufacture. The strength of paper or cardboard depends on its structure of interlocking fibers: If the fibers are too short, the material tears easily. Each time a paper fiber is recycled, it tends to get broken, so recycled paper has
shorter fibers. Paper fibers can be recycled up to six times before they become too short to use.
Recycling paper saves energy and has other environmental benefits. Making one ton of paper from recycled fibers rather than virgin fibers from trees saves 7,000 gallons (27,000 liters) of water, 4,000 kWh of electricity, and 60 pounds (27 kg) of air pollutants.
Beverage Containers
Packaging, including containers, is the largest single category of municipal waste (32%). About 15% of all packaging waste consists of beverage containers. Two hundred billion beverage containers are sold each year in the United States (over 500 million per day), and two-thirds are sent to landfills, thrown on the ground as litter, or incinerated. Americans wasted more than two times as many aluminum cans in 2001 as they did in 1981. The wasting of aluminum cans is particularly unfortunate, not because the cans are a form of toxic pollution—like glass and steel, aluminum is ecologically harmless—but because they are a wasted opportunity. Large amounts of electricity are needed to refine aluminum from raw ore, whereas the aluminum in a beverage container is already pure. Making an aluminum can from recycled aluminum therefore takes only 5% as much energy as making it out of virgin ore. Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100 watt lightbulb for about 4 hours. In 2001, America’s waste aluminum, with an average scrap value of $0.58 per pound, was worth almost $800 million—revenue that has literally been poured into holes in the ground. There are a number of reasons for this market failure, one being the erosion by inflation of the deposit on beverage containers in 11 U.S. states. In 1971, when the first U.S. bottle bill was enacted, a 5-cent deposit had as much buying power as 25 cents had in 2007. Yet deposits in most states have remained at five cents. Bottle deposits are thus worth a fifth as much today as they were when they were first enacted.
Glass recycling does not save as much energy as aluminum recycling. However, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, an arm of the federal government, states that recycling a single glass bottle saves enough energy to run a 100-watt lightbulb for four hours. Less energy is saved per pound by recycling glass than by recycling aluminum, but a single glass beverage container weighs much more than an aluminum beverage can, so the energy saving per container ends up being about the same.
Electronics
One of the fastest-growing types of municipal solid waste is e-waste, that is, discarded electronics such as computers, televisions, photocopiers, printers, scanners, and MP3 players. In 2000, over 2,100,000 tons of e-waste were generated in the United States; about 55% of it consisting of televisions and 10% of personal computers. In 2004 alone, 315 million personal computers were discarded in the United States (many were stored in closets, basements, and garages, rather than going immediately to landfills or recycling). Each year, about 130 million cell phones are retired, about 98% of them going into landfills. E-waste contains lead, mercury, cadmium, brominated fire retardants, and other toxic substances.
In 2007, the U.S. national rate of recycling for e-waste was only 10%. California’s rate was up to 17%, thanks to its 2004 Cell Phone Recycling Act.
Impacts and Issues
Recycling has limits as a way to reduce the environmental impact of industrialized society. Although most forms of recycling save energy compared to using virgin materials, manufacturing even with recycled materials does use energy. Re-using objects is an even more effective way to reduce harm to Earth. For example, containers can be collected and re-filled rather than being melted down for the manufacture of brand-new containers, and shopping bags can be brought back to the store for reuse rather than being thrown away or even recycled. Reducing how much is used is even more effective than recycling or re-using: that is, buying less stuff to begin with. This hierarchy or ladder of choices is often captured in the slogan “Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle.”
Re-using and reducing may involve adjustments in lifestyle that some people consider unpleasant, while others enjoy them. Recycling has the virtue that it requires minimal lifestyle change, so governments can pursue recycling programs without interfering with private consumption choices.
Does Recycling Make Sense?
Critics of recycling have argued that it is an inefficient practice, claiming there is plenty of room for landfills; all U.S. trash for the next 1,000 years, piled up a few hundred yards deep, could fit into a single 35-square-mi (91-square-km) landfill. In a frequently quoted essay first published in the New York Times Magazine in 1996, columnist John Tierney argued that “recycling could be America’s most wasteful activity.” While admitting that recycling saves energy, Tierney argued that “there are much more direct—and cheaper—ways to reduce pollution. Recycling is a messy way to try to help the environment.” Some critics of recycling, including those quoted by Tierney, have ideological objections to mandatory recycling because it could interfere with the “free market” approach; among these critics are the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, and the Waste Policy Center.
Such arguments have persuaded few governments at the city or national level, and public support for recycling, as measured by polls, has remained high. In defense of recycling, environmentalists, recycling industry representatives, and government scientists cite studies showing that recycling—when properly carried out—does save energy, reduce landfill costs, reduce pollution, and yield other benefits for the environment. Moreover, these benefits increase as a higher percentage of the waste stream is recycled and as recycling programs mature so that methods can be adjusted to achieve the greatest possible benefits. As for landfill space, saving on landfill space is one benefit of recycling, but its main environmental benefit is reducing the harm done by the mining, logging, refining, and manufacturing of virgin materials.
Poisonous Recycling
In the early 2000s, efforts to recycle e-waste were controversial because e-waste materials collected for recycling were often exported to India, China, and other developing countries, where they were recycled using methods that released large amounts of pollution and injured the health of workers and other people. For example, in China, computers from North American are often recycled using crude methods such as burning wiring in heaps to separate its valuable copper from its plastic insulation. The burning plastic releases clouds of toxic chemicals that find their way into people’s lungs and into water supplies. Dismantling circuit boards by hand releases lead dust; a 2008 study found that in some family workshops in China, lead levels were 2,800 times higher than those considered safe by normal industrial standards.
See Also Electronics Waste; Green Movement; Landfills; Waste Transfer and Dumping
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Lund, Herbert F. McGraw-Hill Recycling Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2000.
Periodicals
Barnard, Ann. “City Council Passes Bill for Recycling of Plastic Bags.” New York Times (January 10, 2008).
Barnard, Ann. “Green with Envy: Germany’s Green Dot Program Continues Generating Good Collection Numbers.” Recycling Today (October, 2004).
Fountain, John. “Recycling that Harms the Environment and People.” New York Times (April 15, 2008).
Tierney, John. “Recycling Is Garbage.” New York Times Magazine (June 30, 1996).
“The Truth about Recycling.” The Economist (June 7, 2007).
Web Sites
Container Recycling Institute. “Waste and Opportunity: U.S. Beverage Container Recycling Scorecard and Report.” http://www.container-recycling.org/assets/pdfs/reports/2006-scorecard.pdf (accessed May 9, 2008).
National Institutes of Health. “Help Secure Our Future: Recycle Around the Clock.” http://nems.nih.gov/outreach/factsheet_recycling.pdf (accessed May 9, 2008).
Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming: U.S. House of Representatives. “New National Bottle Bill Would Cut Heat-Trapping Emissions, Energy Needs” [press release]. http://globalwarming.house.gov/mediacenter/pressreleases?id=0126 (accessed May 9, 2008).
Larry Gilman
Recycling
Recycling
Recycling is a method of reusing materials that would otherwise be disposed in a landfill or incinerator. Discarded materials that contain glass , aluminum , paper , or plastic can be recycled by collecting and processing them into raw materials that are then used to manufacture new products. Recycling has many benefits: it saves money in production and energy costs, helps to conserve stocks of virgin resources, and decreases the amount of solid waste that must be disposed in landfills or incinerators.
The concept of recycling is not a new one. At the turn of the twentieth century, about 70% of the cities in the United States had programs to recycle certain useful materials. During World War II, 25% of the waste stream was recycled and reused. In 1960, however, only 7% of the waste stream was recycled, but since the early 1970s this has risen along with environmental consciousness, and the recycling rate was about 17% in 1990.
Process
Recycling is a four-step process. The first step is collection and separation from other trash. The second is reprocessing into a raw material, and the third is manufacturing into new products. The final step is the purchase and use of recycled products by consumers, including individuals, businesses, and government institutions.
Although this is a simple formula, recycling faces much controversy and is governed by complicated legislation. Key issues in the debate are how to make recycling more practical, and how to create favorable economics by developing markets for recycled goods. Many states are trying to encourage recycling by passing laws to favor recycling activities, such as tax credits, disposal bans, or regulations governing the recycled content of certain materials (such as newspaper). Although there is disagreement about how some of these laws and regulations should be designed and implemented, there are two issues that are more-or-less agreed upon. One is that fees for the disposal of garbage need to reflect the full costs of that service, and the other is that consumers should be charged for the amount and types of material that they discard.
The biggest problems that recycling faces are poor markets for many recyclables, and poor technology to accomplish effective recycling. There must, of course, be sufficient industrial demand for recycled materials, and also a healthy demand from consumers for products manufactured from those materials. For example, in the northwestern states, it is relatively easy to recycle newspaper, because there are paper mills in the region able to perform this function. In other areas, however, there is more difficulty in recycling newspaper because there are no local mills. These may areas suffer significant fluctuations in the price paid for used newspaper, leading to financial instability in their recycling programs.
Legislation
Legislation has a powerful role to play in encouraging or creating both a supply of recyclables and a market for recycled goods. For example, places with legislation mandating a deposit-refund system for containers (such as soda bottles) have acted to increase the supply of recyclable material. This sort of legislation requires that consumers pay a deposit for each container of soda, beer, or other beverage that they buy from retailers, and later obtain a refund of their deposit when they return the container for reuse or recycling.
Bans on the disposal of certain materials are another useful method for diverting waste from landfills and incinerators, and thereby increasing the availability of recyclable materials. Bans are a controversial approach, but they can be successful in prompting consumers to participate in recycling programs. Items that are commonly banned from disposal sites include lead-acid automobile batteries, tires, yard trimmings, and used motor oil.
Other kinds of laws can also help increase the demand for products manufactured from recycled materials. Some states require that more than a certain percentage of product be comprised of recycled material. This mandate has helped to save newspaper recycling programs, which were collapsing in the 1980s. A number of states (including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia require a minimum content of recycled fiber in newspapers printed within their jurisdiction.
Some government agencies require that labels list the environmental benefits of certain kinds of products, including their content of recycled materials. This gives consumers an opportunity to use information about environmental issues before making an informed decision to purchase particular goods.
Policies
Utilization rates and procurement polices are other methods used to promote the use of recycled material by industry. Utilization rates allow greater flexibility than minimum-content rules. The manufacturer is still required to use set amounts of recovered material in their manufacturing process, but they have more latitude in selecting how the material is used. For example, a manufacturer might use the material for its own products, or arrange to have the recovered material used elsewhere.
Procurement policies are mandates that require large government agencies, which have enormous purchasing power, to set aside some portion of their budget for the purchasing of recycled products. This helps to create more favorable economics for recycling. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires that a certain proportion of its purchases, and also that of other federal agencies, involves such products as recycled paper, re-refined motor oil, and other items made from recycled materials. A disadvantage of affirmative procurement policies is that prices may be higher for recycled products, and there may be problems with the availability and quality of some goods.
Recycling collection programs
There are four commonly used methods for collecting recyclable materials: curbside collection, drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and deposit/refund programs. The fastest growing method is curbside collection. There are three major ways in which recyclable materials are collected through curbside programs: mixed wastes, mixed (or commingled) recyclables, and source-separated recyclables.
Mixed-wastes collection is essentially a modification of the conventional municipal waste-collection process. It involves the sorting of recyclables at a central facility, using a combination of automated methods (such as magnets to sort iron-containing material) and hand-sorting. An advantage of this method is that it does not disrupt the regular schedule of trash pick-up in the community.
Mixed recyclables are separated from other trash by householders and businesses, so that two streams of material are picked up at curbside: trash and recyclables. This method has a lower contamination level of the recyclable stream than the mixed-wastes collection system. Public education is necessary if this program is to work well, so that people know what is recyclable and what is not.
Source separation involves householders and businesses performing a higher level of sorting before pickup. The advantage of this method is that the recyclable materials are well-sorted and can be sold at a higher price. The disadvantages are that source separation requires a high participation rate, as well as more or more-complex collection vehicles.
Drop-off centers are central places where householders or businesses can take their accumulated recyclables, rather than having them picked up at-site. This method requires public education and a high participation rate if it is to be effective. Like other collection systems, it works best if there are positive incentives to encourage participation (such as monetary redemptions), or negative ones to not participating (such as landfills refusing to accept recyclable materials, or charging a significant fee to take them).
Redemption or buy-back centers are similar to drop-off centers, except they purchase recyclable materials. Buy-back centers pay a unit-fee for such recyclable materials as newspapers, soda cans, glass, and plastic bottles. This system is also effective for the collection of metals, such as aluminum, lead , and copper .
After recyclables are collected and sorted by any of these methods, they are sent to a materials recovery facility (MRF), where they are prepared for re-manufacturing. A MRF can typically process 25-400 tons of material per day. Sorting is done both manually and mechanically. Newspapers are usually the major paper item, but MRFs also sort corrugated boxes, telephone books, magazines, and mixed-paper materials. MRFs also process aluminum, glass containers, plastic bottles containing polyethylene terphthalate (PET), and milk and detergent bottles containing high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
Recyclable materials
Numerous materials can be recycled or reused from the waste stream, including: aluminium cans and other materials, automobiles and steel appliances, clothing, construction waste, copper piping, furnishings, glass, lead-acid batteries, used motor oil, paper (cardboard, high-grade paper, newspaper, mixed paper), plastic bottles, tires, wood waste, and yard trimmings and other organic materials (which can be composted).
All of the above items can be reprocessed into new products. Recycled paper, for example, can reprocessed into newsprint, writing paper, tissue , packaging, paperboard, and cellulose insulation. Plastic bottles can be reprocessed into auto parts, fiberfill, strapping, new bottles, carpet, plastic wood, and plastic bags. Some other materials can be reused directly with little or no processing, including used clothing, furniture, and lumber.
Composting
Composting is an increasingly popular method of recycling organic materials. It is an ancient practice; and low-technology farmers around the world have always composted manure and other organic materials for application to their crops . In fact, composting is one of the central activities in all methods of organic agriculture.
Any raw, organic materials containing vegetable or animal matter can be successfully composted. The composting reactions are mostly carried out by bacteria and fungi , along with other microorganisms and invertebrates of many kinds (earthworms can be highly effective in this regard). Composting proceeds best if the material is kept warm and is occasionally turned to increase the availability of oxygen . Composting can be done by individual householders, or in large, centralized, municipal facilities. The end-product is an amorphous, organic-rich material (or compost), which is extremely useful as an amendment to increase the organic-matter concentration of soil and enhance its tilth. Compost is also useful as an organic fertilizer. The compost can be given or sold to local horticulturists, or to farmers.
Household materials that can be readily composted include: tree leaves, lawn clippings, vegetable and fruit peelings and other food left-overs, seaweed, shredded cardboard, newspapers, other kinds of paper, dryer lint (if derived from cotton and other natural fabrics), livestock manure, hair, feathers, and meat. Egg-shells and wood ash can also be added to increase the nutrient content and neutralize acidity. Materials that should not be added to composters include: seed-bearing weed residues, walnut or eucalyptus leaves (these contain natural chemicals that can be toxic to cultivated plants), or dog and cat dung.
Preparing the compost
Excellent compost bins can be purchased, or they can be easily built using chicken wire and a wooden frame. The bottom of the bin should be lined with dried grass, leaves, or shredded paper. As additional organic matter is added to the pile, it can be watered if necessary and mixed to increase oxygenation. An efficient temperature for composting is about 130-140°F (54-60°C). Depending on the organic mix and time of year, a well-humified compost will develop within two to six months. Many gardeners have been composting their organic matter for years. It has only been in the past decade or so that the broader public has been encouraged to compost on a larger scale.
The "compost man"
Clark Gregory is a soil scientist who has been a driving force in the growing popularity of composting. When he was the composting supervisor for Fulton County, Georgia, Gregory became known as the "compost man." He claims that up to three-quarters of the material that is typically discarded in landfills is potentially biodegradable through composting. Gregory advocates the use of large-scale, comprehensive composting programs in all local communities, as a way or drastically reducing the amounts of solid waste that have to be landfilled. In many municipalities, just the composting of soiled paper, yard clippings, and food scraps would reduce the solid waste stream by 40%, while also helping to reduce the cost of garbage collection and disposal.
Economic benefits
Composting programs have highly favorable economics, compared with the land-filling of organic waste. For example, a composting program in Seattle is saving taxpayers about $18 per ton of organic waste, and is diverting about 554 lb (252 kg) of garbage per household out of landfills each year. Similarly, the town of Oyster Bay, Long Island, instituted a leaf-composting program that generated 11,000 tons of compost for use by local gardeners, while saving $138 per ton previous spent to truck the leaves out of state for land-filling. The town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, composts more than 0.5 million cubic feet of leaves each year, producing humus that is sold for $5 per cubic yard, while saving $200,000 annually in disposal costs. Islip, New York, saves $5 million each year by composting grass clippings, which were once exported along with other garbage by barge to the Caribbean. If every county in the United States instituted composting programs of these kinds, the overall net savings could be $1.6 billion per year.
Zoo-Doo
Some zoos have become creative in composting and marketing the manure of their exotic animals. The Zoo-Doo Compost Company sells composted animal manure to novelty buyers and to organic gardeners. More than 160 zoo stores and 700 other retail outlets carry Zoo-Doo for sale to gag-gift buyers. In addition, gardeners buy larger quantities of the Zoo-Doo, which has a favorable nutrient ratio of 2-2-2 (2% each of nitrogen , phosphorus , and potassium), and is an excellent soil amendment as well as an organic fertilizer.
Researchers, environmentalists, and program administrators all agree that creativity will be one of the keys to solving many waste problems. Many landfills are nearing their carrying capacity , and most of the older ones will be closed by the year 2005. Recycling, composting, and reusing are all environmentally and economically beneficial ways of greatly reducing the volume of the solid waste stream.
See also Waste management.
Resources
books
Beatley, Thomas. Green Urbanism. Washington DC: Island Press, 2000.
Braungart, Michael, and William McDonough. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press, 2002.
Christopher, Tom, and Marty Asher. Compost This Book! San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1994.
Earth Works Group. 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save theEarth. 3rd ed. Berkeley: Earthworks Press, 1998.
Matthews, John A., E. M. Bridges, and Christopher J. Caseldine The Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Environmental Change. New York: Edward Arnold, 2001.
McConnell, Robert, and Daniel Abel. Environmental Issues:Measuring, Analyzing, Evaluating. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Powelson, D.R., and M.A. Powelson. The Recycler's Manual for Business, Government, and the Environmental Community. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1997.
Strong, D.L., and D. Kimball. Recycling in America: A Reference Handbook. 2nd ed. Contemporary World Issues Series. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1997.
other
Recycling Resource [cited March 2003]. <http://www.resourcerecycling.com/indices.html>.
"World's Shortest Comprehensive Recycling Guide." InternetConsumer Recycling Guide [cited March 2003]. <http://www.obviously.com/recycle/>.
Kitty Richman
KEY TERMS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .- Composting
—The process by which organic waste, such as yard waste, food waste, and paper, is broken down by microorganisms and turned into a useful product for improving soil.
- Decomposers
—Bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that break down organic material.
- Humus
—Organic material made up of well-decomposed, high molecular-weight compounds. Humus contributes to soil tilth, and is a kind of organic fertilizer.
- Incinerator
—An industrial facility used for the controlled burning of waste materials.
- Landfill
—An area of land that is used to dispose of solid waste and garbage.
- Manure
—Animal dung.
- Microorganism
—Bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic organisms.
- Organic material
—Vegetable and animal biomass.
- Prefabricated
—Manufactured off-site, usually referring to a construction process that eliminates or reduces assembling.
- Virgin material
—Material resources that have not previously been used for manufacturing or some other purpose.
Recycling
Recycling
Recycling is any process that involves the recovery and reuse of materials that were once considered trash. Recycling can be as simple as reusing something—such as a coat or computer—by passing it on for someone else to use. Or, it can be as involved as reprocessing materials in metals, plastics, paper, or glass to make new products.
An Old Idea Is Rediscovered
There is nothing new about recycling. People have found ways to reuse pottery, gold, silver, and bronze for thousands of years. Old swords were melted and reshaped to use as plows. Gold and silver jewelry were melted down and reshaped into other forms. As recently as one hundred years ago, traveling peddlers in the United States and Europe collected rags, bones, and scrap metal waste from household garbage and sold them to manufacturers to make into new products.
During the early twentieth century, Americans relied less and less on recycling. By the 1950s the United States was labeled a "throw-away economy" because Americans were consuming increasing amounts of goods that ended up in garbage landfills.
Recycling was revived in many Western countries back in the 1960s and 1970s as the public became interested in conservation and looked for ways to reduce damage to the environment. In the United States, the first Earth Day in 1970 is often viewed as the official beginning of the modern recycling movement. On that day, hundreds of new recycling centers opened across the country.
The recycling movement caught on in many other Western countries during the next thirty years. Today, Germany recycles 30 percent of all of its trash. Japan recycles over 50 percent of its trash, half of all wastepaper and glass bottles, and more than 60 percent of its drink and food cans.
At the start of the twenty-first century, the United States recycling efforts are behind many European nations. Americans generate twice the amount of trash as Germans, but recycle less. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States recycled 28 percent of its waste in 2002. States vary widely in their recycling programs. Minnesota is the nation's leader in recycling with a rate of recycling 45 percent of all domestic waste. Montana and Wyoming are at the bottom of the list, recycling less than 5 percent.
Why Recycle?
Recycling is one of the easiest steps anyone can take to reduce the impact of humans on the environment. On average, each American produces approximately 3.5 pounds of garbage per day. That is 1,500 pounds per person each year—or 90,000 pounds in a lifetime. Without recycling, all this trash ends up in landfills.
In the 1970s many people believed that recycling's greatest benefit was the reduction of the number of landfills because this would reduce the pollution associated with landfills and preserve the land. More recently, researchers have found multiple benefits to recycling.
- Recycling saves natural resources. Recycling reduces the demand for new materials from the environment. For example, by recycling paper, fewer trees are needed to produce new paper.
- Recycling saves habitats such as rain forests. By reducing the demand for new materials (such as metals that must be mined and refined) from the environment, more land and habitats can be preserved and/or conserved.
- Recycling saves energy and reduces emissions. In most cases, it takes less energy to make new products from recycled materials than from virgin raw materials. For example, it takes 95 percent less energy to produce aluminum products from recycled aluminum than from the raw materials of bauxite ore. In general, recycling of materials also produces less pollution than processing raw materials.
- Recycling can be economical. Recycling is often less expensive than the combined cost of processing new materials and managing waste disposal.
- Recycling reduces the need for new landfills and incinerators. Landfills and incinerators can emit hazards to the environment. When landfills leak, hazardous solvents can contaminate underlying ground-water—water that may be used for agriculture or as drinking water. Landfills and incinerators also emit pollution into the air.
- Recycling reduces the improper disposal of trash, such as littering.
Internal and External Recycling
Most people associate recycling with items such as newspapers, magazines, plastics, aluminum, and glass. The recovery, reprocessing, and reuse of materials from used items is called external recycling and requires public participation.
A second type of recycling, internal recycling, is the reuse of waste materials from manufacturing and does not involve the general public. For example, the manufacture/production of copper items results in wasted copper pieces; with internal recycling, these pieces are melted down and recast. Although internal recovery is possible in many industries, it is most common in the metal industry.
Because industrial waste accounts for 98 percent of all waste in the United States, many critics of recycling advocate that more attention should be paid to internal recycling than external recycling.
How External Recycling Works
External recycling involves three basic steps:
- Recovery. Recovery is the collection of used items that can be recycled. Many cities have drop-off centers or special curbside pickup programs to collect recyclables. Recovery may include sorting and separation of collected materials.
- Reprocessing. Reprocessing is the conversion of used items into reusable products. For example, glass is melted down and molded into new bottles or paper is reprocessed into new paper. There are three kinds of reprocessing: primary, secondary, and tertiary:
- Primary recycling is the reprocessing of materials into the same type of product, such the recycling of used glass bottles into new glass bottles.
- Secondary recycling is the reprocessing of materials into different but similar products, such as processing corrugated cardboard boxes into cereal boxes.
- Tertiary recycling is the reprocessing of a material into a product that cannot be recycled again—for example, when mixed office paper is reprocessed into bathroom tissue.
- Marketing and sale of new items. One of the most challenging parts of recycling is creating markets for recycled items. Recycling programs depend on their ability to advertise and sell recycled items at competitive prices. Recycling does not accomplish its goals if recycled items are not used.
What Things Are Recycled?
There are four groups of materials that are commonly recycled today.
- Standard recyclables. The most commonly recycled materials are aluminum, glass, paper products, steel, and plastics.
- Hazardous wastes. Hazardous wastes include items such as antifreeze, motor oil, paint, and batteries. Many cities have special centers to recycle hazardous wastes.
- Newer products. Some recycling centers have systems to reprocess newer products such as compact and floppy disks.
- Used automobiles and parts.
Aluminum. Aluminum cans are the most widely recycled metal. In 1999 roughly two-thirds of all aluminum cans produced in the United States were recycled. However, not all forms of aluminum are recycled. For example, aluminum foil can be recycled, but not all recycling centers are set up to process it.
Paper. Paper recycling is one of this country's most successful recycling programs. By weight, more paper is recycled each year than all other materials combined. The success of this program is in part due to the successful marketing and sale of recycled paper. Recycled paper is widely used today. Unfortunately, paper can only be recycled a limited number of times, because the paper fibers become too short to continue reprocessing after awhile.
Newspaper. Every part of a newspaper can be recycled—including the newspaper and inserts. Newspaper recycling has been profitable for decades.
Steel. Steel cans can be recycled many times. Recycled steel is used for many products such as tin cans.
Plastics. Plastics are not biodegradable, so the best choice is to recycle them. But plastics are a challenge for recycling centers. There are so many different kinds of plastics that they are difficult for recycling centers to reprocess; in fact, many plastics cannot be recycled. Those plastics that can be recycled can only be recycled a few times. Today, most plastic containers are marked on the bottom with a number in a triangle. Each number indicates a different kind of plastic. This information allows recycling center staff to identify plastic containers that can or cannot be recycled. Containers marked one or two are the most commonly accepted plastics for recycling.
Hazardous wastes. Hazardous wastes include toxic materials such as paints, solvents, motor oil, antifreeze, herbicides, and batteries. If these materials end up in landfills, the risk exists that they may leak into underlying groundwater which people use for drinking. If incinerated, these materials end up in the air. Many recycling centers have special programs for handling hazardous wastes.
Batteries. Batteries contain many toxic ingredients, such as lead and cadmium, which can cause serious environmental damage if they are buried in landfills. Many recycling centers direct customers to special dealers who accept used batteries.
Computers. Used computers are a challenge for recycling, because they need to be completely disassembled. Recently, a number of companies have started exploring ways to do this efficiently and cost effectively. Recycling of computers is becoming increasingly important as the number of used computers continues to grow. One computer manufacturer, Dell, is now offering to take back old computers for reuse or recycling.
Automobile Recycling. For years, the economic incentives of recycling parts from cars, trucks and other motor vehicles has made automobile recycling a big business. In the United States, each year, more than eleven million vehicles are sent to the junkyard because they have been damaged in accidents or have reached the end of their life. About three-quarters of the scrapped vehicles are recycled or their parts are resold. Every part from the doors and windows to engines and transmissions are sold; other recyclable metal parts are magnetically separated from other materials. The rest are shredded and buried in landfills.
In the future, a smaller percentage of automobile parts will be recyclable as cars are built with more nonmetal, nonrecyclable materials, unless the automobile makers give serious attention to designing new cars that can be recycled. New cars are being built with more and more high-tech gear and hundreds of different materials that cannot be recovered.
Countries in the European Union have been exploring ways to encourage automobile manufacturers to take greater responsibility for the recycling of "end of life" automobiles. Several countries have already implemented "end of product responsibility" programs. For example, in the Netherlands, car manufacturers are liable to pay a recycling fee when they market a vehicle. The fee is then used to cover possible recycling costs.
Composting—Recycling Organic Materials
Composting is a method of recycling organic materials, such as certain food waste and yard clippings, directly into the soil. Although there are many ways to make composts, the basic idea is to mix yard clippings and food waste into a pile with soil and let it decompose; worms, insects, and other organisms help break it down. Once the material in a compost has broken down, the degraded material can be tilled into the soil and applied as nutrient-rich mulch or material for plants.
Composting offers an opportunity to provide a rich source of nutrients for gardens and to reduce the amount of waste taking up space in landfills. Food and yard wastes currently make up about 30 percent of all wastes going into landfills. The airtight design of landfills slows down the decomposition of organic materials because they need oxygen to decompose. One community that has taken composting seriously is Halifax, Nova Scotia. Roughly 30 to 50 percent of their waste is organic matter. In 1997 the Nova Scotia Department of Environment passed a law banning the disposal of food, leaf and yard waste from landfills. Through heightened use of composting and other programs, between 1989 and 2000, Nova Scotia's per capita waste production dropped from 720 kg to 356 kg.
see also Composting; Plastics; Pollution Prevention; Reuse; Solid Waste; Waste Reduction.
Bibliography
Ackerman, Frank. (1997). Why Do We Recycle? Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Cothran, Helen, ed. (2003). Garbage and Recycling: Opposing Viewpoints. Chicago: Greenhaven Press.
The Earthworks Group. (1989). 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. Berkeley, CA: The Earthworks Press.
The Earthworks Group. (1990). The Recyclers Handbook: Simple Things You Can Do. Berkeley, CA: The Earthworks Press.
League of Women's Voters. (1993). The Garbage Primer: A Handbook for Citizens. New York: Lyons and Burford Publishers.
Mc Donough, William, and Braungart, Michael. (2002). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: Northpoint Press.
Nova Scotia Department of the Environment. (2001). Status Report 2001 of Solid Waste-Resource Management in Nova Scotia. Halifax, NS: Nova Scotia Department of the Environment.
Thompson, Claudia G. (1992). Recycled Papers: The Essential Guide. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
internet resources
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Municipal Solid Waste." Available from http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/recycle.htm.
Global Recycling Network Web site. Available from http://grn.com.
Recycling Today Web site. Available from http://www.recyclingtoday.com.
Corliss Karasov
RECYCLING
The Netherlands recycled more than three quarters (77%)of the approximately 65 million tons of garbage it generated in 2000. Public pressure to reduce dioxin emissions from incineration plants and pollution from landfills led to landfill taxes beginning in 1995 and a landfill ban on combustible waste in 1997. In addition, government-owned incineration plants were operated below full capacity at the same time as incentives to expand the recyclables market and encourage end-of-life producer responsibility were initiated. Mandatory separation of different types of industrial wastes, with recycling of construction and demolition waste within a government financed infrastructure, and municipal curbside pickups of organic waste for composting, along with separated household recyclables, has decreased landfilling from 35 percent in 1985 to 9 percent in 2000.
Recycling
Recycling
Remains of human settlements through the ages are characterized by garbage. Early human encampments are surrounded by discarded bones, shells, and broken tools and weapons. While such material is a boon to archaeologists, the mountains of discarded materials produced by today's society threaten to consume available land near large cities, and they pollute the water supplies of both rural and urban environments. Nearly every object and material discarded by humans can be recycled, reducing the cost and danger of disposal and providing valuable resources for industry and the home. Recycling also restricts many dangerous substances to facilities designed to handle them.
The Emergence of Recycling
Many Americans remember when garbage disposal was as simple as placing the material in a can in the alley or, in the case of rural residents, feeding the pig, or tossing everything into a nearby ditch in the name, at least, of erosion control. Our ancestors lived lives much simpler and were much less encumbered by material possessions. Bottles, buttons, nails, and wood all passed through a progression of steps and were smelted, rewoven, reshaped, or burned. Few people anywhere lived in societies where many materials were simply thrown away. The largest furniture store now operating in the United States was founded by two immigrants who began their careers as rag and bottle pickers during the early 1900s.
Every bottle or jar in early America was recycled, and pieces were used for purposes as varied as arrowheads and grit for chickens. Birds, lacking teeth, must collect small rocks, or grit, in order to grind their food in the craw. Old-time farmers sometimes ground glass when oyster shell or other sources of grit were unavailable. Ground glass was also mixed with glue to make abrasives. The vast numbers of buffalo killed by Native American or European hunters left huge quantities of bones on the prairie, but early scavengers collected them and shipped them to plants where they were ground for fertilizer. Early-day cloth was collected and treated to reclaim fiber, which could be woven into string or rope. Most cities contain parks, and below many of these parks are landfills dating back as far as the 1800s. A lack of landfill space, increasing transportation costs, and tougher government regulations now diminish the use of landfills, and many smaller communities sport signboards denouncing the importation of waste from other cities or states.
Recycling falls into two categories: direct and indirect. Direct recycling is the reuse of components of manufactured materials before sale, often in the case of damaged or unsold products. Indirect recycling is the practice of recycling products or materials that consumers have used and discarded.
Shortages during World War I and World War II prompted scrap iron, fiber, and rubber drives, reclaiming many essential materials. The first items to be recycled through organized programs other than in wartime were milk and other beverage bottles. In days when milkmen placed bottles on doorsteps, the heavy bottles were returned, washed, and refilled dozens of times. During the 1940s and 1950s, families scavenged for soda and beer bottles and cans along highways, and many children supplemented or earned allowances by collecting bottles for the two-cent deposit. Plastic bottles and aluminum cans have largely replaced the reusable bottles of the twentieth century. Many states now mandate five- to ten-cent deposits on the plastic replacements. The scrap material drives of the World Wars brought the public's attention to the fact that many more fabrics, metals, and rubber items could be recycled.
Water
The most commonly recycled material is water. Seldom destroyed in use, water serves as a medium for chemical reactions and as a heat transfer mechanism in steam or hot water systems, car engines, and various industrial processes. Moderately dirty water may be dumped directly into streams, injected into wells, or, in the case of cooling water from power plants, allowed to pass through wetlands to cool.
Water containing sewage is given primary treatment consisting of settling and filtration and secondary aeration treatment to allow oxidative bacteria to reduce the bacterial oxidative demand (BOD). Tertiary treatment with chlorine, chloramines, or ozone is used if the water is needed for consumption. In rural areas, sewage may pass through a cesspool for sedimentation and anaerobic bacterial action, and the effluent may be distributed through a series of pipes into a disposal field. Water that has low BOD is usually purified by bacterial action in soil so that after passing some distance through the ground, biodegradable substances are removed. It is particularly important that detergents be biodegradable and contain minimal amounts of phosphates and nitrates, as these substances, along with high BOD water, contribute to eutrophication, a rapid growth of bacteria. Eutrophication may consume so much available oxygen that fish and other organisms die.
Farms, ranches, and feedlots provide food but often are major sources of pollution. Modern feedlots store sewage in lagoons where solids can be collected. Effluent water from lagoons often contains microorganisms that serve as food in fish farms, and solids from the lagoons can be processed into fertilizer. The effectiveness of these operations is often determined by the size of the operation and the need for cleanup. Larger operations can afford more complex remediation equipment and tend to be more costeffective than small ones. Most large feedlots are located away from population centers whose residents often complain of the odors.
Federal, state, and municipal laws mandate that industries reclaim most pollutants, such as heavy metals or organic chemicals, from wastewater. Prior to this legislation, toxic chemicals often made their way into the water table. Reclaiming toxic substances protects the environment and, in many cases, provides a valuable source of materials needed for synthesis . In many cases, industries are located near other manufacturing plants that pass their waste to another plant, which uses it as a raw material.
Paper, Steel, and Aluminum
Paper, in the form of used newspapers, packing materials, and telephone books, may be burned for energy, but it still makes up 30 percent to 45 percent of the average landfill. Landfilled paper requires decades to decay and may release methane, a greenhouse gas that is twenty times as deleterious as carbon dioxide. Most paper could be reused or converted to materials used for blown insulation. Nearly 40 percent of office paper and newspapers is now recycled. Two problems occur in recycling paper. Each time paper is reprocessed, the fibers break and become shorter. Office copiers work best with long-fiber paper that has higher tensile strength and produces less dust. Fiber from used paper is often blended with new fibers to produce the desired qualities. A second problem in recycling office paper is the demand for white paper. Used paper pulp often contains ink or other colored materials that must be removed. Some inks and adhesives can be removed by flotation, and bleaching then whitens the pulp. Older methods of chlorine bleaching produced toxic dioxin. Oxygen and hydrogen peroxide are now used to whiten paper and are considered less damaging to the environment. Use of colored papers for printing and copying greatly decreases the need for bleaching.
Steel is widely recycled. Soon after steel was first produced, damaged steel items were recycled into new products. Today, 68 percent of used steel is recycled. The basic oxygen process of steel manufacture uses 25 percent scrap as starting material, and nearly 100 percent of the starting material for steel production by the electric arc process is scrap. Many states have "clunker" laws that require that the purchase of a new car be accompanied by turning in a junked car, and most municipalities have programs for collecting and recycling used auto parts and furniture.
Aluminum is one of the most commonly recycled metals. Although many aluminum products are still discarded, 65 percent of aluminum materials are recycled; 95 percent less energy is needed to produce aluminum from recycled cans than from aluminum ore.
Plastics and Oil
Plastics make up only about 8 percent of the volume in the average landfill but represent a huge investment of energy and raw materials. Most plastics produced from petroleum materials by polymerization of monomers such as ethylene or vinyl chloride are thermoplastic materials and can be cleaned, melted, and re-formed. Thermosetting plastics can also be cut into pieces that are mixed with other plastics or used as fillers. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) are the most widely reused plastic materials, but polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene, and polystyrene account for 5 percent of the recycled plastics. In 2001 80 million pounds (36 million kilograms) of plastics were recycled in the United States. Recycled plastic materials are used in the production of bottles, fabrics, flowerpots, furniture, plastic lumber, injection molded crates, and automobile parts.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans discard 120 million gallons (454 million liters) of oil each year as a result of automobile oil changes. Virtually all this oil can be recycled, and most states require recycling. Used motor oil contains particulate matter and some chemical substances that must be removed during re-refining. As much as 80 percent of used motor oil is used with little change as a fuel for ships or industrial heating equipment, but this practice probably poses a greater danger to the environment than burning refined oil.
Batteries, Rubber, and Paint
Used lead-acid automobile batteries represent a major hazard to the environment. Most landfills accept batteries but place them aside for recycling, which includes collecting and neutralizing the acid, removing the cases, and resmelting the lead plates. Fragments of cases can be recycled into new battery cases, and resmelted lead is used to cast new battery plates. In New Zealand alone, 500,000 lead-acid storage batteries are recycled each year.
Rechargeable batteries from power tools, telephones, and most other devices can be recycled. Nonrecyclable batteries often contain mercury or other toxic metals that are harmful to the environment, but in the early twenty-first century, most were still discarded in landfills.
Rubber products pose a special problem in the environment, and their dumping in landfills usually requires a special fee. Discarded in piles or buried, they occasionally catch fire and produce noxious gases. In developing countries, many used or damaged automobile tires are repaired or disassembled to make other products. Granulated rubber produced from
discarded tires can be used to make floor mats and rubber wheels, and it can be used as a component of asphalt-paving materials. Used rubber can be heated to reclaim petroleum products, treated chemically to obtain components used as filler in manufacturing rubber products, or incinerated as a source of energy.
Many recyclable materials consist of mixed materials that pose special problems. Discarded automobile oil filters contain steel, fiber, and contaminated petroleum. Oil filters are crushed and heated to remove oil, and the metal reclaimed. Discarded household appliances contain large amounts of steel but must often be dismantled, with other materials removed. A special fee is charged at recycling centers to discard most appliances. Fluorescent lamps contain small amounts of mercury that can be reclaimed. Used computers and television sets contain usable materials and, often, some toxic materials that can be collected for safe disposal.
The small amounts of paint generated by the average household cannot be recycled economically, but most municipalities sponsor paint exchange programs and collect oil-based paints. Spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants can be recycled to reclaim unused uranium, and some spent uranium is used to produce armor-piercing bullets. Yard waste from households is often recycled and made into mulch for farming and gardening. Discarded Christmas trees are used to form mulch or are immersed in lakes as a habitat for fish.
see also Environmental Pollution; Water; Water Pollution; Water Quality.
Dan M. Sullivan
Bibliography
Ehrig, R. J., ed. (1992). Plastics Recycling: Products and Processes. New York: Hanser Publishers.
Internet Resources
American Plastics Council. Information available from <http://www.plastics.org>.
Environmental News Network. Information available from <http://www.enn.com>.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. Information available from <http://www.epa.gov>.
Recycling
Recycling
Recycling waste is not a new idea. Throughout history, people have disposed garbage in myriad ways. They fed household garbage to domestic animals. Scavengers gleaned the waste stream for usable items that could be fixed, then sold or traded for other goods and services. Homemakers mended clothing, and children grew up in hand-me-downs. Durable goods were just that; goods that could be reused until their durability wore out. These practices were not due to a desire to reduce the waste stream, but rather a need to produce products from all available resources. Modern society has moved away from such straightforward recycling practices, choosing instead to toss out the old and buy new goods. This throwaway society now faces a trash crisis.
The volume of solid waste generated in the United States has continued to increase, along with the cost of building landfills and incineration facilities. Recycling some of this material into new uses saves existing landfill space, conserves energy and natural resources , reduces pollution , and saves tax money. Recycling can provide new jobs, create new industries, and contribute to the increase in the GNP. Instead of referring to what people discard every day as garbage, advocates of recycling emphasize the need to refer to waste products as Post Consumer Materials (PCMs) and consider them renewable resources for various manufacturing processes.
The challenge of collecting adequate volumes of recyclable materials in a form ready for manufacturing into new products is a formidable task. Unlike raw materials that are extracted from the earth or manufactured in a lab, PCMs are mixed materials, and are sometimes contaminated with toxic and non-toxic residue. PCMs must be cleaned and source-separated at the individual household and business level. Once the materials are made available at the point of generation, they must be collected and transported to a collection site, usually referred to as a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). At this location, materials are processed to make transportation easier and increase their value. Glass is separated by color, plastics are pelletized, and paper is baled. Other materials may be cleaned and reduced in volume, depending on the equipment available. The exceptions to this rule are single materials collected and transported directly to the point of use, such as newspaper collected at a drop off site and transported to a local insulation manufacturer. The existence of an MRF enhances the recycling process because it allows large volumes of materials to be amassed at a single location, making marketing of PCMs more profitable. If manufacturers know that there are adequate volumes of high-quality raw material consistently available, they are more likely to agree to long-term purchasing contracts.
Manufacturers are being encouraged to retrofit, or retool, their manufacturing processes in order to use PCMs instead of raw materials. Many glass manufacturers now use cullet (cut glass) instead of silica and sand to make new glass containers, and some paper manufacturers have installed deinking equipment in order to manufacture paper from used newsprint instead of wood pulp. Once the initial expense of equipment change has been absorbed, such changes can reduce costs. But these are long-term investments on the part of manufacturers, and they must be ensured that recycling is a long-term commitment on the part of consumers and communities.
Recycling begins with people, and the biggest challenge for recycling lies in educating and motivating the public upon whom successful source separation depends. Except in rare circumstances recycling is a voluntary act, so the attitudes, knowledge, and feelings of the participants are the key to sustained recycling behavior. It has been found that people will change their behavior to protect the health of their families, the value of their property, and their own self-image, and recycling has often been justified in these terms. Once the rationale to begin recycling has been shared with community residents, a program for making recycling convenient and inexpensive must be institutionalized.
Curbside recycling is currently the most desirable recycling option, primarily because of its convenience. Bio-Cycle Magazine reported in April of 1999 only nine states with fewer than 10 curbside recycling programs. These are usually commingled, or mixed, systems. Residents clean and prepare glass, cans, paper, and plastic, before putting them together in a container and placing them at the curb. Most waste haulers pick up the recyclables on the same day as the rest of the waste, separating them into bins on the truck right at the curb. In more rural areas, where homes are too far apart, recycling often takes place at a drop off center. This is usually a tractor trailer with separate bins, which is hauled directly to an MRF when it is full and replaced by an empty trailer. Research has shown that the best system is one where curbside recycling is offered, but a drop-off site is also available as a backup in case residents miss their recycling day. In some communities there is a weekly or monthly drop-off. Trucks from different industries use a convenient parking lot and residents are encouraged to bring their recyclables to company representatives. Some communities also have buy-back centers where residents can sell PCMs to a broker who in turn sells the material to manufacturers.
In addition to residential recycling there is office or business recycling. Office paper recycling programs are usually set up so office workers separate the paper at their desks. The paper is taken regularly to a location where it is either baled or picked up loose and transported to a manufacturing plant. Offices that generate a large amount of white office paper can collect and market the paper directly to paper manufacturers. Smaller offices can cooperate with other businesses, contracting with paper manufacturers to pick up paper at a central location. Another example of business recycling is the recycling of corrugated cardboard by groceries and clothing stores. These businesses have been breaking down boxes and baling them on site for pickup by collection trucks. Dry cleaning establishments are currently taking back hangers and plastic bags from their customers for recycling. Businesses of many kinds have begun to realize that positive publicity can be achieved through their recycling efforts, and they have been increasingly inclined to participate.
One of the biggest challenges to recycling in the future is market development. For communities near to cities that have major manufacturers taking PCMs, marketing is not a problem. For smaller more rural communities, however, different strategies must be developed. In some cases a well run MRF that brokers recycled materials is adequate. In other cases, it may be necessary to search for local markets to utilize PCMs, such as the use of newspaper as animal bedding. Newspaper collected and processed within the community can be sold to local farmers at a lower cost less than straw or sawdust. Another approach is encouraging a niche industry to locate nearby, such as a small insulation contractor who is promised all the post-consumer newsprint from the community. Ultimately, recycling will not be successful unless consumers buy products made from PCMs. Products made from these materials are becoming easier to find, and they are more clearly marked than in the past, though some green or earth-friendly product labeling has been controversial. Recycling advocates have argued that such labeling should not only say that the product is made from recycled material, it should also note what percentage of the material is post consumer waste, as opposed to manufacturing waste.
Many states are encouraging recycling through legislation. According to the Container Recycling Institute in 1999 10 states had bottle bills requiring stores to take back beer and soft drink bottles and cans, giving consumers a refund. Certain states have banned all compostable materials from landfills in order to force composting . In some states, daily newspapers are required to use a certain percentage of recycled paper in order to publish. These and other legislative steps have enhanced the recycling movement nationwide. States with the highest recycling rate of 40% or higher include Maine, Minnesota, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Virginia according to a report in BioCycle magazine in 1999. Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming have the lowest recycle rate of 9% or less according to the report. The majority of states (40) recycle between 10 and 39% of materials. No data was available for Idaho.
According the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2002, U.S. consumers recycle approximately 28% of all waste. The highest recycle rate is for steel packaging, with 57% being recycled. Aluminum drinking cans are recycled at a rate of 55%, compared to 40% of plastic soft drink bottles. The paper recycling rate is 42%, and 52% of appliances meet with the recycler. The EPA sponsors a free voluntary program to all U.S. organizations, called WasteWise, to encourage and track the results of corporate recycling programs.
The growing tonnage of computers, computer monitors, and television sets that overpower municipal landfills is an increasing problem that demands resolution. An estimated 70% of heavy metals found in third millennium landfills comes from digital hardware. Eight pounds (3.6 kg) of lead are contained in a single cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor, contributing to the threats of lead contamination. In May of 2002 the EPA proposed a recycling program to control this high-tech waste, including a provision to classify CRT computer monitors as reusable waste products. The necessity for these measures is evident in consideration of the 500 million computers in use worldwide, which contain an estimated 1.58 billion lb (716 million kg) of lead and 632,000 lb (287,000 kg) of mercury . According to EPA estimates the number of discarded computers between 2002 and 2007 might reach 250 million units in the United States alone.
Equally critical is the problem of battery recycling . Growing concerns over poor battery recycling practices by consumers are well founded because they are classified as toxic waste, with mercury and lead contamination the most serious problems caused by improper battery disposal. Yet rarely are batteries disposed of accordingly. Most nonrechargeable batteries are tossed in the trash where they end up in the landfills. The use of rechargeable batteries offers a very effective solution to alleviate much of this problem, because each rechargeable battery has a life cycle equal to hundreds of nonrechargeable batteries; some rechargeables have a life cycle of 1,000 recharges. Because of poor disposal practices, every rechargeable battery protects the landfill from potential contamination by hundreds of batteries.
The National Recycling Coalition is a nonprofit organization that provides leadership and coordination at the national level, sponsoring events, scholarships, and educational programs to encourage effective recycling practices.
See also Container deposit legislation; Municipal solid waste; Solid waste recycling and recovery; Solid waste volume reduction; Transfer station; Waste management; Waste reduction
[Cynthia Fridgen ]
RESOURCES
BOOKS
BioCycle: Journal of Composting and Recycling. JG Press.
Carless, J. Taking Out the Trash: A No-Nonsense Guide to Recycling. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1992.
Coming Full Circle: Successful Recycling Today. New York: Environmental Defense Fund, 1988.
Pollock, C. Mining Urban Wastes: The Potential for Recycling. Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1987.
Recycling
RECYCLING
RECYCLING. The term "recycling" was virtually unused outside of industry before the late 1960s when voluntary programs were formed by counterculture communities. The emerging culture of hippies reapplied the age-old practice of collecting and reusing materials. For centuries, rag pickers collected worn out cloth and sold it to those who made paper. Not until the mid-nineteenth century did the demand for paper outstrip the quantity of rags. It was then that the method of making paper from wood was invented. Wood soon replaced textile fiber entirely in paper manufacturing, preparing the way for paper to become the most plentiful item in twentieth-century landfills.
The United States evolved from a nation of people who saved pieces of twine and reused nails (as Henry David Thoreau did, when building his cabin at Walden Pond) to a "throwaway society" of people who discarded containers, furniture, appliances, and even automobiles by the mid-twentieth century. The need to conserve and reuse materials, while stressed as a patriotic duty during World War II, was forgotten in the postwar boom.
"Fast food" emerged, sold in plastic and foam containers which, like so much else, was considered "disposable." Then, on the heels of the 1960s movements for civil rights and peace, came "the greening of America," a political movement to save the environment. The size of the environmental movement became apparent on 22 April 1970 when 20 million people turned out to celebrate the first Earth Day. Months later, Congress created the Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA). Soon books like Limits to Growth by the Club of Rome (1972) began making the case that our American way of life was not sustainable.
The Truth about Consequences: Hard Choices
Recycling is the most obvious way individuals can assist in waste management, though source reduction can also be practiced. The "diaper wars" of the late 1980s exemplify the latter, reducing the amount of waste by using cloth diapers. But the makers of disposable diapers argued that washing cloth diapers used energy and water, offsetting any benefit. Making choices that "save the Earth" turned out to be complex.
Another hard choice for consumers was the "paper or plastic" question at the grocery store. This apparently ethical question became moot when it was discovered that neither would decompose in a landfill. Marketers promoted items as good for the environment because they were biodegradable, but consumers later found that the term had little meaning. One researcher dug up ten-year old chicken bones in a landfill, demonstrating that in the absence of light and air, even organic waste does not decompose.
Recycling Goes Mainstream
In the late 1980s, news reports began referring to a "land-fill crisis" and showed images of medical waste washing up on beaches. Support for recycling spread beyond the minority of environmentalists to the general population. By then most of the voluntary programs, unable to accommodate the quantity of recyclables and fluctuating prices, had disappeared. In their stead, large, efficient trash collection companies had begun to offer curbside recycling (often required by municipalities). This combination of widespread concern and the convenience of curbside collection led to increasing quantities of recycled trash.
Recycling is, of course, only one of many interrelated environmental issues, but it is the one to which everyone can contribute directly. Americans began to associate it with groundwater pollution, topsoil erosion, deforestation, and global warming. "Do you recycle?" became an ethical question, and curbside recycling grew rapidly in urban areas. By 1999, curbside recycling was available to over half the population of the United States. It was much more widespread in the urban Northeast (83 percent) than in the more rural South (39 percent), with the West and Midwest averaging 48 percent.
Thus the quantity of household waste which was recycled increased significantly in the United States. In 1980, the average weight of materials recycled per person per day was 0.35 pounds; it increased to 0.70 by 1990 and to 1.30 by 1999. At the same time, the amount of generated waste increased from 3.7 in 1980 to 4.5 in 1990; however, that figure stopped growing as rapidly and was only 4.6 pounds in 1999.
On Earth Day 1990, about 200 million people in 137 countries showed support. Recycling was declared "more popular than democracy" by the editor of Resource Recycling who claimed that more people recycled than voted in the November 1991 elections (September 1992 issue; qtd. in Ackerman, p. 8). Indeed, recycling had become so significant in the American conscience that a Wall Street Journal article connected the act of recycling with religious ritual: "For many, a little trash sorting has become a form of penance to acknowledge that the values of our high-consumption society don't always nurture the soul" (19 January 1995; quoted in Ackerman, pp. 9–10). The
title of the article, "Curbside Recycling Comforts the Soul, But Benefits Are Scant," suggests one of the basic points of contention: should recycling be profitable?
To Recycle or Not: The Argument
Challengers to recycling argue that we should allow the market to determine what is recycled. For the most part, curbside recycling does not pay for itself except for aluminum cans. The environmental advocates, however, list two kinds of benefits. First, in waste management, recy-cling reduces the amount of waste, thereby reducing both pollution from landfills and litter from improper disposal; second, on the production end, recycled materials reduce pollution and energy costs and extend the life of raw materials which cannot be replaced.
The "anti-recyclers" argue that the "landfill crisis" of the 1980s was largely exaggerated and that even with the added cost of containment, landfills are cheaper than recycling. However, many people balk at locating landfills near where they live: the NIMBY response ("Not In My Back Yard"). Further, recycling advocates point out, we must weigh the social value of recycling rather than measure it solely by economics, and if we do use economics, we must consider the hidden costs (such as cleaning up pollution and end-of-life disposal) and not just the immediate ones.
The continuing dialogue about recycling is well illustrated by the February 2002 response of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC)—one of many groups formed around this issue—to the white paper put out by the EPA. The NRC finds much to approve of in the EPA recommendations but returns to the fundamental issue of sustainability: can we go on producing and consuming and disposing of material goods at an ever-increasing rate?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ackerman, Frank. Why Do We Recycle: Markets, Values, and Public Policy. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1997.
Alexander, Judd H. In Defense of Garbage. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1993.
Strasser, Susan. Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1999.
Strong, Debra L. Recycling in America: A Reference Handbook. 2d ed. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1997.
William E.King
See alsoWaste Disposal .
Recycling
Recycling
Recycling is a method of reusing materials that would otherwise be disposed of in a landfill or incinerator. Household products that contain glass, aluminum, paper, and plastic are used for recycling and to make new products. Recycling has many benefits: it saves money in production and energy costs, helps save the environment from the impacts of extracting and processing virgin (never used; not altered by human activity) materials, and means that there is less trash that needs to be disposed.
The concept of recycling is not a new one. At the beginning of the twentieth century, 70 percent of the nation's cities had programs to recycle one or more specific materials. During World War II (1939–45), 25 percent of the waste generated by industrial processes was recycled and reused. Since the general public has become more environmentally conscious, the recycling rate in the United States has risen from 7 percent in 1960 to 17 percent in 1990 to 28 percent in 2000. Analysts predict that by 2005, Americans will be recycling and composting at least 83 tons (75 metric tons) or 35 percent of all municipal waste.
Process
Recycling is a three-step process. The first step involves collecting and reprocessing materials for recycling. These materials must be separated from other trash and prepared to become new products. Manufacturing of new products from recycled materials is the second step. The final step is the consumer's purchase and use of the recycled product.
Some problems with recycling
These steps may appear to constitute a simple and straightforward process, but such is not the case. A number of basic questions have to be resolved before recycling of solid wastes can become a practical reality. Some of these questions are technological. For example, there is currently no known way to recycle certain types of widely used plastics in an economical way. There is no problem in collecting these plastics and separating them from trash, but the process stops there. No one has found a method for re-melting the plastics and then converting them into new products.
A second problem is economic. Suppose that it costs more to make a new product out of recycled materials than out of new materials. What
company is willing to lose money by using recycled, rather than new, materials?
Legislation
One way to expand the use of recycling, of course, is to invent more efficient technologies to deal with waste materials. Another approach, however, is to use the power of government to encourage or even require recycling. Governments are interested in promoting recycling because the cost of other means of solid waste disposal is often very high. If citizens can be made to recycle waste materials rather than to just throw them away, governments can save money on sanitary landfills, incinerators, and other means of waste disposal.
Both the U.S. federal government and individual states have now passed a number of laws relating to recycling. For example, a number of states states (including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia require that newspapers published in their jurisdictions have a minimum content of recycled fiber.
On the federal level, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires government agencies to set aside a portion of their budgets to buy recycled products. All agencies are required to purchase recycled paper, refined oil, building insulation made with recycled material, and other items that are made from recycled products.
Government regulations, however, are not necessarily the best possible answer to developing recycling policies. For one thing, prices are usually higher for recycled products, and there may be problems with availability and quality of recycled goods.
Overall, researchers and environmentalists tend to agree that creativity will be the key to solving many of our solid waste disposal problems. Many landfills have reached their carrying capacity. In 1978, there were roughly 14,000 landfills in the United States. By 2000, that number had dropped to just over 5,000. Many of those currently open are expected to be closed within a few years. Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, New York, was the largest landfill in the world. It covered over 2,200 acres (880 hectares) and reached a height taller than the Statue of Liberty. Open in 1948, it was finally closed in March 2001. As we continue to run out of space to put solid waste, recycling, composting, and reusing are fast becoming environmental and economic necessities to help reduce some of that waste.
[See also Composting; Waste management ]
Recycling
Recycling
Earth Day 1970 suggested to millions of Americans that environmental concern could be expressed locally. Through organized activities, many citizens found that they could actively improve the environment with their own hands. Many communities responded by organizing ongoing efforts to alter wasteful patterns. Recycling would prove to be the most persistent of these grassroots efforts. Though the effort has been trivialized by extremist environmentalists, trash and waste recycling now stands as the ultimate symbol of the American environmental consciousness.
Recycling grew out of a conservative impulse to reduce waste, rather than as an expression of environmentalism. The effort to make worthwhile materials from waste can be traced throughout human society as an application of commonsense rationality. The term "recycling" became part of the American lexicon during wartime rationing, particularly during World War II. Scrap metals and other materials became a resource to be collected and recycled into weaponry and other materials to support the fighting overseas. But the public's enthusiasm for recycling did not last. Historians point to the conclusion of World War II, and the commensurate growth in the U.S. middle class as defining points in the American "culture of consumption"—which reenforced carelessness, waste, and a demand for newness—that became prevalent in the 1950s but extended, in some form, through the end of the twentieth century. The prodigious scale of American consumption quickly made the nation the most advanced and wasteful civilization in the world. It was only a matter of time before a backlash brought U.S. consumption patterns into question. As the 1960s counterculture imposed doubt on much of the American "establishment," many Americans began to consider more carefully the patterns with which they lived everyday life. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, this mindset was met by a litany of examples of American exploitation of resources, ranging from gas shortages to oil spills to toxic leaks. Many Americans began to call for a new ethic to guide everyday life, and, for many, Earth Day 1970 marked the symbolic start of a "greener" perspective.
Belittled by many environmentalists, recycling often seems like busywork for kids with little actual environmental benefit. However, such a minor shift in human behavior suggests the significant alteration made to people's view of their place in nature. Environmental concerns such as overused landfills and excessive litter contributed to a new "ethic" within U.S. culture that began to value restraint, reuse, and living within limits; and gave communities a new mandate in maintaining the waste of their population. Reusing products or creating useful byproducts from waste offered application of this new ethic while also offering new opportunity for economic profit and development. Green, or environmental, industries took form to facilitate and profit from this impulse, creating a significant growth portion of the American economy. Even more impressively, the grassroots desire to express an environmental commitment compelled middle-class Americans to make recycling part of an everyday effort. However, the consumptive momentum of the American economy in the twentieth century made it necessary for citizens to relearn the ethic to decrease waste, and often it was children and schools who fuelled community efforts to recycle. By the end of the twentieth century, many institutions and communities had made recycling a portion of waste disposal service.
Most children born after the 1980s assume the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra has been part of the United States since its founding. In actuality, it serves as a continuing ripple of the cultural and social impact of Earth Day 1970 and the effort of Americans to begin to live within limits.
—Brian Black
Further Reading:
Opie, John. Nature's Nation. New York, Harcourt Brace, 1998.