yg

Look Beyond the Bin

2 Printed on paper that contains at least 20 percent postconsume

SEEING THE FULL PICTURE 1

Seeing the Full Picture

I

T'S NO PUZZLE—recycling makes sense. The concept is simple: recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. Collecting used bottles, cans, and newspapers and taking them to the curb or to a collection facility is just the first in a

chain of events that generates a host of financial, environmental, and social

returns (see below). Some of these benefits accrue locally as well as globally. As this booklet explains, when all the pieces of recycling are put together, the overwhelming conclusion is that recycling boosts the economy, conserves natural resources, and reduces solid waste.

■ Recycling protects and 

expands U.S. manufacturing

jobs and increases U.S.

competitiveness.

■ Recycling reduces the need for

landfilling and incineration.

■ Recycling prevents pollution

caused by the manufacturing 

of products from virgin materials.

■ Recycling saves energy.

■ Recycling decreases emissions

of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. 

■ Recycling conserves natural

resources such as timber, water,

and minerals.

■ Recycling helps sustain the

environment for future

generations.

THE BENEFITS OF RECYCLING
Broadening

the Financial 

Focus

COST SAVINGS 

I

N SOME COMMUNITIES across the United States, recycling is a co

effective way to manage municipal solid waste. The experience of

Madison, Wisconsin (population 201,000), for example, illustrates 

economic benefits curbside recycling can provide midsized U.S. cit

In 8 years, the city more than tripled its diversion of residential solid wa

while also decreasing the net annual cost of solid waste services from $1

per household to $139. A recycling rate (including composting) of 49 p

cent reduced the number of garbage routes needed and helped hold lan

fill tipping fees in check.1

As solid waste managers take advantage of various cost-saving metho

for collecting residential solid waste and recyclables, the business of

municipal solid waste collection will become even more cost-effective.

Successful strategies include changing collection frequency, introducing

automated collection equipment, and improving routing design. Dozens 

local governments and haulers across the country have demonstrated th

these and other strategies can have dramatic impacts on the bottom line

while improving the quality of service delivery.

2

Mesa, Arizona (population 314,000), is one city that saved money by

recycling. When the city integrated curbside recycling into its solid was

management system, it was able to reduce the number of garbage pick-u

from twice per week to just once. To reduce costs further, the city also

upgraded its fleet of collection trucks (thus reducing labor and maintenance costs), streamlined collection routes, and initiated staff productivi

2 BROADENING THE FINANCIAL FOCUS
collection of solid waste and recyclables in the same truck.4

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Advances in the collection of solid waste and recyclables are only one piece

of recycling's economic success. Recycling also has made a vital contribution

to job creation and economic development. Recycling creates or expands businesses that collect, process, and broker recovered materials as well as companies that manufacture and distribute products made with recovered materials.

Numerous studies have documented the billions of dollars invested and the

thousands of jobs created by recycling. A 1995 recycling employment study

for the state of North Carolina, for instance, documented that recycling activities support more than 8,800 jobs in the state, most of which are in the private sector. The study also found that recycling was a net job creator—for

every 100 jobs created by recycling only an estimated 13 were lost in solid

waste collection and disposal and virgin material extraction within the state.5

In addition, a study of 10 northeastern states found that processing and

remanufacturing recyclable materials in the region added more than $7.2

billion to the value of the materials. According to the study, recycling

employed more than 103,000 people, 25 percent in materials processing

(i.e., sorting and intermediate processing facilities) and 75 percent in manufacturing (see graph below).6 These studies show that thousands of communities are realizing benefits from recycling far beyond diverting materials from landfills and incinerators.

BROADENING THE FINANCIAL FOCUS 3

Summary of Recycling Jobs 

in the Northeast, by Material

Yard trimmings — 545

Tires — 697

Textiles — 1,133

Glass — 8,816

Nonferrous metals — 9,194

Plastics — 9,221

Multimaterials — 9,375

Ferrous metals — 13,080

Paper — 51,352

Source: Roy F. Weston, 1994.
ing supply of recyclables keeps manufacturing industries more competit

and more sustainable. 

The increased use in recent years of “minimills” by steel producers illustr

the importance recovered materials hold for some industries. Steel minim

utilize a manufacturing process that requires virtually 100 percent recover

scrap steel as the raw material. Indeed, all steel products manufactured in the United States, including

bridge components, road signs, and construction

materials, are made from some recycled steel. Steel can recycling, in conjunction with the recycling of scrap

automobiles and appliances, feeds

these mills.7

The paper industry is another sector of the economy that

depends on recovered materials.

Currently, the supply of commercial

timber in the United States cannot

satisfy the current and projected

fiber demands of paper mills.

Consequently, the use of recovered

paper at domestic mills is growing more than

twice as fast as the use of virgin wood fiber.

8 In

this decade alone, the U.S. paper industry will spend more than $10 bil

lion on new or expanded recycled paper mills.9 The industry will need

recovered paper from both commercial and municipal recycling program

to supply these mills with raw materials. According to one industry exp

recovered paper will account for 47 percent of global papermaking fiber 

by 2010.10

RECYCLABLES AS COMMODITIES

In 1995, the United States recovered 56 million tons of materials from t

municipal solid waste stream for recycling (including composting).11 Bas

on average national price information for May 1996 to April 1997, thes

recovered materials have a total market value of approximately $3.6 bil4 BROADENING THE FINANCIAL FOCUS

The materials collected 

in recycling programs 

are not “garbage” 

or “waste”—

they are 

valuable 

commodities.
the highest market

values, at $1 billion

and $940 million,

respectively. As these

numbers show, the

materials collected in

recycling programs are

not “garbage” or

“waste”—they are

valuable commodities

that represent an essential component of

today's marketplace. 

As with any business, recycling is subject to the cyclical highs and lows of free market supply and demand.

While there have been periods when prices for recyclables were relatively

low, they have been consistent with historical trends for both virgin and

recovered materials. In fact, for all markets, prices are normally unstable

during the early stages of development. Some recovered material markets,

such as plastics, are relatively young and will continue to mature and stabilize with the expanded use of recovered materials in manufacturing and

increased purchases of products with recycled content.

An innovative mechanism for buying and selling recovered materials

that is intended to stabilize markets is the Chicago Board of Trade

Recyclables Exchange <www.cbot-recycle.com>. Recycling made headlines

and moved into the league of soybeans and porkbellies with the launch of

this Internet-based system in 1995. EPA helped establish the Recyclables

Exchange in conjunction with a group of partners from around the country. This centralized marketplace is designed to bring the same level of

price stability and quality standards to recovered materials that has

occurred with other long-standing commodities traded every day on the

floor of other Chicago Board of Trade exchanges.

BROADENING THE FINANCIAL FOCUS 5

Source: Tellus Institute, 1997.

0

200

400

600

800

Aluminum 

cans

Corrugated

boxes

Ferrous

metals

Office

papers

Plastics Yard

trimmings

Newsprint

Total Market Value in $ Millions

Recovered Material
Expanding 

the 

Environmental

View

I

N ADDITION to providing economic benefits, recycling offers envi

ronmental benefits. By reducing our reliance on virgin materials, re

cling reduces pollution, saves energy, mitigates global climate chan

and reduces pressures on biodiversity. Recycling's environmental b

efits are found at every stage of the life cycle of a consumer product, fro

the mining of the raw materials through use and final disposal. 

REDUCING POLLUTION

By decreasing the need to extract and process virgin materials, recycling

helps reduce or eliminate the pollution associated with the first two stag

of a product's development: material extraction and processing. Mineral

extracting and processing often pollute air, land, and water with toxic

materials. In addition, both mining and processing operations require

energy—that is, the burning of fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas.

When burned, these fuels release pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitr

gen oxide, and carbon monoxide, into the air.

13

When products are made using recovered rather than virgin materials

less energy is used during manufacturing and, consequently, fewer pollu

tants are emitted. Studies show that less energy is needed to manufactur

products from recovered materials than from virgin materials. As shown 

the graph on page 9, manufacturing products from recovered materials 

reduce the amount of energy needed by as much as 94 percent.14

6 EXPANDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL VIEW
landfilling or incineration, recycling and manufacturing products from

recovered materials results in a net reduction in 10 major categories of air

pollutants (aldehydes, ammonia, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, methane, nitrogen oxides, other organics, particulates, and sulfur

oxides) and 8 major categories of water quality indicators and water pollutants (biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved

solids, iron, metal ions, oil, sulfuric acid, and suspended solids). Using

recovered materials also generates less solid waste, whether measured by

weight or volume.15

EXPANDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL VIEW 7

LIFE 

CYCLE OF A

RECYCLED

PRODUCT

COLLECTION

PROCESSING

REMANUFACTURING

USE

LIFE 

CYCLE OF A 

VIRGIN

PRODUCT

EXTRACTION

PROCESSING

MANUFACTURING

USE

DISPOSAL
tribute to global climate change. There is a growing international consens

that a link exists between these gases and a rise in average global temperatu

A rise in global temperatures will increase the frequency and severity of 

treme weather events. In the United States alone, the number of blizzards 

heavy rainstorms has jumped 20 percent since 1900, making events that o

occurred an average of once every 100 years much more frequent. Globa

economic damages from weather-related disasters during the 1990s hav

exceeded $200 billion—four times the total losses reported during the 1980

The manufacture and distribution of products, and the subsequent mana

ment of the solid waste they create, contribute to the emission of greenho

gases. Recycling (including composting) helps reduce greenhouse gas emis

sions by (1) decreasing the energy needed to make products from virgin

materials (and thereby reducing the burning of fossil fuels), (2) reducing em

sions from incinerators and landfills, which are the major source of metha

8 EXPANDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL VIEW

HOW RECYCLING STACKS UP

Buying recycled office paper—and recycling it—has never been

easier. Even actions this simple can make a real difference in a

product's environmental impacts. When compared to manufacturing

and disposing of a ton of virgin office paper, manufacturing and recycling a ton of recycled paper reduces solid waste, energy use, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.17 Specifically, manufacturing and

recycling a ton of recycled office paper:

■ Reduces solid waste by 49 percent. 

■ Reduces total energy consumption by 43 percent.

■ Reduces net greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent of carbon

dioxide equivalents.

■ Reduces hazardous air pollutant emissions by 90 percent and partic

ulate emissions by 40 percent.

■ Reduces absorbable organic halogen emissions to water by 100 per

cent and suspended solids by 30 percent.

Source: Environmental Defense Fund, 1995.
carbon dioxide storage

benefit provided by forests.

PROTECTING

BIODIVERSITY

Extracting fewer virgin

materials not only

decreases greenhouse gas

emissions, it also prevents

the disruption of land

areas that are home to a

wide variety of plant and

animal species. As a result

of human activities,

including the acquisition

of virgin materials, species of plants and animals are now vanishing 100 to

1,000 times faster than would be expected in the absence of such activities.18 Such diminution of the earth's biodiversity has a substantial human

cost because wild species and natural ecosystems provide numerous benefits to people. Some economists, for example, estimate that the lost pharmaceutical value from plant species extinctions in the United States alone

is almost $12 billion.19 By reducing the land disturbance and pollution

associated with virgin materials extraction, recycling helps stop the degradation of the earth's ecosystems. 

EXPANDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL VIEW 9

VALUING NATURAL RESOURCES

Paper recycling has a direct impact on the protection of biodiversity

in forests. A case in point is the decline of the longleaf pine forests

that once covered 60 to 90 million acres in the southern United States.

Due in large part to the harvesting of mature longleaf pine for the production of wood, paper, and other products, less than 5 percent of the

original longleaf ecosystem, home to over 20 endangered species, remains

today. 20 The recycling of paper products lowers demand for wood, consequently reducing pressure to harvest the remaining longleaf pine trees. 

Source: Tellus Institute, 1992.

0

20

40

60

80

Aluminum Linerboard

paper

Newsprint Plastic

(3 grades)

Steel

Percent Reduction in Energy Use

Over Virgin Manufacturing

Products Made with Recovered Material
Sketching the Social Landscape

THE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS of recycling have positive societal impacts both today and in the futu

Job creation, pollution reduction, and energy conservation all

serve to improve the quality of life in our communities. If we 

not recycle, the repercussions will fall on future generations. Our childr

and grandchildren will inherit the legacy of virgin production and throw

away consumption. Instead of leaving future generations a depleted natu

resource base and more waste in landfills—landfills that incur ongoing

costs for monitoring and maintenance—we can leave a stronger econom

greater biodiversity, and less global warming by recognizing the value of

recycling and passing this knowledge on to our children. 

10 SKETCHING THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE
SKETCHING THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE 11

, y 

making decisions about solid waste management? The province of

Alberta, Canada, recently developed a methodology that goes beyond

monetary costs and allows communities to take into account the environmental, health, and social costs associated with solid waste management options (see below). Even though these considerations cannot

be measured in monetary terms, they represent real costs to a community. With this methodology, communities can use a ranking system to

estimate the nonmonetary impact of their programs on the natural

environment, human health, and society and then incorporate these

impacts into the analysis along with the monetary costs of their operations. This approach provides decision-makers with full disclosure of

all of the benefits and costs of a particular project or service.21

BROOKS SEES THE FULL PICTURE

The town of Brooks in Alberta, Canada, used a step-by-step methodology to evaluate its composting program and justify an expansion to

source-separated composting. First, the town itemized and calculated

all the monetary costs of the project. Officials then used an environmental advisory group to help identify and rank the project's environmental, health, and societal impacts. The group used a scale of 1 to 5

(“unfavorable” to “outstanding”) to rank such considerations as air and

water quality, environmental sustainability, illegal dumping potential,

and noise and odor effects. After ranking each factor separately, the

group arrived at an average ranking for all the factors, placing more

importance on some factors than others. The project received an overall ranking of 4, or “very favorable.”

Using the results of the complete analysis—the project's nonmonetary ranking plus the total monetary cost—officials were able to

demonstrate the community benefits and long-term viability of the

expanded composting program to the town council, interested citizens, and other key stakeholders. The composting program currently

diverts 1,000 tons of yard trimmings annually from the local landfill.

The town is now planning to evaluate the full costs of its recycling

program using the same methodology.
2. The Solid Waste Association of North America. 1997. Getting more for less: Improving co

tion efficiency, Draft workbook. Silver Spring, MD.

3. The Solid Waste Association of North America. 1997. Getting more for less: Cost cutting c

lection strategies, Part 2, Changes in collection frequency case study, City of Mesa, Arizona.

Silver Spring, MD.

4. The Solid Waste Association of North America. 1997. Getting more for less: Cost cutting c

lection strategies, Part 4, Dual collection case study, City of Loveland, Colorado. Silver Spring, M

5. Shore, M.J. 1995. The impact of recycling on jobs in North Carolina. Prepared for the Nor

Carolina Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Office of Waste Reduc

Raleigh, NC.

6. Roy F. Weston, Inc. 1994. Value added to recyclable materials in the northeast. Prepared fo

the Northeast Recycling Council, Brattleboro, VT. 

7. Steel Recycling Institute. 1997. Facts about steel—North America's #1 recycled material.

Pittsburgh, PA <www.recycle-steel.org/ FACT/index-html>.

8. American Forest & Paper Association. 1997. Recovered paper statistical highlights: 1997 edi

Washington, DC.

9. Denison, R.A., and J.F. Ruston. 1996. Anti-recycling myths. Washington, DC: The

Environmental Defense Fund <www.edf.org/pubs/reports/armythfin.html>.

10. McNutt, J. 1997. Global fiber balances: 1997 update. Presented at the International

Recovered Paper VIII Conference. Chicago, IL.

11. U.S. EPA. 1997. Characterization of municipal solid waste in the United States: 1996 updat

EPA530-R-97-015. Washington, DC <www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/msw96.htm>.

12. Tellus Institute. 1997. Estimated value of MSW materials recycled in 1995. Prepared for 

EPA, Washington, DC. 

13. Miller, Jr., G.T. 1991. Environmental science: Sustaining the earth. Third edition. Belmon

CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

14. Tellus Institute. 1992. Energy implications of integrated solid waste management systems

Prepared for New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Boston, MA.

15. Denison, R.A. 1996. Environmental life-cycle comparisons of recycling, landfilling, and

incineration: A review of recent studies. Annu. Rev. Energy Environ. 21:191-237.

16. Flavin, C. 1997. Storm damages set record. Lester R. Brown, eds. Vital signs. Washington

DC: W. W. Norton & Co. p. 70. 

17. The Environmental Defense Fund. 1995. Paper task force recommendations for purchasi

and using environmentally preferable paper: Final report. New York, NY.

18. Worldwatch Institute. 1997. State of the world 1997. Washington, DC. pp. 95-114. 

19. Ibid.

20. The Environmental Defense Fund. 1995. Paper task force recommendations.

21. Alberta Environmental Protection. 1995. A full cost analysis guide for municipal waste m

agers. Alberta, Canada.

12 NOTES

te Use

20460

rotection Agency