Many recycling progrmas cover their own expenses with materails sales and may even bring revenue to the community. For instance, Philadelphia is investing in neighborhood collection centers that will recycle 600 tons a day, enough to eliminate the need for a previously planned, high-priced incinertor. New York City, down to one available lanfill but still producing 27,000 tons of garbage a day, has set a target of 50 percent waste reduction to be accomplished by recycling office paper and household and commercial waste. New York's curbside service, projected to be the nation's largest, should more than pay itself simply in avoiding disposal costs. These profits are not yet self -paying, that is, not paying for this service, but the price for this no longer costs our resident's the initial price.
Japan probably has the most successful recycling program in the world.
Half of all houehold and commericial wastes in japan are recycled while the rest is about equally incinerated or landfilled. By comparison, the United Stateslandfills more than 80 percent of all solid waste. Japanese families diligently seperate wastes into as many as seven different categories, each to be picked up on different day. Some conservationist say that Americans are too lazy. North stongton, Connecticut, however, faced with escalating disposal costs, reduced its waste volume by two-thirds in just two years.