Single-use, disposable products compose the current production trend. The Plastics Industry in particular reneged on their commitments to recover plastics for recycling. From 1990 to 1997, plastic packaging grew five times faster by weight than plastic recovered for recycling. Virgin subsidies The more subtle reason behind the increase in waste lies in the fact that the recycling industry is subjected to an uneven playing field. Furthermore, the prices of waste disposal does not reflect the cost of perpetual landfill maintenance Even worse, the economic benefits of recycling, such as job creation, are often ignored.
Recycling creates at least ten times more jobs than landfills.
According to a Northeast Recycling Council survey, ten northeastern states employ 103,413 employees in their recycling industries. If California meets the state s 50 percent recycling goal, it is expected to create 45,000 recycling jobs by the year 2000. The environmental and health benefits of recycling far outweigh the burdens of collection, processing and transport of recycled materials. Both landfills and incinerators make for poor neighbors as they emit toxic chemicals known to cause cancer, impaired neurological development, and infertility. A recent study by the New York State Department of Health found that women living near solid waste landfills where gas is escaping have a four-fold increase in their chance of developing bladder cancer.