Recycling and the Recession: How More Waste, Less Money and New Layoffs are Affecting Waste Management

Image Gallery Waste management companies have more waste to process and fewer workers to handle the load, at the same time that the monetary return for raw materials is plummeting — and some people are concerned that all this means their recyclables might be headed to the landfill. ISTOCKPHOTO

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

According to the latest solid waste survey conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans are recycling more than ever before. In 1970, less than 7 percent of household waste was recycled; by 1990, that rate had climbed to just 16 percent. In 2007, though, U.S. residents recycled 85 million tons, or 33 percent, of the nation’s household municipal waste.

Among the most common items kept out of landfills are various forms of food and beverage packaging. Topping that list, nearly half of all aluminum cans are recovered. In fact, according to Earth 911, a recycling database and advocacy website, more than 113,000 aluminum cans are recycled every minute.

But, while more goods are being recycled, the value of the raw materials has crashed in the past several months. According to Earth 911, cardboard sold for about $135 per ton in September, but dropped to $35 in the following months. Mixed paper went from $105 per ton in October to $25 in March. In late 2008, the value of aluminum cans plunged from almost $1,600 per ton to $800.

What does this mean for recycling?

Even before these prices dropped, some worried that the waste hauler or city government might trash those valuable materials if the landfill was a more cost-effective option. These concerns are only heightened when people who make an effort to recycle hear news reports about recycling warehouses stacked with unsold cardboard or local governments cutting back their waste-reduction programs — such as in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.

The newspaper reported that as a result of the global economic recession, some of the bottles and cans citizens set aside for recycling were instead being dumped in the landfill. Apparently, the Los Angeles County Sanitation District had to slash labor hours at its material recovery facility — the warehouse where recyclables are sorted, processed and baled. In the past several months, the prices for recovered paper, metal and plastic had declined so precipitously that the value of the commodities recovered from Los Angeles’ waste stream wasn’t enough to cover the operation’s full-time expenses. With reduced manpower to sort the cans and bottles, thousands of pounds of recyclables started heading to the landfill. 

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print