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

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However, it seems that this situation in Los Angeles county is an exception. Even in this tough economic climate, several experts say we shouldn’t fear our recyclables are going to waste, as there’s little incentive for waste haulers to simply bury recyclables in a landfill. Aluminum, in particular, is a useful commodity even when the economy is lagging.

“It takes 95 percent less energy to make a new aluminum can out of recycled aluminum than from virgin aluminum,” says Jennifer Berry, Earth911 manager of public and strategic relations. “So the profitability of using reclaimed material is so far superior that it’s just inherently valuable.”

That reclaimed material also has chemistry on its side, says Brian Taylor, editor in chief of Recycling Today, a national trade magazine. Aluminum can be molded into a can, recycled by a customer and reprocessed over and over again without a loss of product quality. It’s a quick turnaround, too. An empty 7-Up can is reprocessed and back on the grocery store shelves in as little as two months.

While the majority of recycled paper and cardboard products have to be shipped to the manufacturing sector in China, Taylor says, a large percentage of aluminum cans re-circulate in North America.

“Soda and beer are a little more recession proof,” he says. “People are drinking just as much Coke and Budweiser as they were a year ago.”

Taylor isn’t naïve, though. He acknowledges that, in recent months, there have surely been isolated cases in which waste management companies dumped aluminum cans and other recyclables into the landfill to save themselves the trouble of dealing with a sluggish market.

According to Tisha Petteway, the EPA’s national spokesperson on solid waste issues, the federal government can’t ensure that trash haulers always keep their word.

“It’s hard for us to regulate that, which is why it’s more or less a local issue,” she says.

No need to worry

Luckily, the deck is stacked in the consumer’s favor. Waste management companies typically are legally bound to meet their recycling commitments.

“Municipal contracts are carefully written now so a company that collects newspapers and bottles and cans for recycling is taking a pretty big risk by sending them to the landfill,” Taylor says.

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