Engineers and Consultants in Resource Management
Q: Why is it important to recycle?
A: Recycling is important for many reasons. Often we promote recycling as a way to keep waste out of landfills, which are often unpopular. It is also important to remember that recycling recovers valuable raw materials. If we make aluminum cans from recycled cans, then we don't have to disturb the environment by mining and smelting the mineral bauxite which is used in the manufacture of aluminum. Finally, recycling reduces pollution and saves energy that would have been expended when making products from "virgin" or unrecycled raw materials. In many places, you may be required or encouraged by law to recycle. There are laws in several states making it illegal to put yard waste (cut grass from mowing the lawn, or raked leaves) into landfills. Residents of these states have to leave yard waste for special collections where it is taken and composted. Many states have "Bottle Bill"s which require a deposit (5 or 10 cents each) on bottles and cans when you buy beverages. These programs help divert a large quantity of plastic and glass containers from landfills. Recycling works best when we remember to buy and use products made from recycled materials, such as newspaper or glass.
Q:
How can one person make a difference?
A: If not you, who? If we combine all our individual efforts together, we can make a difference. To look at it another way, each of us contributes individually to the waste problem. All the millions and millions of tons of waste that currently goes to landfills started as an old pair of slippers, a broken toaster or a used magazine at somebody's house, or your house!
Q: When did recycling start?
A: Recycling has really been around for perhaps thousands of years! For example, ancient cultures that began making metal products, could melt down old broken items like pots or swords and make new ones. More recently, during World War I and II, people would have paper drives and metal drives to collect materials for the war effort. Nothing was wasted! When landfilling became a cheap way dispose of trash in the 1940's and 1950's, recycling was less popular. But modern recycling of glass, paper, cans, etc. became more popular again in the 1970's with drop-off recycling centers, and in the late 1980's and 1990's with curbside collection. Mother nature is, of course, the ultimate recycler... without the natural decay or composting process, we'd all be covered in leaves and other dead organic matter!
Q: When recycling came about, did many people contribute to it?
A: Recycling has been very popular in most communities, but often there is resistance if people think it will cost more money, or take more time. Often there is difficulty over who will pay for recycling (i.e. the city, or the residents) but when you analyze the savings of not throwing things in the landfill (which costs an average of $50 per ton to collect and dispose of waste) it make sense to recycle. Plus, many recyclable products can be sold to help cover the cost of processing. Newspapers, for example, have to be cleaned of contaminants after collection, baled or compacted, and then transported to a big paper recycling company that turns the paper into pulp and then into new products. All this costs money.
Q: How can people learn more about recycling?
A: You can find many links to sites with information about recycling on our "Outside Links" page. To learn about recycling in your community call your local government office.
Q: How does recycling help the environment?
A: Recycling helps the environment by slowing down the rate at which we have to burn garbage or put it in landfills. With fewer landfills we can have more space for people to farm, live, and work. Recycling also helps by reducing our need to consume fresh natural resources to make new products. As a result we can save these resources for use by future generations. Most importantly, recycling saves energy and reduces pollution. This could help slow down global climate change, another environmental problem caused by burning fossil fuels like oil and gas.
Q: What would happen if everyone stopped recycling?
A: Disposing of your garbage could become much more expensive. Since everybody would be throwing away everything, landfills would fill up faster. We would have to build more and more to accept all of the new garbage. People who have to live near landfills are generally opposed to building new ones. Many of our natural resources would disappear even faster. The supply of any material on our Earth is limited. While it may seem like we could never run out, if we keep filling our landfills with aluminum, plastic, and steel there will eventually be no more left.
Q: What can be recycled?
A: Technically, almost anything could be recycled. If we had complex collection, sorting and processing facilities, we could separate almost any household or industrial product and find a new use for these materials. Unfortunately, it can be expensive to do this. For example, polystyrene (often called Styrofoam) can be recycled into several products. The problem is that it is very expensive to bring polystyrene (because it is bulky and lightweight!) to recycling stations. As a result, most cities don't recycle polystyrene. Most recycling programs recycle the most valuable items or the items that make up the majority of the waste stream. These include: cardboard, newspaper, office paper, #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) plastic, aluminum, steel, and glass. Every community is different, and some cities might recycle up to 30 different materials and some may only accept 5. You can check with your local government to see what is recycled in your community.
Q: Can some things be recycled more easily than others?
A: Yes. Clothes that you have outgrown, for example, can be "reused" by donating them to charities. Aluminum cans are nearly as easy. They need only be sorted and cleaned. Special recycling facilities then melt them down and make new cans. Some consumer products such as tennis shoes or even milk cartons are more difficult to recycle because they are made from multiple types of materials. Shoes contain many different types of plastics for example, and milk cartons contain a plastic-coated paper, and sometimes metal foil. Generally, in the recycling process these materials must be physically separated before things like plastic can be recycled into new products. Sometimes this process is too expensive.
Q: What are the basic procedures for recycling aluminum cans?
A: Aluminum is often collected in drop-off programs or at curbside. Cans are sorted and consolidated, and crushed or baled for transportation to a recycling facility which melts them down and converts the old aluminum into new products. In some states, "bottle deposit" laws, require a 5 or 10 cents per can deposit when you buy a beverage, and thet you are given the money back when you return the can to the grocery store. Then the grocery store sends the cans back to the distributor, who crushes them and sends them to an aluminum smelter to be melted and have contaminants removed. Aluminum cans are made into new products (such as more cans). A lot of energy is saved while recycling aluminum, more than other materials like paper. It takes a lot of energy to dig up or mine bauxite (aluminum ore) and process it into aluminum. It is just a lot easier to melt down used cans.
Q: What can be made with recycled items?
A: There are more recycled content products on the market than we can list here. Cardboard, office paper, newspaper, plastic, aluminum, steel, and glass are often made back into their original product, or made into new products. For example, some types of plastic (such as HDPE milk jugs) are used to make plastic lumber. Recycled glass can also be used instead of sand to fill asphalt. Yard waste is composted and then sold as topsoil. There are new and inventive uses coming up all the time. One company even converts old tennis shoes into athletic tracks for high schools.
Q: Has recycling changed throughout the years it has been around? If so, how?
A: Recycling technology always has to keep up with new packaging and materials. For example, 20 or 30 years ago you could still buy milk in returnable, refillable glass bottles. Now you buy it in a plastic bottle. Planners have to create new systems to collect, process and recycle the #2 plastic "HDPE" (high density polyethylene), and then make the plastic into a new product (such as plastic lumber). Changes in how landfills are managed have affected recycling. It is getting more expensive to throw things in landfills, because more engineering and environmental protection goes into designing landfills. Depending on where you live, landfills are a relatively "cheap" disposal method, but on the east coast around New York and New Jersey, landfills are VERY expensive. So, states and cities are pushing recycling more. To make it easier for citizens, "curbside" recycling has become very popular. In the past, people used drop-off-recycling centers, often run by volunteers. Many recycling programs now are run by cities or by private waste haulers.
Q: Is it a law in any state that you must recycle?
A: There are many kinds of recycling laws, including bottle deposit legislation in about 10 states, as I mentioned above. Ohio is one place where counties are required to meet a state law that says they must reduce their waste by at least 25% through recycling and composting. This encourages recycling. Some places, like Toronto, Canada, ban certain materials like cardboard and newspaper from disposal in landfills. The State of Massachusetts bans certain types of electronics, such as computers, from landfills. In Michigan, you can't dispose of yard waste (leaves and grass) in landfills. This forces communities to establish their own composting programs. Another approach is used in many communities, called "Pay as You Throw", meaning, you are charged based on how much waste you throw away, rather than a flat fee. People have to buy a special trash sticker and put it on every bag of trash they put at the curb. In one place the stickers cost $1.50 each. This encourages people to recycle, because they don't pay for recycling, only trash.
Q: Do you think recycling will be the way of the future or do you think it is already?
A: Yes, recycling is the way of the future. People do not want to build new landfills, and are also starting to recognize that it is just plain wasteful to throw so many reusable things away. There are a lot of energy savings and resource savings associated with recycling.
Q: Do many companies or schools recycle?
A: Many businesses recycle to save money. The most commonly recycled material at businesses is corrugated cardboard. Depending on the type of business, they also recycle things like metal shavings from machining operations, or leftover product from manufacturing, because these waste items actually have a lot of value in reuse or recycling. A lot of schools recycle office paper and cardboard, but many have a hard time finding someone to pick it up for recycling, or they have to pay someone to pick it up.
Q: Is the amount of participation in recycling increasing or decreasing year by
year?
A: Participation in recycling programs reached a new peak in the 1990's as most communities in the United States started up curbside or drop-off recycling programs. Now, many of these communities are evaluating their programs to see what additional materials can be collected. For example, the City of Ann Arbor, Michigan now collects 30 different materials in its curbside program, including paperback novels, milk cartons, textiles (clothing), shoes and other household items.
Q: Do any people think recycling is a bad thing?
A: Yes, I think I've described some examples above. Usually these are people who think it costs too much or is just too much trouble. But they don't really understand all the benefits. I always say, "Waste is also expensive and it really is a lot of trouble to mine new metal, cut down trees and grind them up or boil into pulp, etc.
Q: Are there any consequences for recycling?
A: There have been some environmental problems associated with recycling. There are always contaminants in the recycling process. For example, re-pulping paper sometimes involves removing the ink and other contaminants rom the printing process. This can create a whole new kind of waste. Technicians working on the problem are trying to clean up the recycling process. But perhaps the BIGGEST consequence of recycling is that while it is great to collect all these things for recycling, the products have to be made into something new! We all must support the cause by buying products made from recycled materials, like recycled paper. Look for the "recycled" logo.
Q: What do the little numbers on the bottom of plastic containers represent or
stand for?
A: These numbers tell us from what kind of plastic the container was made. If different kinds of plastic are recycled together, the whole batch is ruined. These numbers make it easy for people to know which containers are recyclable in their community and which are not. These numbers break all plastics down into 7 categories. #1- PET - Polyethylene Teraphthalate. Almost every transparent plastic bottle is made from this kind of plastic. This includes soda bottles and large clear juice bottles. Many communities accept PET. #2 - HDPE - High Density Polyethylene. This plastic comes in many different forms. It can be made without color as it is in milk jugs. It can be dyed any color for detergent bottles or plastic buckets. Dyed HDPE is worth less money to recyclers than clear HDPE. They are usually kept separate when recycled.There are also two different ways to make containers out of HDPE, Injection Molding or Blow Molding. Injection molded containers have a large mouth and a little dot on the bottom. Yogurt containers and butter tubs are made this way. Blow molded containers have a narrow mouth and a seam that runs from one side of the mouth under the bottom and back to the other side of the mouth. Different chemicals are used in these processes. This makes these two kinds of HDPE slightly different, so they can't be mixed when recycled. Check with your local government to see which kinds of HDPE your community accepts. #3 - V - Polyvinyl Chloride. This plastic, called PVC for short, holds up better against some oils and alcohols than PET or HDPE. It is frequently used for salad dressing bottles and mouthwash. PVC makes up a small amount of the plastic we use so most communities do not accept PVC for recycling. PVC is recycled when large quantities are available; such as if new siding made from PVC is put on your house. #4 - LDPE - Low Density Polyethylene. This is a lightweight version of HDPE. It is frequently used for garbage bags and bread bags. LDPE is recyclable, but it is very expensive to transport because it is so light. As a result most communities do not recycle LDPE. #5 - PP - Polypropylene. This plastic is commonly used for battery casings and butter tubs. PP is very easy to recycle but most communities do not use enough PP to make it cost effective to recycle it. Therefore, most communities do not collect it. PP is recycled, however, by industries that use large quantities of it. #6 - PS - Polystyrene. This is a common plastic with many uses. It is often referred to by a brand name "Styrofoam" PS is used to make coolers, plastic silverware, food boxes, egg cartons, and disposable dishes. PS is very light and expensive to transport. This makes it very expensive to recycle. Because of this, most communities do not accept PS. #7 - The #7 plastics refer to anything that does not fit into a category above. This may be because it is made from a plastic that is not listed above, like potato chip bags or the container contains more than one kind of plastic, such as a juice box. Containers made from plastics mixed with other materials are also included in this category. These numbers are meant to be a guide for people who want to recycle their containers after they use them. They can also help you to decide which products to buy before you use them. If you have a choice between two products where one comes in a bottle that you can recycle in your community and the other comes in a bottle that cannot be recycled which should you buy? Of course, it is the one you can recycle. If everybody bought products in recyclable containers then businesses would only sell their products in recyclable containers. That would reduce wasted plastic dramatically.
Q: How many cities have recycling programs? What incentives can help
people recycle more?
A: Probably, tens of thousands of other communities in the country are successfully recycling. The ones that provide incentives to reduce waste (such as through volume-based pricing for solid waste collection) often are the most successful with recycling. (for example, in my town, I have to buy a special sticker for $1.50 for every bag or can of trash I throw away. It gives me an incentive to recycle, which is at no extra cost to me, and the city avoids lots of disposal costs because I reduce waste like crazy to avoid the $1.50 fee!!)
Q: Is paper worth any money when you recycle it?
A: There are many different kinds of paper, and the value of recycled paper changes all the time. Sometimes it is very lucrative to recycle old corrugated containers (cardboard boxes) and there is almost always a good market for it. ($50-$100 per ton) Newspaper is a different story and the price paid ranges from $0 to $30/ton (that is after collection and processing.) Since it may cost $50 a ton to collect and process newspaper, some people may say it is not worth it if you can only sell it for $25 per ton. HOWEVER, throwing it away is not free! It cost an average of $50 to collect and dispose of trash! If you enter that into the equation, it costs less to recycle. Sometimes, solid waste managers or city officials have a hard time accounting for these "avoided disposal costs", however. There are many other external costs of waste that people don't always think about. These include long-term environmental harm from landfills, cost of building new landfills (and lots of public opposition) wasted resources being buried in landfills, wasted energy in the extraction of raw materials that could have been avoided through recycling, and so on.
