US Recycling Crisis

Started by airboy, May 14, 2018, 10:01:35 AM

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airboy

The US Recycling Industry is suffering a severe crisis.  The USA generates more cardboard, plastic, aluminum, glass, etc.... recyclables than any other nation.  Cities have pressed hard for recycling both to cut landfill costs, because it was profitable, and to be "green."

But most recyclables are no longer profitable to use.  This is especially true for plastics and glass.  Most cardboard also is not profitable.

This trend has continued for quite a number of years, but recently accelerated with the low level trade war with China.  Cities are having to pay companies to take recycling instead of vice-versa.  I always read articles about the industry when I see them in the Wall St. Journal.  There have been quite a few articles in the last 2 years as the industry has hit several crisis points.

Aluminum continues to be the profitable recycling item.  My view has always been if you don't see bums picking it up then it is not profitable to recycle.  That has almost always been the case.

We may get to see Says Law in action.  This is an economic theory that states that "supply creates its own demand."  It the raw material becomes cheap enough (i.e. people will pay you to take it) as long as it is not put in a landfill, then somebody will probably come up with a profitable way to use the stuff.

Still, the US recycling industry as we have known it over the last 30 years is undergoing a dramatic upheaval.

OJsDad

Our county recycling program has always been a drop off model, ie you take your recyclables to a location.  Last year they stopped taking glass and removed the remote collection bins in the rural parts of the county.  Now they're cut back on their hours.  The claim has been because people are dumping their trash.  I think it has more to do with prices.  I'm going to go back to burning our cardboard and just recycle newspaper, plastic, magazines and aluminum. 
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

Staggerwing

The biggest cost problem with cardboard recycling is 'oily' food containers like pizza boxes mixed in with the 'clean' cardboard. It requires hand sorting because the two types are not recycled the same way.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

trailrunner

I started recycling in the mid 1980s when I was in grad school.  I didn't get paid for it, but I did it because it was the right thing thing to do.  There was a strong lefty grad student in my group, who claimed to be a strong environmentalist, but he told me he didn't recycle because it was too much work.  I told him that if he saved his newspaper, I'd pick it up once a month and recycle it.

When I got out of school, I lived in Redondo Beach (part of Los Angeles metropolitan area) from 1987-1991, and I recycled newspapers and other things during this time.  I took them to a recycling center in the city every couple of months when I had accumulated enough to make the trip worthwhile.  At first, I remember I received some decent money (maybe $50-75?) that made it worth my time.  I had two kids at the time, with only one income, so it was a nice little bonus that we used for dinner out or something.  But towards the end of the time that I lived there, they were paying less and less, and I think the last time I went there I only got $10 or so, which hardly made it worth my time.


OJsDad

Quote from: Staggerwing on May 14, 2018, 05:35:00 PM
The biggest cost problem with cardboard recycling is 'oily' food containers like pizza boxes mixed in with the 'clean' cardboard. It requires hand sorting because the two types are not recycled the same way.

Our county recycling center takes pizza boxes.
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

Sir Slash

My Son-In-Law's dog is a recycling center. She eats anything organic and recycles it into lawn fertilizer. Large mountains of lawn fertilizer. I'm talking big enough to stop a Craftsman Lawn Tractor at full speed like a BB hitting a battleship. She's a mixed breed-- Pit Bull and Indian Elephant.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Staggerwing

Quote from: OJsDad on May 14, 2018, 07:38:57 PM
Quote from: Staggerwing on May 14, 2018, 05:35:00 PM
The biggest cost problem with cardboard recycling is 'oily' food containers like pizza boxes mixed in with the 'clean' cardboard. It requires hand sorting because the two types are not recycled the same way.

Our county recycling center takes pizza boxes.

Most do. The problem is that it costs a lot to have the cardboard sorted. It can't be done automatically like with other recycled materials so people have to sort through it and remove the pizza boxes. If they don't then the grease will mess up the chemical processing of the cardboard later on.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

Sir Slash

So Pizzas destroy Planet Earth.  :o  What an ironic ending.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

BanzaiCat

There's a neighborhood in Phoenix I was looking at that is extremely anal about recyclables being placed in the proper container. They actually go through the trash and if you have recyclables in your trash, you'll get a fine. They're pretty serious about recycling there.

JudgeDredd

70% of household material in Colchester is recycled I am led to believe.

We have a collection system. We put it in the right containers and the council pick it up and recycle it.

We probably use 1 black bag of rubbish every two weeks and even then it's probably half full (we have a two weekly collection on black bags to get people to recycle more)
Alba gu' brath

BanzaiCat

Most people here are too lazy or stupid to be trusted to sort recyclables properly. :)

RommelFox

Where I live, they used to have 3 bins you'd sort recyclables into.  The multiple bins have been replaced with one giant bin that looks like the regular trash bins with the lids on top, but a different color.  You just throw all recyclables into the one bin now.

Makes me look like less of an alcoholic since I don't have a glass bin full of nothing but beer bottles.............. :DD
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