Recycling rates

The quantity of post-consumer plastics recycled has increased every year since at least 1990, but rates lag far behind those of other items, such as newspaper (about 80%) and corrugated fiberboard (about 70%). Overall U.S. post-consumer plastic waste for 2008 was estimated at 33.6 million tons; 2.2 million tons (6.5%) were recycled and 2.6 million tons (7.7%) were burned for energy; 28.9 million tons, or 85.5%, were discarded in landfills.

Economic and energy potential

In 2008, the price of PET dropped from $370/ton in the US to $20 in November. PET prices had returned to their long term averages by May 2009.

Consumer education

United States

Low national plastic recycling rates have been due to the complexity of sorting and processing, unfavorable economics, and consumer confusion about which plastics can actually be recycled. Part of the confusion has been due to the recycling symbol that is usually on all plastic items^. This symbol is called a resin identification code. It is stamped or printed on the bottom of containers and surrounded by a triangle of arrows. (See the table in Plastic.) The intent of these arrows was to make it easier to identify plastics for recycling. The recycling symbol doesn’t necessarily mean that the item will be accepted by residential recycling programs.

United Kingdom

In the UK, theamount of post-consumer plastic being recycled is relatively low, due in part to a lack of recycling facilities.
The Plastics 2020 Challenge was founded in 2009 by the plastics industry with the aim of engaging the British public in a nationwide debate about the use, reuse and disposal of plastics, hosts a series of online debates on its website framed around the waste hierarchy.

Plastic identification code

Main article: Resin identification code

Five groups of plastic polymers, each with specific properties, are used worldwide for packaging applications (see table below). Each group of plastic polymer can be identified by its Plastic Identification code (PIC) - usually a number or a letter abbreviation. For instance, Low-Density Polyethylene can be identified by the number "4" or the letters "LDPE". The PIC appears inside a three-chasing arrow reecycling symbol. The symbol is used to indicate whether the plastic can be recycled into new products.
The PIC was introduced by the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc., which provides a uniform system for the identification of different polymer types and helps recycling companies to separate different plastics for reprocessing. Manufacturers of plastic products are required to use PIC labels in some countries/regions and can voluntarily mark their products with the PIC where there are no requirements. Consumers can identify the plastic types based on the codes usually found at the base or at the side of the plastic products, including food/chemical packaging and containers. The PIC is usually not present on packaging films, as it is not practical to collect and recycle most of this type of waste.

Plastic Identification Code	Type of plastic polymer	Properties	Common Packaging Applications	Glass Transition and Melting Temperatures (°C)	Young's Modulus (GPa)
	Polyethylene terephthalate (PET, PETE)	Clarity, strength, toughness, barrier to gas and moisture.	Soft drink, water and salad dressing bottles; peanut butter and jam jars	Tm = 250; Tg = 76	2-2.7
	High-density polyethylene (HDPE)	Stiffness, strength, toughness, resistance to moisture, permeability to gas.	Water pipes, hula hoop rings, five gallon buckets, milk, juice and water bottles; grocery bags, some shampoo / toiletry bottles	Tm = 130;Tg = -125	0.8
	Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)	Versatility, ease of blending, strength, toughness.	Blister packaging for non-food items; cling films for non-food use. Not used for food packaging as the plasticisers needed to make natively rigid PVC flexible are usually toxic. Non-packaging uses are electrical cable insulation; rigid piping; vinyl records.	Tm = 240; Tg = 85	2.4-4.1
	Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)	Ease of processing, strength, toughness, flexibility, ease of sealing, barrier to moisture.	Frozen food bags; squeezable bottles, e.g. honey, mustard; cling films; flexible container lids.	Tm = 120;Tg = -125	0.17-0.28
	Polypropylene (PP)	Strength, toughness, resistance to heat, chemicals, grease and oil, versatile, barrier to moisture.	Reusable microwaveable ware; kitchenware; yogurt containers; margarine tubs; microwaveable disposable take-away containers; disposable cups; plates.	Tm = 173;Tg = -10	1.5-2
	Polystyrene (PS)	Versatility, clarity, easily formed	Egg cartons; packing peanuts; disposable cups, plates, trays and cutlery; disposable take-away containers;	Tm = 240 (only isotactic);Tg = 100 (atactic and isotactic)	3-3.5
	Other (often polycarbonate or ABS)	Dependent on polymers or combination of polymers	Beverage bottles; baby milk bottles. Non-packaging uses for polycarbonate: compact discs; "unbreakable" glazing; electronic apparatus housings; lenses including sunglasses, prescription glasses, automotive headlamps, riot shields, instrument panels;	Polycarbonate: Tg = 145; Tm = 225	Polycarbonate: 2.6; ABS plastics: 2.3

Applications

PET

Bales of PET bottles to be recycled.

Post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers are sorted into different colour fractions, and baled for onward sale. PET recyclers further sort the baled bottles and they are washed and flaked (or flaked and then washed). Non PET fractions such as caps and labels are removed during this process. The clean flake is dried. Further treatment can take place e.g. melt filtering and pelletising or various treatments to produce food contact approved recycled PET (RPET).

RPET has been widely used to produce polyester fibres. This sorted post-consumer PET waste is crushed, chopped into flakes, pressed into bales, and offered for sale.

One use for this recycled PET that has recently started to become popular is to create fabrics to be used in the clothing industry. The fabrics are created by spinning the PET flakes into thread and yarn. This is done just as easily as creating polyester from brand new PET.The recycled PET thread or yarn can be used either alone or together with other fibers to create a very wide variety of fabrics. Traditionally these fabrics were used to create strong, durable, rough, products, such as jackets, coat, shoes, bags, hats, and accessories. However, these fabrics are usually too rough on the skin and could cause irritation. Therefore, they usually are not used on any clothing that may irritate the skin, or where comfort is required. But in today's new eco-conscious world there has been more of a demand for “green” products. As a result, many clothing companies have started looking for ways to take advantage of this new market and innovations in the use of recycled PET fabric are beginning to develop. These innovations included different ways to process the fabric, to use the fabric, or blend the fabric with other materials. Some of the fabrics that are leading the industry in these innovations include Billabong's Eco-Supreme Suede,Livity's Rip-Tide III, Wellman Inc's Eco-fi(formerly known as EcoSpun), and Reware's Rewoven. Some additional companies that take pride in using recycled PET in their products areCrazy Shirts and Playback.

Other major outlets for RPET are new containers (food contact or non food contact) produced either by (injection stretch blow) moulding into bottles and jars or by thermoforming APET sheet to produce clam shells, blister packs and collation trays. These applications used 46% of all RPET produced in Europe in 2010. Other applications, such as strapping tape, injection moulded engineering components and even building materials account for 13% of the 2010 RPET production.

PVC

PVC SPI code, for recycling (Society of the Plastics Industry). The Unicodecharacter for this symbol is U+2675.

In Europe, developments in PVC waste management are monitored by Vinyl 2010, a legal entity established in 2000. In the waste management area their commitment is to

1. Support integrated waste management approaches, using raw materials as efficiently as possible
2. Work with the stakeholders to research, develop, and implement recycling of 200,000 tonnes per year of PVC postconsumer waste in 2010 in addition to waste already recycled in 2000, or regulated by the PPW, ELV and E&E Waste Directives
3. Recycle collectable, available PVC postconsumer waste from pipes, window profiles, and roofing membranes.

Vinyl 2010 has a Monitoring Committee and publishes annual reviews. In 2011, it reported that 260,842 tonnes of post-consumer PVC waste was recycled in 2010, i.e. an increase of 220,000 tonnes over the 1999 volumes, exceeding the 10-year target of 200,000 tonnes.

Collection and recycling schemes for PVC waste stream are managed through Recovinyl which reported the recycled tonnage as follows: profile 107,000 tonnes, flexible cables 79,000 tonnes, pipe 25,000 tonnes, rigid film 6,000 tonnes, and mixed flexible 38,000 tonnes. Recovinyl states that of the recycled material 75% is for floors, 15% for foils, 5% for traffic cones, 3% for hoses end 2% for other applications.

One of the recycling processes is the Vinyloop Texyloop used for solvent-based mechanical recycling. It involves recovering PVC plastic from composite materials through dissolution and precipitation, and is a closed-loop system, recycling the solvent and regenerating PVC.

HDPE

The most-often recycled plastic, HDPE (high-density polyethylene) or number 2, is downcycled into plastic lumber, tables, roadside curbs, benches, truck cargo liners, trash receptacles, stationery (e.g. rulers) and other durable plastic products and is usually in demand.

PS

The resin identification code symbol for polystyrene

Most polystyrene products are currently not recycled due to the lack of incentive to invest in the compactors and logistical systems required. Expanded polystyrene scrap can be easily added to products such as EPS insulation sheets and other EPS materials for construction applications. And many manufacturers cannot obtain sufficient scrap because of the aforementioned collection issues. When it is not used to make more EPS, foam scrap can be turned into clothes hangers, park benches, flower pots, toys, rulers, stapler bodies, seedling containers, picture frames, and architectural molding from recycled PS.

Recycled EPS is also used in many metal casting operations. Rastra is made from EPS that is combined with cement to be used as an insulating amendment in the making of concrete foundations and walls. American manufacturers have produced insulating concrete forms made with approximately 80% recycled EPS since 1993.

Other plastics

The white plastic polystyrene foam peanuts used as packing material are often accepted by shipping stores for reuse.

Successful trials in Israel have shown that plastic films recovered from mixed municipal waste streams can be recycled into useful household products such as buckets.

Similarly, agricultural plastics such as mulch film, drip tape and silage bags are being diverted from the waste stream and successfully recycled into much larger products for industrial applications such as plastic composite railroad ties. Historically, these agricultural plastics have primarily been either landfilled or burned on-site in the fields of individual farms.

CNN reports that Dr. S. Madhu of the Kerala Highway Research Institute, India has formulated a road surface that includes recycled plastic. Aggregate, bitumen (asphalt) with plastic that has been shredded and melted at a temperature below 220 degrees C (428 °F) to avoid pollution. This road surface is claimed to be very durable and monsoon rain resistant. The plastic is sorted by hand, which is economical in India. The test road used 60 kg of plastic for an approx. 500m long, 8m wide, two-lane road. The process chops thin-film road-waste into a light fluff of tiny flakes that hot-mix plants can uniformly introduce into viscous bitumen with a customized dosing machine. Tests at both Bangalore and the Indian Road Research Centre indicate that roads built using this 'KK process' will have longer useful lives and better resistance to cold, heat, cracking, and rutting, by a factor of three.

Plastic recycling

   Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products, sometimes completely different in form from their original state. For instance, this could mean melting down soft drink bottles and then casting them as plastic chairs and tables. Typically a plastic is not recycled into the same type of plastic, and products made from recycled plastics are often not recyclable.

Challenges

   When compared to other materials like glass and metal materials, plastic polymers require greater processing (heat treating, thermal depolymerization and monomer recycling) to be recycled. Plastics have a low entropy of mixing, which is due to the high molecular weight of their large polymer chains. A macromolecule interacts with its environment along its entire length, so its enthalpy of mixing is large compared to that of an organic molecule with a similar structure. Heating alone is not enough to dissolve such a large molecule; because of this, plastics must often be of nearly identical composition to mix efficiently.

   When different types of plastics are melted together they tend to phase-separate, like oil and water, and set in these layers. The phase boundaries cause structural weakness in the resulting material, meaning that polymer blends are only useful in limited applications.

   Another barrier to recycling is the widespread use of dyes, fillers, and other additives in plastics. The polymer is generally too viscous to economically remove fillers, and would be damaged by many of the processes that could cheaply remove the added dyes. Additives are less widely used in beverage containers and plastic bags, allowing them to be recycled more often. Yet another barrier to removing large quantities of plastic from the waste stream and landfills is the fact that many common but small plastic items lack the universal triangle recycling symbol and accompanying number. A perfect example is the billions of plastic utensils commonly distributed at fast food restaurants or sold for use at picnics.

   The use of biodegradable plastics is increasing. If some of these get mixed in the other plastics for recycling, the reclaimed plastic is not recyclable because of the variance in properties and melt temperatures.

Processes

   Before recycling, most plastics are sorted according to their resin type. In the past, plastic reclaimers used the resin identification code (RIC), a method of categorization of polymer types, which was developed by the Society of the Plastics Industry in 1988. Polyethylene terephthalate, commonly referred to as PET, for instance, has a resin code of 1. Most plastic reclaimers do not rely on the RIC now; they use automatic sort systems to identify the resin, such as near infrared (NIR) technology. Some plastic products are also separated by color before they are recycled. The plastic recyclables are then shredded. These shredded fragments then undergo processes to eliminate impurities like paper labels. This material is melted and often extruded into the form of pellets which are then used to manufacture other products.

Monomer recycling

   Many recycling challenges can be resolved by using a more elaborate monomer recycling process, in which a condensation polymer essentially undergoes the inverse of the polymerization reaction used to manufacture it. This yields the same mix of chemicals that formed the original polymer, which can be purified and used to synthesize new polymer chains of the same type. Du Pont opened a pilot plant of this type in Cape Fear, North Carolina, USA, to recycle PET by a process of methanolysis, but it closed the plant due to economic pressures.

Thermal depolymerization

   Another process involves the conversion of assorted polymers into petroleum by a much less precise thermal depolymerization process. Such a process would be able to accept almost any polymer or mix of polymers, including thermoset materials such as vulcanized rubber tires and the biopolymers in feathers and other agricultural waste. Like natural petroleum, the chemicals produced can be made into fuels as well as polymers. A pilot plant of this type exists in Carthage, Missouri, USA, using turkey waste as input material. Gasification is a similar process, but is not technically recycling since polymers are not likely to become the result.

Heat compression

   Yet another process that is gaining ground with startup companies especially in Australia, United States and Japan is heat compression. The heat compression process takes all unsorted, cleaned plastic in all forms, from soft plastic bags to hard industrial waste, and mixes the load in tumblers large rotating drums resembling giant clothes dryers. The most obvious benefit to this method is the fact that all plastic is recyclable, not just matching forms. However, criticism rises from the energy costs of rotating the drums, and heating the post-melt pipes.

Ther processes

   A process has also been developed in which many kinds of plastic can be used as a carbon source in the recycling of scrap steel.

Working conditions

The recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment in India and China generates a significant amount of pollution. Informal recycling in an underground economy of these countries has generated an environmental and health disaster. High levels of lead (Pb), polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated dioxins and furans, as well as polybrominated dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs and PBDD/Fs) concentrated in the air, bottom ash, dust, soil, water and sediments in areas surrounding recycling sites. Critics also argue that while recycling may create jobs, they are often jobs with low wages and terrible working conditions. These jobs are sometimes considered to be make-work jobs that don't produce as much as the cost of wages to pay for those jobs. In areas without many environmental regulations and/or worker protections, jobs involved in recycling such as ship breaking can result in deplorable conditions for both workers and the surrounding communities

Environmental impact

Christmas trees gathered for recycling.

Economist Steven Landsburg, author of a paper entitled "Why I Am Not an Environmentalist," has claimed that paper recycling actually reduces tree populations. He argues that because paper companies have incentives to replenish the forests they own, large demands for paper lead to large forests. Conversely, reduced demand for paper leads to fewer "farmed" forests. Similar arguments were expressed in a 1995 article for The Free Market.
When foresting companies cut down trees, more are planted in their place. Most paper comes from pulp forests grown specifically for paper production. Many environmentalists point out, however, that "farmed" forests are inferior to virgin forests in several ways. Farmed forests are not able to fix the soil as quickly as virgin forests, causing widespread soil erosion and often requiring large amounts of fertilizer to maintain while containing little tree and wild-life biodiversity compared to virgin forests. Also, the new trees planted are not as big as the trees that were cut down, and the argument that there will be "more trees" is not compelling to forestry advocates when they are counting saplings.
Wood from tropical rainforests is rarely harvested for paper. Rainforest deforestation is mainly caused by population pressure demands for land.

Possible income loss and social costs

In some prosperous and many less prosperous countries in the world, the traditional job of recycling is performed by the entrepreneurial poor such as the karung guni, Zabaleen, the rag-and-bone man, waste picker, and junk man. With the creation of large recycling organizations that may be profitable, either by law or economies of scale, the poor are more likely to be driven out of the recycling and the remanufacturing market. To compensate for this loss of income to the poor, a society may need to create additional forms of societal programs to help support the poor. Like the parable of the broken window, there is a net loss to the poor and possibly the whole of a society to make recycling artificially profitable through law. However, as seen in Brazil and Argentina, waste pickers/informal recyclers are able to work alongside governments, in (semi)funded cooperatives, allowing informal recycling to be legitimized as a paying government job.
Because the social support of a country is likely less than the loss of income to the poor doing recycling, there is a greater chance that the poor will come in conflict with the large recycling organizations. This means fewer people can decide if certain waste is more economically reusable in its current form rather than being reprocessed. Contrasted to the recycling poor, the efficiency of their recycling may actually be higher for some materials because individuals have greater control over what is considered “waste.”

Sorted waste containers in the Czech Republic.

One labor-intensive underused waste is electronic and computer waste. Because this waste may still be functional and wanted mostly by the poor, the poor may sell or use it at a greater efficiency than large recyclers.
Many recycling advocates believe that this laissez-faire individual-based recycling does not cover all of society’s recycling needs. Thus, it does not negate the need for an organized recycling program. Local government often consider the activities of the recycling poor as contributing to property blight.

Public participation in recycling programmes

"Between 1960 and 2000, the world production of plastic resins increased 25-fold, while recovery of the material remained below 5%."^:131 Many studies have addressed recycling behaviour and strategies to encourage community involvement in recycling programmes. It has been argued that recycling behaviour is not natural because it requires a focus and appreciation for long term planning, whereas humans have evolved to be sensitive to short term survival goals; and that to overcome this innate predisposition, the best solution would be to use social pressure to compel participation in recycling programmes. However, recent studies have concluded that social pressure is unviable in this context. One reason for this is that social pressure functions well in small group sizes of 50 to 150 indiviudals (common to nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples) but not in communities numbering in the millions, as we see today. Another reason is that individual recycling does not take place in the public view. In a study done by social psychologist Shawn Burn, it was found that personal contact with individuals within a neighborhood is the most effective way to increase recycling within a community. In his study, he had 10 block leaders talk to their neighbors and convince them to recycle. A comparison group was sent fliers promoting recycling. It was found that the neighbors that were personally contacted by their block leaders recycled much more than the group without personal contact. As a result of this study, Shawn Burn believes that personal contact within a small group of people is an important factor in encouraging recycling. Another study done by Stuart Oskamp examines the effect of neighbors and friends on recycling. It was found in his studies that people who had friends and neighbors that recycled were much more likely to also recycle than those who didn’t have friends and neighbors that recycled.

Garbage that is claimed to be recycled actually gets put into landfills instead

In 2002, WNYC reported that 40% of the garbage that New York City residents separated for recycling actually ended up in landfills.

 

Know the Types of Plastic and Benefits
     Plastics have miraculous powers, structural design, and features an excellent recycling.There are plastics that are recyclable and not recyclable. Or pieces of plastic waste can be reprocessed into useful products such as bags, microwave dishes, chairs, tables, decorations, furniture, medical equipment, and some kinds of objects. Plastics are made of polymer containing:
     Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is used for beverage containers such as bottled water, soft drinks, salad dressing and gravy, as well as the clothing industry.High-density polyethylene (HDPE) used in contact with foods such as milk bottles, juice, and organic solvents. HDPE can also be used for garbage bags.Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used in homes for the manufacture of linoleum flooring, vinyl car top, raincoats, shower curtains, and water pipes.Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is used for packaging such as foil, trays, and frozen food bags or plastic bags, squeeze bottles for food and non food. LDPE can be used also as a protective layer of paper, textile, and other plastics.Polypropylene (PP) is used for eating utensils microwave, tube margarine, and disposable plates and cups. PP can be used also for the rope, and carpet.Polystyrene (PS) or styrofoam used for egg cartons, plates and disposable cutlery, and safe for shipping fragile products. PS can be used also for packaging materials for retaining heat or cold food.  Plastic resin identification codes are categorized based on where the polymer is identified. Through the uniform identification code to the type of polymer, recycling plastic can be easily grouped by type resinnya. Recycling of plastic has a different way and utility. The code provides that plastic recycling is economically viable.
    Now, not only recycled plastic for business purposes but also environmental reasons.More and more plastics are recycled, the more money saved, and at the same time, can further contribute to the environment. Compared to wood, paper, card board, glass, and metal, plastic recycling is something that is complex because it requires the force of attraction between the chain polymer intermolekulat further.
    One way of recycling an effective and efficient for plastics is through the use of dyes and fillers are commonly used for beverage bottles, plastic bags, as well as recycling easier and a lot of options in this way. Plastic has a strong construction and durable character to new products, products that can be reused will produce a permanent and a duration of less than the original.
     Speaking of hygiene, many producers investigate further to biodegradable plastics while others think a lot of plastic waste contributes to a material that will create environmental damage. But they are not aware of the plastic can be recycled for human needs, so as to preserve the motherland. Collect products such as plastic bottles, out of the trash and even the landfill, and identifying the type of polymer plastic bottle is a practical way to recycle effectively. From time to time, recycled plastic into the source of income without causing environmental damage.

Criticisms and responses

Much of the difficulty inherent in recycling comes from the fact that most products are not designed with recycling in mind. The concept of sustainable design aims to solve this problem, and was laid out in the book "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things" by architectWilliam McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart. They suggest that every product should have a complete "closed-loop" cycle mapped out for each component—a way in which every component will either return to the natural ecosystem through biodegradationor be recycled indefinitely. In this context, while recycling does divert waste from entering directly into the environment, current recycling misses the dissipative components. Complete recycling is impracticable as highly dispersed wastes become so diluted that the energy needed for their recovery becomes increasingly excessive. "For example, how will it ever be possible to recycle the numerous chlorinated organic hydrocarbons that have bioaccumulated in animal and human tissues across the globe, the copper dispersed in fungicides, the lead in widely applied paints, or the zinc oxides present in the finely dispersed rubber powder that is abraded from automobile tires?As with environmental economics, care must be taken to ensure a complete view of the costs and benefits involved. For example, cardboard packaging for food products is more easily recycled than plastic, but is heavier to ship and may result in more waste from spoilage.

The following are criticisms of many popular points used for recycling.

Energy

The amount of energy saved through recycling depends upon the material being recycled. Some, such as aluminum, save a great deal, while others may not save any. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) states on its website that "a paper mill uses 40 percent less energy to make paper from recycled paper than it does to make paper from fresh lumber." Some critics argue that it takes more energy to produce recycled products than it does to dispose of them in traditional landfill methods, since the curbside collection of recyclables often requires a second waste truck. However, recycling proponents point out that a second timber or logging truck is eliminated when paper is collected for recycling, so the net energy consumption is the same.

It is difficult to determine the exact amount of energy consumed or produced in waste disposal processes. How much energy is used in recycling depends largely on the type of material being recycled and the process used to do so. Aluminium is generally agreed to use far less energy when recycled rather than being produced from scratch. The EPA states that "recycling aluminum cans, for example, saves 95 percent of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from its virgin source, bauxite. In 2009 more than half of all aluminium cans produced came from recycled aluminium.

Every year, millions of tons of materials are being exploited from the earth's crust, and processed into consumer and capital goods. After decades to centuries, most of these materials are "lost". With the exception of some pieces of art or religious relics, they are no longer engaged in the consumption process. Where are they? Recycling is only an intermediate solution for such materials, although it does prolong the residence time in the anthroposphere. For thermodynamic reasons, however, recycling cannot prevent the final need for an ultimate sink” (Brunner, 1999, p. 1).

Economist Steven Landsburg has suggested that the sole benefit of reducing landfill space is trumped by the energy needed and resulting pollution from the recycling process. Others, however, have calculated through life cycle assessment that producing recycled paper uses less energy and water than harvesting, pulping, processing, and transporting virgin trees. When less recycled paper is used, additional energy is needed to create and maintain farmed forests until these forests are as self-sustainable as virgin forests.

Other studies have shown that recycling in itself is inefficient to perform the “decoupling” of economic development from the depletion of non-renewable raw materials that is necessary for sustainable development.When global consumption of a natural resource grows by more than 1 percent per annum, its depletion is inevitable, and the best recycling can do is to delay it by a number of years. Nevertheless, if this decoupling can be achieved by other means, so that consumption of the resource is reduced below 1 percent per annum, then recycling becomes indispensable—indeed recycling rates above 80 percent are required for a significant slowdown of the resource depletion.

Costs

A man rummaging through a skip at the back of an office building in Central Londonin 2006. The wood could be used for urban lumberjacking and the cardboard could be recycled.

The amount of money actually saved through recycling depends on the efficiency of the recycling program used to do it. The Institute for Local Self-Relianceargues that the cost of recycling depends on various factors around a community that recycles, such as landfill fees and the amount of disposal that the community recycles. It states that communities start to save money when they treat recycling as a replacement for their traditional waste system rather than an add-on to it and by "redesigning their collection schedules and/or trucks."

In some cases, the cost of recyclable materials also exceeds the cost of raw materials. Virgin plastic resin costs 40 percent less than recycled resin.Additionally, a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study that tracked the price of clear glass from July 15 to August 2, 1991, found that the average cost per ton ranged from $40 to $60, while a USGS report shows that the cost per ton of raw silica sand from years 1993 to 1997 fell between $17.33 and $18.10.

In a 1996 article for The New York Times, John Tierney argued that it costs more money to recycle the trash of New York City than it does to dispose of it in a landfill. Tierney argued that the recycling process employs people to do the additional waste disposal, sorting, inspecting, and many fees are often charged because the processing costs used to make the end product are often more than the profit from its sale. Tierney also referenced a study conducted by theSolid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) that found in the six communities involved in the study, "all but one of the curbside recycling programs, and all the composting operations and waste-to-energy incinerators, increased the cost of waste disposal."

Tierney also points out that "the prices paid for scrap materials are a measure of their environmental value as recyclables. Scrap aluminum fetches a high price because recycling it consumes so much less energy than manufacturing new aluminum."

However, comparing the market cost of recyclable material to the cost of new raw materials ignores economic externalities - the costs that are currently not counted by the market. Creating a new piece of plastic, for instance, may cause more pollution and be less sustainable than recycling a similar piece of plastic, but these factors will not be counted in market cost. A life cycle assessmentcan be used to determine the levels of externalities and decide whether the recycling may be worthwhile despite unfavorable market costs. Alternatively, legal means (such as a carbon tax) can be used to bring externalities into the market, so that the market cost of the material becomes close to the true cost.

In 2003, the city of Santa Clarita, California was paying $28 per ton to put garbage into a landfill. The city then adopted a mandatory diaper recycling program that cost $1,800 per ton.

In a 2007 article, Michael Munger, the Chair of Political Science at Duke University, wrote, "... if recycling is more expensive than using new materials, it can't possibly be efficient... There is a simple test for determining whether something is a resource... or just garbage... If someone will pay you for the item, it's a resource... But if you have to pay someone to take the item away... then the item is garbage."

In a 2002 article for The Heartland Institute, Jerry Taylor, director of natural resource studies at the Cato Institute, wrote, "If it costs X to deliver newly manufactured plastic to the market, for example, but it costs 10X to deliver reused plastic to the market, we can conclude the resources required to recycle plastic are 10 times more scarce than the resources required to make plastic from scratch. And because recycling is supposed to be about the conservation of resources, mandating recycling under those circumstances will do more harm than good."