Of the total garbage Americans throw out, half of it could be recycled, which is enough to completely fill a football stadium everyday according to the Recycling Coalition of Utah. After collection, recyclable materials are sent to a recovery facility to be sorted, cleaned, and processed into materials that can be reused. Recycled materials can be bought and sold just like raw materials, and prices go up and down depending on supply and demand in the US (EPA). Today, more and more products are being manufactured from recycled materials. Newspapers, paper towels, aluminum, plastic, glass, steel cans, and plastic laundry detergent bottles are just a few common household items that could be easily recycled and reused to manufacture new materials. Some recycled materials are also used in different ways such as recovered glass in asphalt to pave roads or recovered plastic in carpeting and park benches (EPA). One of the most serious issues facing the US right now is the increasing waste problem, which impairs public health, pollutes the environment, and threatens to drown some areas in toxicity. “Because we’re not seeing it, we think it’s not a problem,” said Mark Dancy, president of WasteZero, one of the nation’s largest waste reduction companies. Pollution from waste also runs into rivers and seeps into ground water. Flooding is caused by garbage clogging drains, and the atmosphere can be poisoned by the toxic discharge from trash or from incineration of waste. In the U.S., about $200 billion a year is spent on solid waste collection/management and lost energy from disposing trash (Simmons). After conducting the research I have done so far for my topic I have concluded that from an economic, ethical, and environmental standpoint, implementing recycling programs in the US is an effective measure for dealing with our increasing waste problem. 

With an unsustainable increase in waste generation becoming one of the largest problems facing the US right now, cutting down on the amount of waste going to landfills would be a major step in the direction of solving this problem. In California, it's the law to recycle. The cities and counties in the state must divert at least 50% of their trash from landfills whether through waste reduction, reusing, or recycling. The example of the law in California is a good one, and many scientists would agree that laws similar to this should be established in every state. If laws around required recycling programs were established nationwide diversion rates would go and we would conserve space in our landfills, which in turn preserves undeveloped land, saves money on manufacturing new goods, and protects our natural resources for future generations (Waste Management). Besides the increased pollution and dangers to our health, increasing our trash disposal means new land must be used to create more landfills. Clearing land disturbs ecosystems, increases runoff of pollution and other hazardous materials, and limits the amount of land that can used for other reasons. Of the 250 million tons of trash thrown out in 2010 in New York City alone, 85 million tons were diverted from landfills. This is a rate higher than ever before and according to the EPA, that's comparable to removing the emissions from 33 million passenger cars (Dover). Ron Gonen, who was hired in 2012 to lead New York City's recycling efforts, states that "NYC earns a floor of $10 per ton for recycled paper, which means that we save $86 per ton in landfill disposal savings and earn a minimum of $10 per ton.” Recycling can help solve our waste problem by diverting trash from landfills, and it can actually help save us money in the long run as well.

Not only does recycling divert waste from landfills, but it also preserves energy and our earth’s vital natural resources. While the amount of energy we save by recycling varies depending on what type of material is recycled, almost all recycling processes save copious amounts of energy compared to processes that use virgin materials. Scrap cars, bottles, junk mail, and used tires are becoming common items found in our landfills. It may seem like items like these are endless, but the resources needed to make them are running out of supply quickly. Instead of letting these items sit in a landfill, recycling allows these junk items to be used over and over again so that new resources do not have to be exploited. Recycling conserves natural resources such as water, minerals, coal, oil, gas, and timber. When you recycle an aluminum can, you can save up to 95% of the energy required to produce that same can from raw material. To put this in perspective, the energy saved from recycling one glass bottle is enough to light a light bulb for 4 hours. This clearly shows how much energy can be saved if recycling is implemented on a larger scale. Reliance on foreign oil could be reduced which also helps us save money in the end. Another benefit of recycling is that it allows more emphasis to be put on creating technology that uses materials that already exist. This is why many industries support programs where they receive large quantities of recyclable material to be converted into new items (Kukreja). In 2014, Americans recycled and composted over 89 million tons of municipal solid waste. By doing this, 181 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions were saved. This is comparable to the emissions released from over 38 million passenger cars each year (EPA). A good example of this was shown at Stanford University where a recycling program was put in place across its campus, and the results were hopeful. By recycling over 1118 tons of paper in one year, Stanford saved 32,115 trees. This also reduced the need for 414 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone by recycling over 302 tons of ferrous scrap metal. Additionally, by using recycled materials instead of trees, metal ores, minerals, oil and other raw materials harvested from the earth, recycling-based manufacturing conserves the world's scarce natural resources (Stanford University). This conservation reduces pressure to expand forests cutting and mining operations. Reduction of clear cutting forests for timber not only helps control our planets carbon cycle and amount of green house gas emissions, but it also reduces soil erosion and pollution of streams and ground water. This also helps preserve our ecosystems and decreases the damage done to plants and animals and the delicate balance between all living and non-living entities in our environment. 

Natural resources are not the only thing conserved when we choose to recycle. Energy and greenhouse gases are also drastically reduced when we choose to recycle as well. John Tiemstra, a professor of economics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan even states, "In economic terms, [recycling] is very often a losing proposition but the thing is, human work does not have the same environmental consequences that exploiting virgin resources has. From a sustainability point of view, recycling has value."

In 2014, Stanford University also recycled enough paper, glass, metal, plastic, and organic material to save a total of about 73,832 million BTUs of energy; which is enough energy to power 657 homes for one year. Producing products using recycled material rather than raw materials uses significantly less energy too, which results in less burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. Stanford’s recycling efforts in 2014 reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 2934 metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE). This is equivalent to taking 2109 cars off the road per year, conserving 1,206,003 gallons of gasoline or 59 railway cars of coal (Stanford University). By reducing air and water pollution and saving energy, recycling offers an important environmental benefit: it reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons, that contribute to our ever growing global climate change problem. 

Recycling is obviously very beneficial to our environment, but it can also help our economy. Solid waste management is a highly mechanized process that can be done with a small amount of manual labor. Recycling on the other hand is much more labor intensive. It involves collection, sorting, and processing activities, as well as other important roles such as facilities operations, sales, and logistics support (LeBlanc). Recycling is complicated and starts with the collection of recyclable materials from homes, drop-off points, construction centers, and businesses. After collection, these recyclable materials go through a sorting process to separate various materials as well as different quality goods. For plastic, paper, metal and glass recycling, collected items go through a rigorous process to be reused as raw material for the production of new goods. From the collection of recycled materials to reselling them as new goods, recycling businesses need varying degrees of skilled workers to perform various recycling industry jobs. According to the REI, the US recycling industry employed 1.25 million people whereas the US solid waste management industry employed only 0.25 million people in 2015. Furthermore, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance stated that the removal of every 10,000 tons of solid waste creates only 6 jobs while the same amount of waste if recycled can create jobs for as many as 36 people. But recycling can benefit our economy by doing more than creating jobs. New programs implemented in New York City in 2016 ended up saving the city $30 million. The ultimate goal is to bring this rate up 30% by 2017, saving the city about $60 million annually (Dover). Furthermore, many governments have policies in place that give financial benefits to people who recycle. Citizens can take aluminum cans or glass bottles to a recycling plant and get a cash reward in return. Old newspapers, appliances, plastic, rubber, steel, copper and even beer cans can be sold for money (Kukreja). This is a quick and easy way for many people to make money on the side. Every bit of recycling counts when the economy does not have to pay for planting more forests, mining iron ore, or purchasing fossil fuels from other countries. If the cost of maintaining the current waste disposal system go down, the money saved can be diverted to where it is needed the most (Kukreja). The recycling industry alone can generate jobs and help our government save money, but there are also several opportunities for those who recycle to make money as well. 

On the other hand, recycling programs may not always be as efficient as originally thought. Today local governments take sole responsibility for recycling programs. Some recycling programs can deliver profits to city and county budgets when commodity prices are high for recycled goods. But when commodity prices are low it ends up costing the government money, and recycling programs are not cheap. The energy, labor, and machinery required to recycle materials is about double the amount needed to simply send those recyclable materials to the landfill (Westervelt). Additionally, each recyclable material has a unique monetary value determined by the rarity of the virgin resource and by the price the recycled material is worth on the commodity market. The recycling process for each recyclable material also requires different amounts of water and energy and comes along with its own carbon footprint. All of this evidence suggests that it makes more sense to recycle some materials versus others from an economic and environmental standpoint (Westervelt). In order to recycle the most effectively primarily aluminum, other metals, and some forms of paper (cardboard) should be the most recycled materials. From this point of view we should only be recycling the few materials with the highest recycling efficiency instead of recycling all possible materials and diverting the most trash from landfills possible. Prices for recycled PET plastic fell from 20 cents a pound in 2014 to less than 10 cents a pound earlier this year, therefore plastic products are becoming less and less effective to recycle and have a lower commodity price now anyway.

Overall, implementing recycling programs in the US is an effective measure for dealing with our increasing waste problem coming from an economic, ethical, and environmental standpoint. On one side of the argument, environmental activists strongly believe that we should be implementing recycling processes nationwide to help decrease our negative impact on the environment and to help solve our ever growing waste problem. On the other side, some economists and city planners do not believe that we should be implementing recycling processes nation wide because of the financial burden it will place on major cities and because the processes themselves are sometimes not all that effective.  Many would agree that the benefits of installing nationwide recycling programs far outweigh the consequences, and that we should be valuing the health and sustainability of our planet over saving the government a small percentage of money in the long run. Many of us have the option to recycle almost everywhere we go. At home, signing up for a curbside recyclable pick up is a big step in reducing our personal amount of solid waste production. Additionally, many schools, offices, and even restaurants offer the option to recycle, and it is as easy as taking a few extra seconds out of your day to separate recyclables from your trash and putting them into the correct bin. Additionally, consumers like you can help close the recycling loop by buying new products made from recycled materials. There are thousands of products that are made from recycled materials that are easy to find. When you go shopping, simply look for products that can be easily recycled or products that contain recycled materials. We all have a say in the health of our environment, and this is a problem that must be fought by every single consumer in America if we truly want to make a difference. So the next time you have the option, will you recycle?
