THE IGEC RECYCLE INITIATIVE

Economic Value

The United States exported over 20 million tons of recyclable materials last year worth approximately $3.5 billion.

Recycling adds greater economic value to a local economy than landfilling. For example, as recovered paper moves through the recycling process--collection, sorting, processing and manufacturing--it increases in value at each stage until it is ultimately resold at a premium price as new paper product. Landfilling that same paper adds no value, creates far fewer jobs, and wastes a valuable commodity.

Recycling can help revitalize existing industries and attract new industries to urban and rural communities. And it can preserve existing jobs and create new jobs. Put simply, recycling is an economic development tool as well as an environmental tool. Reuse, recycling, and waste reduction offer one of the most direct development opportunities for communities. Discarded materials are a local resource that can contribute to local revenue, job creation, business expansion, and the local economic base.

While recycling has been shown to be more cost-effective than disposal, greater savings to local governments will occur when the community implements an aggressive integrated waste management program that treats waste materials as valuable resources, supports a free and competitive recycling industry, and allows the public to reduce disposal costs through waste reeducation and recycling.

Job Creation...Recycling Creates More Jobs than Landfilling

Recycling and remanufacturing waste material produce substantially more jobs than landfilling or incinerating the same material -- usually at a lower cost to local government and residential and business ratepayers. In fact, recycling results in up to 36 times more jobs than landfilling.

Just sorting and processing recyclables sustains 5 to 10 times more jobs than landfilling or incineration.

Recycled paper manufacturing, a labor intensive process, creates one job for every 523 tons of recovered paper.

Recycling creates more jobs than landfilling by adding value and employing people at every step of the process. Consider the recycling loop: jobs are created in the collection, processing, manufacturing, and selling of recycled products. When garbage is landfilled, the materials are collected and disposed of without any opportunity for continued job growth.

According to figures released by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), on a per-ton basis, pallet repair operations sustain 14 times more jobs than disposal facilities, electronics reuse enterprises sustain 68 times more jobs, multi-material reuse facilities sustain 38 times more jobs, and textile reuse businesses create 37 times the number of jobs as disposal facilities. Thus, the potential to create new jobs through reuse is enormous. ILSR estimates, for instance, that 110,000 new jobs could be created by reusing half of the 25.5 million tons of household durables now landfilled and incinerated.

However, it is making new products from the old that offers the largest economic pay-off. New recycling-based manufacturers employ even more people and at higher wages. Recycling-based paper mills and plastic product manufacturers, for instance, employ 60 times more workers than do landfills. Manufacturing with locally collected discards also adds value by producing finished goods -- a drastic change from the current paradigm in which our communities export raw materials and import finished products. While value is added to discarded materials as a result of cleaning, sorting, and baling, significantly more value is added as a result of end-use manufacturing. For example, old newspapers may sell for $20 per ton, but new newsprint sells for $600 per ton.

Each step a community takes locally means more jobs, more business expenditures on supplies and services, and more money circulating in the local economy through spending and tax payments.

There are virtually no limits to the kinds of innovative products that are being created through open-loop recycling. Imagine carpet made from recycled ketchup bottles or paper made from recycled blue jeans. These examples may sound farfetched, but in fact are both taking place today.

Recycling-based manufacturing reduces dependence on distant markets for recyclables and can provide greater market stability.

Local jobs are created, local manufacturers have access to less expensive raw materials, and reduced landfill space saves residents and local governments dollars that can now be spent elsewhere in the local economy. Local ownership ensures that business assets remain in the region, and spin-off purchasing enhances the stability of the local retail business environment and contributes to the local tax base.

In addition, using locally collected discarded materials for reuse or to manufacture new products can contribute to the local economy and improve regional efficiency and self-reliance by producing goods that local business would otherwise purchase from out-of-state sources.

While the negative impacts of landfilling are significant, they are dwarfed by the material extraction and production impacts caused by producing the throwaway products and packaging that become trash. For example, while the conventional and environmental costs of disposing of a plastic soft drink bottle are estimated to be roughly $11.6 million, or 2 cents per container, the environmental costs of producing that container in the first place are three times that amount. Therefore, while diverting the container from landfill through recycling can reduce the environmental impact, the real environmental savings comes when the virgin plastic in the container is replaced with recycled plastic--closing the loop.

In addition to building a collection and processing infrastructure for discarded materials, creating jobs not waste means actively fostering the growth of local remanufacturing, reuse, and composting businesses. Implementation of the following strategies will encourage such development.

1. Actively work to prevent waste and encourage reuse.

2. Maximize the amount of recyclable material collected for recovery.

3. Create a local and regional recycling-based manufacturing infrastructure.

The Green Energy Council will promote local recycling programs through our GEC Educational Initiative. We will work closely with our GEC High School and Collegiate Chapters on local outreach programs. These local chapters will collect cardboard and paper that will be recycled through local recycling companies and the proceeds will aid in the publication of the GEC Educational Initiative coloring books, story books and comic books for our K-8th grade curriculum. Recycling programs inclusive of glass, aluminum, plastic and e-waste will also be initiated.

A portion of the net proceeds of this portion of the Recycling Initiative will also help fund local community outreach programs promoted by local high school or collegiate chapters as well as the GEC scholarship program.

If you are a business owner, manufacturer or corporation that wishes to establish a GEC recycling program please contact: Peter Esposito at info@greenenergycouncil.com or call 202-349-7138.

RECYCLING IS A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY!