Tangible benefits of community recycling programs for environmental conservation

¶ … Recycling

What are the tangible benefits to be achieved when a community becomes involved in a recycling program? The first and most obvious benefit of recycling, as this paper will reflect, is the responsible reclaiming of the materials that can be reused through technology. The watchword here is conservation, because the planet does not have unlimited resources to be used and discarded. The benefit of conservation is clear: by conserving the Earth's resources, there will be plenty for future generations. The second very obvious reason for responsible recycling is that the planet is undergoing dramatic climate change, and by recycling items like mixed metals, steel, aluminum, paper, plastic and other materials, society eliminates the need to be producing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change -- global warming. Recycling is not a new concept, but given the urgent need to employ methods of conservation, it has been embraced internationally and has achieved success to varying degrees. This paper focuses on those strategies and programs that lead towards the reprocessing of reusable materials like aluminum and the recycling of the nation's waste materials through composting and other procedures.

The benefits of recycling, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)

Recycling and being conscious of the ecology of the planet is not an issue for any one country or region. It is an issue that touches every person on Earth. The WHO explains that a person's "carbon footprint" is that measure of the impact a person's activities have on the amount of carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere. The WHO offers suggestions to citizens around the world that relate to recycling and have benefits for people and the planet. Recycling one aluminum can saves 90% of the energy it takes to produce a new can. The emissions from the production of one aluminum can are significant: 9 kg of CO2 are produced to produce 1 kg of aluminum. Recycling 1 kg of paper (rather than tossing it in a landfill) saves 900 g of CO2 going into the atmosphere; and recycling 1 kg of recycled plastics saves 1.5 kg of CO2 entering the atmosphere (WHO).

Also, by taking lunch in a reusable lunch box -- and taking reusable cotton shopping bags to the grocery store -- saves the energy that is required to produce new lunch boxes and plastic or paper bags.

Starting a Recycling Program at Your Workplace

Saving the planet starts at home and at work, according to Trey Granger. What's the benefit of launching a recycling effort at work? First, it's the smart thing to do for intelligent, informed people in any location; and secondly, it can actually earn money for the office. It's not very difficult, and it can lower the carbon footprint of the office where a person works. After all, the EPA estimates that "40% of all waste is generated in the workplace," hence, businesses should take the matter to heart and do what Granger suggests. First someone has to take a leadership position; next there needs to be recycle bins placed in "high-traffic areas," perhaps the room where people take their breaks, or in the kitchen -- or near the copying machine (where a lot of paper products can be recycled).

The bins must be labeled, of course, and in clear, bold font, what should to into the bin should be clearly indicated. For example, "White office paper" would go into one bin, and any special instructions should be included (like, "please remove staples"). Avoiding contamination is essential to a successful program.

Once the bins are in place and well-marked (a blue one if possible gives the strong impression of recycling), a company-wide email should be sent out. Of course the custodial staff must be informed, lest they mix recycle with trash. For the truly ambitious, green-thinking leader in the office, there should be an extra bin of course for aluminum and the local recycle company needs to be alerted and asked to do a pick up once a month. After each pickup of the recycled materials, that green-thinking, ambitious person should post a sign where all employees will see it (or a memo that goes out to everyone) that indicates something to the effect of: Thanks to your wonderful cooperation, our company today diverted "X" number of pounds of waste from the landfill, and also, we raised $31.44 from aluminum and glass that we can use for our coffee purchases!

The Literature -- Annotated Bibliography

Baumann, Peter. "Curbside recycling comes with education." Laramie Boomerang.

Retrieved June 17, 2011, from http://www.laramieboomerang.com. 2011.

This article presents the kind of educational outreach that was used in Laramie, Colorado, to coax residents into recycling. Laramie City Manager Janine Jordan understood that only about 15% of Laramie's population was actually recycling. Some residents were upset at having to pay $1.93 per receptacle, and they didn't like that the city forced them to participate. "Denver does it for free," some of the residents complained. Yes, Jordan replied, but Denver charges a $14 per month per household property tax that pays for the recycling. The benefits to Laramie residents can be seen as taxpayer savings, because their landfill is becoming jam-packed, and the cost of creating a new one is millions of dollars, which taxpayers will foot the bill for. So, recycling keeps tons and tons of waste out of the landfill each year; this article shows the benefits in the big picture of recycling.

BioCycle World. "New Report on Restaurant Recycling." 52.6. (2011): 1-6. Retrieved

June 17, 2011, from: http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/002359.html.

This very recent report shows positive signs that America's restaurants are getting involved in a serious way with recycling. The benefits to restaurants -- besides being fully responsible for the waste they generate vis-a-vis conservation and sustainability -- is that "the majority of consumers -- 60% -- prefer to patronize restaurants with recycling programs. In other words, responsible businesses profit because people are drawn to conservation-minded venues. In this report, a nationwide survey of 500 restaurant owners and managers reveals that "65%… have a recycling program in place, and 13% participate in composting programs." Moreover, three out of four of the 500 restaurants use bags, paper products, and food containers that are manufactured from recycled materials.

Bogdan, Jennifer. "Recycling program benefits students, environment." Observer-Dispatch.

Retrieved June 16, 2011, from http://www.uticaod.com. 2009.

An example of how recycling benefits a community is to be found in this article. Students in the Oriskany Central School District (one elementary school and a junior-senior high school) have been participating in a recycling program for the past five years. They have managed to cut waste significantly; in fact the previous contact the district had with a waste management company cost $10,500 a year, but due to the reduce amount of waste, the new contract is $2,700 less, hence a great savings for taxpayers. "Maybe it doesn't sound like that much," said superintendent of buildings and grounds, Brett LaSalle; but it the community saves money in one place they can use it in another place that benefits the children directly.

EarthTalk. "Do the Benefits of Recycling Outweigh the Costs?" About.com. Retrieved June 18,

2011, from http://environment.about.com. 2011.

Some facts about the actual costs of recycling vs. traditional disposal expenses is presented by this article, and is certainly worthy of examination: a) a well-run curbside recycling program costs between $50 and $150 per ton; b) typically a trash collection and disposal program costs between $70 to $200 per ton. When New York City discovered that it was losing money on its recycling program in 2002, it eliminated glass and plastic recycling. But then its landfills were full and closed, and out-of-state landfills raised prices so high it made sense for New York to begin recycling glass and plastic again, and today it is "an economically viable" alternative to hauling truckloads of plastic and glass to other states to ham their landfills.

EarthTalk. "Why Is Recycling Not Mandatory in All U.S. Cities?" About.com. Retrieved June

18, 2011, from http://environment.about.com. 2011.

In answer to the above-referenced question from Vicki in Geneva New York, EarthTalk responds that "Mandatory recycling is a hard sell in the United States" simply because this is a free market nation and putting waste into landfills "remains inexpensive and efficient." The fact is that putting waste in landfills still costs less than curbside recycling. That said, EarthTalk adds that numerous cities have discovered ways to recycle more economically, finding better markets for the reuse of recycled materials and "automating sorting and processing" systems. In Brooklyn New York, a new automated, streamlined sorting process is "saving money, landfill space, and the environment."

Environment Green. "Recycling Facts and the Benefits of Recycling." Retrieved June 17, 2011,

From http://www.environment-green.com.

This article explains that recycling is the process of "turning one product's useful parts into a new product" -- and it is done to promote the conservation of resources, and to lessen the pressure on overflowing landfills. One plastic bottle recycled "saves anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years in the landfill" but also saves the environment from emissions that are an inevitable part of the process of producing new bottles. Facts: about 60% of our trash thrown away could be (can be) recycled; most people don't realize plastic bottles are made from oil, the same oil used to make gasoline, not an unlimited resource; and global warming isn't a theory, it's a scientific fact, and recycling reduces carbon footprints that contribute to climate change.

Environmental Protection Agency. "Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal

in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2009." Retrieved June 19, 2011, from http://www.epa.gov. 2010.

In a fact-heavy paper, the Environmental Protection Agency, which has been collecting data on the generation of waste and the disposal of waste materials for thirty years, reports that Americans in 2009 generated "about 243 million tons of trash" and also "recycled and composted 82 million tons of this material." That adds up to a recycling rate of 33.8% the EPA says in this article. That is an enormous improvement over the estimated 10% of municipal solid waste that was recycled / composted in 1980. In 2009, for the average American on an average day, he or she generated about 4.34 pounds of waste and recycles or composts 1.46 pounds of those 4.34 pounds. This article reports the facts of recycling in the U.S., analyzes the progress that recycling has made over the years, and breaks down the kinds of waste (the "municipal solid waste" MSW) that are part of recycling programs. In the reusable category (like glass, plastic, wood, and paper) the EPA offers statistics that clearly show recycling has benefits. To wit, in 2009: 31% of glass containers were recycled; 14% of plastic containers were recycled; 22% of wood packaging (think wood pallets) was recycled; 88% of newspapers were recycled; 54% of magazines were recycled; 37% of telephone books and 33% of books were also recycled.

Fobes, Jeff. "City of Ashville wins 'Best Local Government Recycling Program.'" Mountain

Express. Retrieved June 17, 2011, from http://www.mountainx.com. 2011.

While Laramie is grabbling with coaxing its residents to use curbside recycling, the city of Asheville, South Carolina has received an award for its excellent recycling program. The city has a "strong history of providing recycling options" for citizens, and that is borne out by the fact that "80% of its residents" currently participate in recycling. In this case, the benefits go beyond conservation and reducing the materials that find they way to the landfill; indeed, when a city receives an award related to preserving the environment, it defines it ad an elite modern American city, a positive bragging point for businesses and chambers of commerce.

Guiterrez, Melinda, and Johnson, Cheryl 'Shae.' "Why Save a Can?" Science Activities. 46.1.

(2009): 7-11.

Rain forests and recycling aluminum are the main themes in this journal article. As a way of pointing out another benefit of recycling, this article was chosen because it has a direct link from recycling a can to helping preserve a vital cog in the natural world -- rainforests. The authors believe that showing children the benefit of recycling an aluminum can -- in other words, bringing science into an environmental education class -- helps prepare them for a life that can lead to sustainable practices. The students in this class learn that aluminum is the second most used metal in the world, and that recycling aluminum saves "… 95% of the energy needed to produce new aluminum from raw materials." Where do rainforests come into the issue of recycling? First, rainforests produce enormous quantities of oxygen; second, rainforests provide habitat for an amazing diversity of valuable wildlife and vegetation; third, many medicines that help people heal come from rainforest plants (70% of all cancer medicines come from rainforests); and fourth, bauxite, needed to produce aluminum, is found in rainforests. Hence, recycling aluminum cans and other aluminum products reduces the need to mine bauxite, and that means rainforests do not need to be exploited as much.

Haldeman, Tracey, and Turner, Jeanine Warisse. "Implementing a Community-Based Social

Marketing Program to Increase Recycling." Social Marketing Quarterly (SMq), XV.3,

(2009): 114-125.

In addition to the many environmental and social benefits to recycling, one county in Maryland makes a profit from recycling. According to Haldeman, et al., this particular county (not named) earned $1.8 million from their recycling program, as residents in the country have been recycling waste at an average rate of 30% for the past 17 years. But that wasn't as good as the county believed it could do, since the landfills were overflowing and the issue of global climate change was alerting citizens to the need to conserve at greater degrees of participation. So in 2008 the county launched a marketing campaign; they used public relations, advertising, direct mail and "community outreach to county schools," and the result was a rate of 50%, up twenty percent from pervious years. The article delves into nuts and bolts of marketing -- which includes the above-mentioned strategies as well as door-to-door educational efforts by volunteers during which residents were asked to "sign a commitment to recycle at least 50% of their waste -- and if the steps indicated by the authors are truly followed, any community can have financial and conservation-related success in the same way the Maryland county accomplished its goals.

Hamilton, Carey. "Industries, consumers all benefit through recycling." The Journal Gazette.

Retrieved June 18, 2011, from EBSCO.

Carey Hamilton is Executive Director of the Indiana Recycling Coalition. She notes that the state froze recycling funds -- gleaned from landfill fees -- that were intended for recycling projects. She asserts that there are currently "…thousands of Hoosiers employed in manufacturing aluminum, glass, plastic, paper and steel" and hence, building on this sector of the economy will help Indiana manufacturers "become more competitive" in the global market.

Johnston, Melinda. "Recycling brings money to Bain: Company pays for recyclable items to benefit school (Mint Hill). The Charlotte observer. Retrieved June 18, 2011, from EBSCO. 2011.

Schools can benefit from recycling even when it is done on a very modest program. For example, Bain Elementary School Art Teacher Carrie Vizzini earned money for her class through the TerraCycle program (that is available to any nonprofit organization). What Vizzini did was have students save and collect juice cartons; the TerraCycle Company advertises on the backs of the juice pouches that they will pay 2 cents per returned pouch. In two years' time, thanks to an expanded program of recycling a number of items, teachers at Bain received $2,500 (used for supplies for several classes). They had turned in (from home and school) 83,575 juice pouches; 27,555 plastic sandwich bags; 11,528 chips bags; 2,511 corks; 2,071 cookie wrappers; 1,710 energy bar wrappers; and 1,354 writing instruments.

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "Recycling." Retrieved June 18, 2010, from http://www.nrdc.org/enterprise/greeningadvisor/wm-recycling.asp.

The NRDC is among the most prestigious and visible environmental / conservation organizations in the United States. This article explains that it is "less polluting" to manufacture products from "recovered materials" than it is to produce the identical products from "newly harvested or extracted virgin materials." For example, the article explains, creating paper products from recycled fibers has these benefits: it uses less energy; it uses less water; and it produces far less "air and water pollution" than producing paper from trees. Obviously it also saves trees as well as costing less money than it would to take down trees and go through the expensive process. The article makes it plain that companies can save money and help the environment by reusing shipping materials -- like Styrofoam, bubble wrap, and loose polystyrene fill (those packing "peanuts") -- in the next round of shipping. In addition, the NRDC reports that a number of recyclable items "can be sold on the market and be a source of revenue," which is yet another benefit from the process of recycling.

Nigbur, Dennis, Lyons, Evanthia, and Uzzell, David. "Attitudes, norms, identity and environmental behaviour: Using an expanded theory of planned behaviour to predict participation in a kerbside recycling programme. British Journal of Social Psychology.

Vol. 49 (2010): 259-284.

This article examines the subject of planned behavior, on a psychological level, so it is more theoretical and even esoteric to the lay person. But it makes some good points with reference to how a neighborhood recycling program may be "productive" in creating a feeling within neighbors that they are now identified as activist in the conservation movement. Using several pages of narrative explaining the various approaches to planned behaviour, the authors explain their research. The authors received completed questionnaires from 531 households in Guildford, Surrey (UK), which dovetailed with a community participation monitoring exercise regarding the intentions of citizens to recycle, and gathered data from the number of citizens that actually put out their green box with recycled materials, the authors' psychological model indicated that the following are predictors of participation in recycling: a) self-identity; b) personal norms; c) neighborhood identification; and d) "injunctive and descriptive social norms."

Starks, Elbert. "Mayor explains economic benefits of 1-cart recycling." Fort Wayne News-

Sentinel. Retrieved June 17, 2011, from EBSCO.

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, the mayor has rolled out an easier way for citizens to recycle. He has announced a pro-active program in which residents that opt in to the plan receive a cart that "eliminates the need for sorting items like paper from plastics." So instead of a blue cart for one kind of recycled materials, and a green one for others, and gray for trash, users can now put all their recycled materials (except composting materials and electronic materials) into one bin. Moreover the mayor, Tom Henry, announced that every resident would receive a pre-paid postcard to fill in and mail back to the city if they wish to opt-in to the "One Cart Recycling" program. The benefits? The city gets "50% of profits from the sales of recycled material."

U.S. Department of Energy. "Recycling of Electronics or Equipment." Retrieved June 18, 2011,

From http://management.energy.gov/Recycling_of_equipment.htm. 2010.

Not all recycling involves aluminum cans, plastic and paper. The federal government urges citizens to recycle their out-dated or non-working electronic equipment. Why? The benefit of turning these items into the proper facilities is that electronics have: a) "large quantities of reusable materials that can be extracted for valuable use"; and b) electronic equipment is known to have "hazardous materials" which can pose a threat to human health, and to the environment. This article offers assistance in terms of links to places to dispose of electronics that will allow those technologies to be handled in an "environmentally sound manner."

Conclusion

The reasons for recycling materials are many and they are more important every year that the world's landfills overflow and the temperature of the planet rises. There are myriad benefits to be realized from recycling, not the least of which is from the point-of-view of conservation. Saving paper, glass, plastic and aluminum makes a lot more sense than dumping those used items in landfills. Moreover, as presented in this research paper, it takes a great deal more energy to produce a new aluminum can than it does to recycle an existing aluminum can. Until every community in the United States is operating a recycling program -- either mandated or voluntary -- the country will not be doing all it can to reduce waste, conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gases and reclaim existing materials.

Works Cited (in addition to the annotated bibliography)

Chertow, Marian. "The Ecology of Recycling." United Nations. Retrieved June 18, 2011, from http://www.un.org.

Granger, Trey. "Start a Work Recycling Program." Earth911. Retrieved June 18, 2011, from http://earth911.com/news/2010/05/31/start-a-work-recycling-program/.

World Health Organization. "Reducing your Carbon Footprint can be Good for your Health."

Retrieved June 18, 2011, from http://www.who.int/en.