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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Communities should reconsider walking away from curbside recycling, study shows [ufl.edu]:

Curbside recycling can compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions from garbage destined for landfills, says a new study that encourages towns and cities to continue offering recycling services to meet their climate goals.

The study's authors took a deep dive into the economic and environmental value of community recycling efforts and compared it to the value of other climate change mitigation practices. They concluded that recycling provides a return on investment similar to or better than environmentally friendly strategies like transitioning to electric vehicles or purchasing green power, which is electricity from clean, renewable energy sources.

[...] Towns and cities across the country have canceled or scaled back recycling programs due to rising costs. Recent restrictions on recyclable material collected by major international markets have contributed to the cost increase, according to the study, which was published today in Nature Sustainability.

[...] When recycling markets were most lucrative in 2011, U.S. recycling costs were as little as $3 a year per household. Beginning in 2018 and through 2020, tighter restrictions went into place and the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the markets, and the cost for recycling ranged from $34 to $42. The study asserts that even with higher costs, the investment offsets the greenhouse gas emissions from non-recycled waste buried in landfills.

Townsend and Anshassi say that if local governments restructure their curbside recycling programs to target materials with the greatest market value and the highest potential for carbon offset, recycling can pay for itself and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They identify higher-value materials as newspaper, cardboard, aluminum and steel cans, and HDPE and PET plastic bottles.

[...] Researchers also suggest that local and state governments could implement policies to help relieve the cost burden of recycling, like establishing a minimum amount of recyclable materials that manufacturers must use in packaging or products and placing some of the responsibility for recycling costs on the manufacturers.

"If we learn collectively to recycle better, we can reduce the costs to pretty much break even," Townsend says. "From an environmental perspective, that's a good return on your investment."

Journal Reference:
Anshassi, M., Townsend, T.G. The hidden economic and environmental costs of eliminating kerb-side recycling. Nat Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01122-8 [doi.org]

Original Submission