IS RECYCLING COST EFFECTIVE?

In elementary school, you may have heard the phrase

Reduce, reuse, recycle. With current rates of
sustainability, this phrase may become more relevant
than chanting the phrase in a third year classroom. As
a reminder, recycling is the process of changing a
used product into one or more usable products. This is
usually done by melting down or grinding up the
original product and re-purposing it. Recycling isnt
just a boost for the environment, though it can be
beneficial to your pockets, as well.
Humankind has been recycling for much of its time
here. It has been a practice since at least 400 BC.
During WWI and WWII, recycling was cost-effective
even then as it made new equipment for the war.
However, manufacturing has gotten much more
efficient over the last 50 years, so the question
arises: is recycling cost-effective?
http://www.allgreenrecycling.com

Recycling Creates Jobs

Recycling creates more jobs than landfill sites. According to the

U.S. Recycling Economic Informational Study, over 50,000
recycling plants have created over a million jobs in the United
States. In a time where the amount of jobs is limited, this is a
priceless resource all on its own. For comparison, the United
States Environmental Protection Agencys studies have
concluded that for every 10,000 tons of waste dumped into a
landfill, one job is created. However, for the same amount of
waste going to a recycling plant creates 10 jobs specifically
recycling, or 75 jobs pertaining to material reuse. The Green
Economy Survey for California states that recycling jobs create
a substantial 27% of the 433,000 green economy jobs in the
state. These jobs are held by a wide demographic, including
retirees, veterans, and military personnel.

http://www.allgreenrecycling.com

Recycling Lowers
Landfill Costs
Additionally, recycling cuts landfill costs. Building a new
landfill incurs several costs between $500,000 to $1,000,000
for the design and engineering alone. The lining what keeps
waste from seeping into the ground and contaminating it
will cost about $75,000 per acre. This money comes from tax
funds, meaning that taxpayers are the ones who fund these
expensive facilities. Even if no new landfills were made, it still
costs millions of dollars per year to run. A solution to this has
actually been implemented in Sweden for the last decade:
burn landfill waste for energy. This has proven so effective
that Sweden is looking to import trash from other countries
because they have little left to burn. This saves money in two
departments, both energy and waste.

http://www.allgreenrecycling.com

E-Recycling Lowers
One
very important method
of recycling that many
Manufacturing
Costs

people overlook is e-recycling. E-recycling is the specific

recycling of things like old cell phones, CDs, floppy
discs, old cables and cords, and much more.
Considering how fast our technology is growing, older
devices can become obsolete within a year. So what to
do with them? Some store these older devices to use as
a backup, some trade their old devices for new ones,
and some simply throw them away. According to Duke
University, e-recycling costs are a fraction of those
incurred simply disposing the material. This makes
recycling very cost-effective for many businesses,
making it more attractive to upgrade outdated, slower
machines.
Another form of recycling that is often overlooked is
scrap. For example, at the time of this writing, on
average aluminum cans can be traded in for $0.35 per
pound. For anything above 100 pounds, this comes up
to $0.35 Aluminum wire sells for between $0.26 to
$0.58. Old automobile batteries can be sold for $7, and
many other metals such as lead, copper, brass and iron
sell for $1 a pound and up.

http://www.allgreenrecycling.com

In short, recycling our waste, be it on a small scale in

the home or office or on a large scale like the nations
landfills will potentially cut millions of dollars a year
millions of dollars that can be put into other important
programs. Is recycling cost-effective? It saves tax

Questions? Comments?
We are happy to help you!

Website: http://www.allgreenrecycling.com
All Green Recycling
info@allgreenrecycling.com
(800) 780-0347

Source:

http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161
/296
(pdf)
http://www.epa.gov/region9/newsletter/feb2011/gre
enjobs.html
http://dnr.mo.gov/env/swmp/pubs-reports/rececon.h
tm
https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Recycling#Cost.E2.8
0.93benefit_analysis
http://www.allgreenrecycling.com/blog/is-recycling-co
st-effective/