Recycling programs in cities, towns, and villages are becoming increasingly common, and news about recycling and reusing is seen every day. Most citizens feel that they are contributing to saving their planet and decreasing greenhouse gases by carefully sorting their garbage and waste products in their respective recycling programs. Yet some critics wonder if recycling is simply an activity that makes us feel virtuous but wastes both money and resources.
For example, when scientists compare how much energy a recycling plant consumes and the quantities of fumes it emits into the atmosphere when recycling plastic water bottles, it is comparable to the expenditure of petroleum that was used to make the offensive item. They ask if society is really gaining anything.
And the cost of recycling is under suspicion too. Rumours exist that suggest cities are paying exorbitant costs to get rid of recyclables, actually doubling the energy consumption and pollution while costing taxpayers more money that if it were disposed of as garbage. The expense takes funds away from much-needed social and other programs while making politicians and environmental organizations look good.
But environmental organizations dispute the accusations, including the Natural Resources Defence Council and the Environmental Defence, which each issued reports showing the reduced pollution and decreased amounts of garbage going into landfills at less than the cost of regular garbage disposal. Read the full reports at www.nrdc.org/ and www.edf.org/. And the US Environmental Protection Agency has added that in its findings, a well-run curb-side recycling program costs from $50 to $150 per ton while trash collection and disposal costs from $70 to more than $200 per ton. It is possible that early curb-side programs were not cost-effective but municipalities learned how to increase their efficiency as they gained experience and today taxpayers should be saving money by recycling.
In Canada, the average resident recycled 112 kilograms in 2004, up from 71 kilograms in 2000, according to a Statistics Canada report. The increase is linked to better access to recycling programs across the country, and especially impressive when noting that Canadians were also producing greater quantities of waste as households across the country sent nearly 3.6 million tonnes of materials for recycling in 2004, an increase of 65 per cent compared to 2000. The report found that the majority of households in Canada's provinces that had access to community recycling programs used them, irrespective of household income, education or type of home. The generally-rising cost of landfilling has contributed to growth of recycling programs, with costs internalized by levying taxes on waste as was done recently in Toronto.
The controversy could be lessened by the public’s attempt, at home and in the office, to reduce and reuse wherever possible, and only then considering recycling. There is much each citizen can do individually to prevent the planet from travelling the destructive path upon which it presently seems destined to follow.
