Why recycling is essential
By Craig Douglass
Story Link, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 22, 2018
Today is Earth Day. The first Earth Day was celebrated on this day in 1970, 48 years ago, as an environmental protection “teach-in,” with over 20 million Americans participating in cities across the country. Congress established the official recognition eight months later, and designated April 22 of every year as Earth Day. Today over 193 countries around the world will promote environmental awareness and action.
Environmental protection is a broad subject. Not without some controversy and varied opinions. However, one aspect of environmental protection on which most agree is the importance of recycling.
We believe in recycling. We also believe not only in the common-sense regulatory benefits of environmental protection, but also in the economic development and private-sector job opportunities created by recycling activities.
Recent studies show that recycling can generate three times as much revenue per ton as landfill disposal, and almost six times as many jobs. That’s because recycling and remanufacturing industries create an estimated one million manufacturing jobs throughout the country, and more than $100 billion in revenue. Recycling processing and down-stream industries are responsible for a broad range of skilled workers in a variety of jobs from materials handling to high-quality product manufacturing.
In Arkansas, through the activities managed by the state’s 18 solid waste management districts, recycling programs are growing or, at least, the opportunity to grow these activities and their economic development impact currently exists. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality partners with districts such as ours – the Regional Recycling & Waste Reduction District in Pulaski County and the nine-county Inter-District Tire Management Program – to continually look for ways to turn recycling and the beneficial use of recyclable materials into private-sector jobs. And that’s good for the Arkansas environment we all share, as well as individual local economies.
First things first. With regard to the recycling part of our mission to protect the public health and the environment by promoting reduce, reuse and recycling strategies, the first thing we need to concentrate on is improving the recycling participation rate in our communities. The recycling rate is figured as the relationship between what is recycled and the total waste stream. Today that rate ranges from zero in some communities to 36 percent in Pulaski County to upwards of 45 percent in other jurisdictions, including an estimated 45.5 percent recycling rate statewide. Good, but not good enough.
The second focus is a complement to the first: reducing the contamination rate of curbside recyclable collection. That means informing and educating residential customers about what goes in their recycling cart, and what should be left out. The contamination of sorted and baled materials like plastic, paper and metal, directly relates to the successful and cost-effective marketing of recyclables to manufacturers.
Thirdly, more difficult commodities to recycle, like tires and electronics, could be dealt with through broad-based strategies. In Arkansas, we are addressing the waste tire problem that plagues our state by participating in a new, district-by-district Tire Accountability Program and, eventually, an extra-large tire program from possibly a statewide perspective. It’s a work in progress, but we are making progress, to be sure.
The essential element in all recycling is the individual. Individual residential households, as well as individual businesses and industries. Together, participation and “doing recycling right,” makes it work. (Check out MyDoRight.com.) Without educated, informed and actively involved consumers, recycling simply will not fulfill the environmental and economic development promise it holds for our state and nation.
Today is Earth Day. It’s the perfect day to realize that the combination of protecting our shared environment and the opportunity to positively impact our economic development and private-sector job creation through recycling is a natural. And Arkansas is The Natural State.
Craig Douglass is a marketing communications consultant and serves as executive director of the Regional Recycling & Waste Reduction District in Pulaski County.