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of a plastic recycling industry and the construction of more plastic reprocess- ing facilities. However, the industry is under threat from the overseas demand for plastic. Foster adds: “China is offer- ing very good prices for plastic bottles, and that is making it difficult to develop the indigenous processing business. At the moment, around three-quarters of all plastic bottles in the U.S. go to export, so the bottom line is that we simply need to collect more bottles.” Of course, that will depend on how consumers respond to calls to recycle more.
„„
steel is that it is available in huge quan- tities, at least in the Western world; and being magnetic, it is the easiest and most cost-effective mineral to extract from the waste stream. Heenan adds: “We have a head start on countries like China and India in terms of the availability of scrap steel, and this has fuelled the market and driven up prices because these countries desperately need the steel. The challenge for us is to develop new technology that will find more efficient and cost-effective ways of extracting and recycling steel to ensure that we can continue to help meet energy and climate change targets as set out in the Kyoto and Rio summits.”
„„ PLASTIC FANTASTIC
Another emerging market for the recy- cling industry is that of plastics, primarily in the form of PET, used to make drinks containers, and HDP, used in a wide range of domestic products, such as detergents and beauty products. Glob- ally, the plastics recycling industry has been playing catch-up with the paper and metals markets. 80 percent of Ameri- cans have access to plastic recycling, allowing 25 percent of plastic bottles to be recycled. Stuart Foster, a project man- ager with plastics recycling organiza- tion Recoup, says: “That figure may not sound high, but it is a huge leap forward from a decade ago, and as local author- ity recycling schemes improve, that fig- ure will continue to rise.” Encouragingly, this increase has led to the emergence
Local Action Moves the World •
www.icleiusa.org REDUCING LANDFILL
Traditionally, the U.S. has lagged behind Europe in terms of recycling and re- source recovery. An abundance of cheap, readily available landfills has not provid- ed incentives for local governments to carry the cost of resource recovery infra- structure. Thus, the secondary market is through waste exchanges, a concept that actively promotes the reuse and recy- cling of industry by-products and wastes by enabling materials discarded by one company to be reused by another. These can be production by-products, obso- lete or unused raw materials, hazardous
waste, and recyclable products. Millions of tons of material destined for the land- fill have been exchanged, leading to massive savings for companies on both disposal and material costs. However, Richard Abramowitz, head
of public relations at WM Recycle Amer- ica, believes that business should be doing more. He says: “There are a num- ber of well-publicized waste exchanges in the United States, but in general they are still not very widespread. Recycling in the U.S. is way behind other countries, especially Europe. The problem is there are no federal laws that require busi- nesses to recycle. Various states have requirements to recycle, but most of that is aimed at residential recyclables. The commercial sector is only now begin- ning to become widespread.” So what will it take to encourage busi-
nesses to buy into the concept of recycling to preserve the Earth’s precious natural re- sources? Abramowitz adds: “We are only just beginning to see the tip of the iceberg with regard to sustainability and recycling as a way to preserve our planet. Achieving higher recycling rates for businesses is only part of the issue. Many businesses are seeing sustainability as good for business, and recycling is part of that.” PE
Recycling in the U.S. is way behind other countries, especially Europe. As of now, there are no federal laws that require businesses to recycle.
PLANET EARTH \\ RECYCLING
ISTOCKPHOTO; ESTORMIZ
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