Is Household Recycling Worth it? This Might Surprise You

There are so many mixed opinions about recycling and if recycling really makes a difference. The answer is mixed, it is different for each material recycled and here’s why.

It might be surprising to see that some materials are not worth recycling according to recent studies. Keep reading to hear about some new research.

Plastic – Recycle or Send to a Managed Landfill?

Plastic is the biggest controversial material to recycle. Obviously the best course of action for our pretty blue planet is to stop using so much plastic in the first place. But since plastic is part of the way we live we need to learn how to deal with it.

Plastic can only be recycled up to 9 times. Typically, a food grade plastic container cannot be made out of plastic that has already been recycled a few times. Although new plastic water bottles CAN be made from recycled PET, it is rare that they are. The reality is that new plastic is being created for food grade products. “Downcycled” plastic is being used for toys and carpets and clothing but at what cost?

In the recent past, most of our household plastic traveled across the world to be recycled in China and other countries. When China changed their rules about the quality of the materials they would accept, many countries like Canada and the USA were stuck sending plastic containers to landfills. In Canada only 9% of what people put in their blue boxes actually gets recycled.

The cost of creating new plastic is less than the cost of transporting recycling in trucks and boats and building machines to sort and process the material to make it into a downcycled product.

A recent study at MIT shows that the benefit for recycling in terms of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions is very, very low. In his book “More From Less”, MIT researcher Andrew McAfee says that we should stop worrying about recycling plastic and focus on environmentally friendly energy sources like nuclear power. Plastic is a very small problem compared to the heavily polluting oil and gas companies; diverting funding away from them should be our focus.

Most of the plastic that is put to the curb from households is already going to the landfill because the market for this material is not very big. Of the plastic that gets sold to the very small market, it has a large cost for transportation and the cost of building recycling facilities. Only to be put in the landfill after a couple of trips around the world to be downcycled products.

More and more scientists agree that the energy, cost and environmental impact of attempting to recycle plastic is worse than simply sending it to a landfill. In fact, some landfills in Japan are collecting the methane produced from the waste in landfills and they are now considered a clean energy source.

The Cost of Recycling Paper

Recycling paper is a good thing. One tree only makes about 8300 pieces of paper. One 15 year old tree would only make about 700 paper grocery bags. Newspapers alone use more than 500,000 trees each week. It is important to reuse paper as much as possible to reduce the number of trees cut down.

The process of recycling is fairly easy. It takes 40% less energy to recycle paper vs create new paper. Paper mills that produce new paper from trees are one of the worst polluters of any industry. It causes 35% more water pollution and 74% more air pollution than the process of recycling paper.

Unfortunately, each time paper is recycled the quality is degraded. In fact, paper can only be recycled 6 times. But the market for downcycled paper products is good enough to make it worth recycling paper.

Glass Recycling is not Worth it

Glass is a tricky material. Although it is highly recyclable, there are several issues with the recycling process. Many areas are cancelling their curbside pickup of glass because it simply is not worth it.

The obvious issue with recycling glass is that it breaks and broken glass not accepted to be recycled. Many areas still use the single stream recycling systems whereby you put all types of recycle materials in the same bin and they get sorted at a facility. The glass can break and contaminate the entire recycling bin (plastic, paper and metals now go to the landfill).

Even if the glass makes it through the recycling plant sorted well, it then has to be shipped somewhere else to get recycled. Glass is heavy which puts a toll on the shipping costs (monetary and environmental).

The good news is that the bottle return programs are successful. Beer bottles that are returned to a center that buys them from you will get reused or recycled. The technology for sorting, cleaning and reusing or recycling bottles is worth it.

Metal Recycling

Recycling of aluminum and other metals is definitely worth it. The process of mining an processing the raw materials to make a new pop can is very costly. This resource is so valuable that the returned value for cans is even going up! When you return a can to a Return-It center in BC, you will now get 10 cents instead of 5 cents.

The market for aluminum bales is hot! According to Quinte Waste Systems in Ontario, 1 bale of aluminum cans can sell for $20,000.

An aluminum can can be recycled and put back on the shelf as a new product within 2 months. It is fairly lightweight and saves 95% of the energy required to make the product from virgin materials.

Steel cans are also highly recyclable and they can be recycled indefinitely with no loss of quality. Most steel cans have a paper label which usually do not need to be removed first. It is generally a low quality of paper so it is not worth the time to remove it and recycle it.

How CAN I Make a Difference?

Everybody has heard of the 3-R’s, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. If people can focus more on the first two before getting to recycling we can make a difference. You can learn about living a zero waste lifestyle and try to implement some of those practices.

If you are going to consume products with packaging, try to reuse the jars, plastic containers and paper before recycling. Glass jars are great for shopping in the bulk section or at zero waste stores. Definitely recycle your metal cans and return your beer and wine bottles at the appropriate centers.

When you wash out your recyclables, be sure to use cold water.

If you want to get more involved, research ways to reduce your consumption of oil and gas as those seem to be the bigger issues with our environment.

Is Burning Plastic Worth it?

Burning waste has been going on for many years. The European Union burns 42% of its waste. This can even produce enough heat and steam to generate some electricity.

Perhaps burning the plastic will have some benefits of preventing the plastics form going to a landfill and generating a bit of energy but it is not a sustainable solution.

In recent years the plastics and chemical industry are attempting to change policies in the USA to promote “plastic-to-fuel” (PTF) as a fix to the plastic waste problem. PTF is problematic because greenhouse gases are still produced when turning it into fuel. The PTF factories pollute water and air and have their own solid waste products as a result.

Zero wasters are concerned about the rise in research into safe ways to incinerate plastics because it could increase our reliance on plastic. New plastic will still be created by using fossil fuels in this linear economy. Their stand is that we should have choices to consume without packaging at all.