Is There Cash in Our Trash?

Amber Fatzinger

Professor Sandra Kerns

Intro to Business

14 September 2016

Is There Cash in Our Trash?

        As humans, we all generate a great amount of trash in our daily lives. The faster we generate this trash the faster we run out of places to put it, and thus the faster we need to find alternatives. One alternative that is becoming widely popular socially is recycling, and in the past not only was it an alternative to trash but it was a good way to earn pocket change for families. Now though the pocket change pro of recycling is no longer prevalent, cities and companies are still working the recycling option to avoid filling up the landfills.

The city of New York, a large trash generator, is an example of a city who jumped on board the recycling train. Much to the city officials’ despair, the costs to actually recycle materials vastly outweighed the revenue to be earned from it. Is some cases for some materials it cost 30% more than earned to actually recycle, and it was just cheaper for producing companies to use new materials rather than reused ones. Some companies now use a method of closed loop recycling instead, attempting to reduce the costs of the recycling. The companies are getting creative and taking the opportunity to create a market to utilize their recyclables in. A small number of people opt to having government involvement similar to other countries in the world, putting forth regulations for minimum recycling amounts or having the government find the cost effective markets to put the recyclables from certain companies to use.

New York City mayor made an announcement on this past Earth Day about changes to come in the future for their recycling and trash programs. This included a 10-year plan to reduce wastes almost 100%. His future ideology may be a little too late, as the current trash situation has become out of control. “New York City trash bags often pile up on the sidewalk, their contents strewn out onto the streets. The sheer volume of trash is enormous” (Misra, Tanvi). Of this trash, very little of it is actually recycled and the main culprit of garbage generation seems to be commercial. In this newfound plan of the mayors the goal is to attempt single-steam recycling methods and composting or to restrict sales on materials that cannot be recycled or composted. Those companies that comply may receive tax breaks, while those which do not may receive fines and fees. Citing Tanvi Misra’s article again, other cities have done it with success so it’s time the Big Apple gets with the program.

New York, like many places, may not be so on board with recycling due to its high costs with little return. It can sometimes cost five times more to recycle a ton of waste than it would be to send it off to a landfill, and as previously mentioned the costs to collect and process these wastes as recyclables can be a higher figure than what the financial return is. While the environmental benefits are there as a general sense there are negative impacts as well. Less pollution is released with recycling than with trash disposal, but it can be considerably more toxic after running the recycling plants than it would be leaving the materials in a landfill or incinerating them.  Toxic waste leftover then also runs the risk of affecting bodies of water if not handled properly (Cost-Benefit Analysis). Then one must take into consideration the additional truck fleets releasing gases into the ozone as they are necessary in keeping recyclables separate from trashes. When landfills are properly controlled, though filling fast, these expenses and risks are decreased a considerable amount, leaving recycling as the least economical, potentially more damaging, and much more stressful way after sorting to dispose of wastes.