Matters of Scale - The Money in Recycling
Average price an American community could get for 1 ton of used newspapers collected for recycling in early 1994 | 2 |
Average price it could get in early 1995* | 44 |
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"Stop acting like garbage men!" -New York state Recycling official William Ferretti, advising waste haulers to recognize that their once-disparaged disposal service has turned into a hot business opportunity. | |
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Average price an American community could get for 1 ton of used corrugated cardboard boxes in early 1994 | 14 |
Average price it could get in early 1995* | 70 |
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"It's time we stopped turning up our noses at the nation's garbage dumps and started appreciating them for what they really are - the municipal mines, forests, oil wells and energy sources of the future." -Max Spendlove, quoted in National Civic Review, paraphrasing a statement in Jane Jacobs' The Economy of Cities (1969). | |
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Average price an American community could get for one ton of HDPE (High density polyethylene) plastic collected for recycling in early 1992 | 20 |
Average price it could get in early 1995* | 82 |
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"The thing I want to emphasize is the vast difference between recycling for the purpose of feeling good and recycling for the purpose of solving the trash problem." -Barry Commoner in Orion Nature Quarterly, Winter 1990 | |
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Average amount it cost the city of Seattle, Washington to dispose of a ton of nonrecyclable municipal waste in April, 1995 | 105 |
Average amount it cost the city to collect and process a ton of recyclables | 28 |
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Sources: Prices of paper, cardboard, and plastic from Recycling Times; Prices of disposal in Seattle from City of Seattle, personal communication; "garbage men" quote, personal communication from William Ferretti. Compiled by John Young.