| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 98 09:13 WET From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Information on the economics of the recycling industry (Golman Eslick)
Feb. 3, 1998
Dear Golman Eslick,
There is no shortage of information on the economics of recycling, of the economics of various materials' recycling, etc. Primary source documents are best, so that you can make up your own mind. The primary sources are on the state of markets and prices paid for various recyclable materials out of the mainstream. Recycling Times published by Waste Age will give you this, as will Waste Age, especially, their annually produced state of recycling (one is also done by Biocycle Magazine) each Spring. Recycling Times will also provide you with a biweekly snapshot of prices paid for recyclables.
Secondary sources:
Recycling: Looking Beyond the Bottom Line by Frank Ackerman, Biocycle, 5/97. (Ackerman's book Why Do We Recycle?: Markets, Values and Public Policies (Island Press, 1997) is also valuable.
How Boston Stacks Up? by Masspirg. Contact: Amy Perry at 617-292-4800. It's a 1997 report of how 13 US cities recycling programs compare with a focus on Boston.
Recycling Means Business in Baltimore, D.C. and Richmond: Analysis of the Current and Potential Economic Benefits of Recycling in the National Capital Area, by Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Washington, DC (Authors: Brnda Platt, et. al, 1/95
Many documents by the Northeast Recycling Council of the Council of State Governments (e.g. on the paper industry, on finance of recycling businesses). Contact Ed Boisson at 802-254-3636.
A full set of sources is now being prepared by them: the most complete bibliography of sources on recycled specific industries/materials is in Preliminary Draft form of their Recycling Economic Information Project
A Market Assessment of the Use of Recycled Resins in Iowa Plastic Companies 6/96. This is on the web under Survey of Iowa Plastic Industry by REDA/Recycle Iowa
I would also recommend that you look at recycling economics information from 1991 when the effects of recession hit this then fledgling industry and nearly destroyed it. Some of the articles from this period of which we are aware are:
Surviving a recession in Recycling Today, 8/91, p. 42+
Indications Improving in Recycling Today, 8/15/92, p. 36+
Year in Review: Meager Recovery in 1992 in Recycling Today, 12/92, p. 44+
There really are very many more nominees of better and equal value. However, if this is a school assignment, you must do the rest of this work and these leads get you well begun.
- Research Library for RCRA