| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 09:41:58 -0500 (EST) From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Recycling costs (Cheryl France)
March 17, 1999
Dear Cheryl France,
You may think that you are asking a simple question when you ask to compare the costs of recycling vs. trash disposal, but phrased as you have phrased it, it is a severely complex question instead. It has been answered here at GRN (and is in the archives) several times before, but in several different ways:
recycling operating costs vs. landfilling operating costs
recycling collection costs vs. landfilling-destined operating costs
recycling environmental costs vs. landfilling or incineration environmental costs
recycling environmental and economic costs vs. same in landfilling vs. same in incineration.
The answer is further complicated by geography:
In Massachusetts, currently, getting rid of trash in landfills costs about $68 per ton; recycling's direct cost is about $48 per ton, not including cost savings.
However, in a state with large as yet unused landfill capacity such as Utah, trash dumping costs will be as low as $15 per ton.
Energy costs are also a factor. Transportation costs are much the same for collection of trash vs. collection of recyclables.
I refer you to an older study to get both further educated about your question and possible economic answers, see Data Summary of Municipal Solid Waste Management Alternatives: Executive Summary (or full report) by National Renewable Energy Lab,(US Dept. of Energy) and SRI International,
published in 8/92 under document # NREL/TP-431-4988 NREL address: 1617 Cole Blvd, Golden, CO 80401. By now it may be distributed only by NTIS.
Concerning golf courses, the far more important concerns than recycling are pesticide pollution of water resources, nitrite (fertilizer) contamination of groundwater, erosion and sedimentation of streams and lakes. Water recycling is the recycling of most concern. A good source, though probably difficult to find is the Summer, 1993 issue of a newsletter called Wetlands Watch put out by a law firm called Robinson Cole, 1 Commercial Plaza, Hartford, CT 06103.
- Research Library for RCRA