It might seem hard to believe, but most of the used glass, paper, metal and plastic that consumers leave curbside actually does get recycled, the Economist says. And by and large, it makes sense to do so.
The sight of recycling trucks picking up recyclables often makes people wonder whether the transportation of waste materials requires more effort than it is worth. And ironically, doubts have increased as recycling technology has grown more sophisticated, with machines able to do the sorting once left to consumers. Consumers in the U.S. and in Western Europe have sharply increased their recycling in the past few decades: Americans today recycle 32% of their municipal trash, compared with only 9.6% in 1980. And while recycling costs money, and uses energy, a recent review of 55 separate analyses showed that recycling is better for the environment 83% of the time. Some products fare better than others: Glass and metals can be recycled almost indefinitely, and usually with great benefits — recycling aluminum, for example, requires 95% less energy than manufacturing it. Plastic has a more complicated after-life, with much of it being down-cycled into other products that eventually find their way to landfills.
Meanwhile, prices of recyclable materials have been rising as the glut of recycled materials has eased, though outside of urban areas, the costs of collecting and sorting materials often exceeds the revenue from selling the recyclables. Lately, much of the demand for recyclables has come from China, a controversial issue for many environmentalists. But waste experts tell the Economist that materials are shipped on boats that otherwise would return empty to Asia. What’s more, many developing countries have achieved significant economies of scale by using imported recycled materials in factories.
But sometimes, the desire to recycle still far exceeds the demand. Britain, for example, is the world’s largest importer of wine, but makes almost no wine of its own, creating a mountain of used green glass. To right the imbalance while protecting the environment, one new program organizes imports of wine in 24,000-liter containers, and then bottles it in Britain. Oenophiles might cringe, but it puts those empty bottles to good use. – Wendy Pollack