| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 97 13:54 WET From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Percentage of MSW economically recycled Re: Conversion factor of lbs to volume (Susan Snow)
January 21, 1997
Dear Susan Snow,
1. The economically feasible percentage of recycled MSW has been a topic of hot debate in the literature for at least 5 years. Especially, when US EPA or states such as RI raise their targets just as the old target is neared, this debate reoccurs.
Current consensus position appears to be that 35% on a national level where the range will be somewhere between 15% and 50% is realistic, but not all that could be done. Economically, there is just too much regional variation to make any generalization true for all areas of the US. When you consider world situations, where MSW production rates are much lower, and an organized scavenging context has been around for a very long time, the question that you ask is further muddied. In a country such as Algeria, Lebanon, or Egypt, between 80% and 90% of MSW is potentially/economically viable for recycling/reuse.
The State of Rhode Island in the period 1993-1995 suggested that 50% of MSW was recyclable in that state. A great deal of this number s feasibility depended upon commercial participation; office buildings recycling more than paper, and MSW from institutions being recycled as well. See Erica Guttman, Recycling to the max... in Resource Recycling 8/95 p. 63+.
On the other hand, former US EPA Assist. Administrator J. Winston Porter suggested in Recycling Times of 2/20/96 that the recycling rate at that time was unlikely to top 30% and in fact was never likely to. This was questioned by Michael Alexander in a position paper emanating from the Northeast Recycling Council, Brattleboro, VT. Porter s original article was called Recycling In America: The 25% Solution. If I m not mistaken Porter is now an upper echelon of WMX Corp.
Another player in this debate was/is the National Recycling Coalition.
2. Conversion factors are to be found in Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in the U.S.: 1992 Update which says they are:
Durable goods: 520 lbs/cubic yard
Paper: 800 lbs/cubic yard
Plastic: 315 lbs/cubic yard
Rubber: 345
Glass bottles: 2800
Steel containers: 560
Aluminum cans 250
Corrugated: 750
Paperboard: 820
Plastic film: 670
Wood: 800
Food wastes: 2000
The Research Library for RCRA probably has more/varying documents which state other figures. We have just received in 90 copies of the Pay As You Throw Toolkit of municipalities, which we will send a free copy of by US Postal Service to a bona fide representative of a city or town in the Northeast of the US. Requests may be made to : FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV