TABLE OF CONTENTS Harold Leverenz
Frank Kreith
Diminishing landfill space and concern about pollution from landfills and incinerators led to a reevaluation of waste disposal practices in the 1980s. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle became the challenge during the 1990s. The public embraced recycling because it felt a sense of pride in their belief that recycling is beneficial for environmental quality. To many citizens, the act of recycling consisted of placing solid waste in containers to be picked up by a waste collector and taken to a recycling center. Organizations involved in recycling soon discovered, however, that the collection of recyclable material is only the beginning of a circular process in which recyclable resources must be sold and used to make new products and buyers for the recycled products must be found (Fig. 9.1). Today, recycling faces a new and different challenge: sufficient recycling markets to financially sustain collection programs must be developed and maintained.
Despite the many advantages obtainable from developing an effective recycling process, experience has shown that several barriers hinder the development of effective recycling markets:
Lack of consumer awareness about recycled products.
Lack of consumer confidence in the quality of products made from recycled materials.
The social costs and benefits are not reflected in the price of products. Despite environmental advantages, recycled products are generally more expensive than their counterparts made from virgin materials.
The high cost of transporting recyclables from the point of collection...
