The future of recycling in the United States

摘要

In recent months, both the solid waste industry press and mainstream media in the United States (including Fortune, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post) have called attention to the growing 'ills' of recycling (Davis, 2015; Groden, 2015; Whelan, 2015). In short, the common theme of these articles is that recycling in the USA has stalled and the situation is dire. How dire is it? Industry executives have opined that prices for recycling commodities have largely fallen to the point over the past several years that it is no longer economical for them to process many (or even most) recyclables for sale and shipment to their largely Asian markets, which set standards for toleration of contaminants (also known as the 'Green Fence'). For example, some of the USA's largest materials recovery facility (MRF) operators, such as Recycle America and Republic Services, and ReCommunity have 'mothballed' recently operating facilities or delayed capital investment owing to declining revenues that now preclude profitable operations. Those who provide solid waste management advisory services to public agencies and private firms traditionally have advocated for increased recycling as a foundation for achieving regional sus-tainability (also called a 'circular economy'). But now many practitioners and city leaders in both the USA and elsewhere in the world are asking, 'Is this situation a momentary blip in recycling revenues or a harbinger of a longer term trend?'