Saving the City: The Need for Recycling in Cities
Taylor Reese
Recycling has become a critical issue as the amount of garbage used by the average American increases. According to Stanford University, “The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day.” [1] As the population grows so does the amount of garbage; therefore, increasing landfills and pollution. Cities especially experience a large amount of garbage as this is where the densest populations reside. There is a great need for recycling in cities. This is for three key reasons: it reduces pollution, reduces landfills, and has an economic benefit for both the city and individual citizens.
Recycling can have different meanings, but using the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition, “recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products.” [2] In 2022, less than 25% of total waste has been recycled in America, even though it is estimated by the EPA that around 75% of waste is recyclable. [3] Since 2012, only 9% of plastic waste has been recycled. [4] Recycling has a large impact on both the environment and the community. With waste, it must go somewhere, and this leads to increased landfills. This can lead to pollution of the air, soil, and water. In the United States on average around 50% of all waste ends up in landfills accumulating around 146 million tons of waste. [5] Landfills cause air pollution by increasing the amount of greenhouse gases that are released. Recycling reduces the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons. [6] The emission of greenhouse gases causes air pollution that impacts the quality of the air and the health of the community. Pollution impacts the health of the community because of the poor air or water quality that results. Plastic pollution is an issue with plastics reaching drinking water sources, the ocean, and animals. It is particularly harmful when plastic waste is incinerated instead of sent to a landfill. “Plastic polymers are often mixed with additives such as stabilizers, pigments, and flame retardants, which can emit toxic substances if incinerated without proper controls.” [7] Therefore, when plastic waste is incinerated the carbon is directly released. The greenhouse gas emissions released from landfills and incineration lead to chronic health issues such as asthma. “Air pollution poses hazards to human health and is estimated to be responsible for nearly 5% of the global burden of disease with nearly 2 million children younger than five years of age dying every year from acute respiratory infections.” [8] Pollution is a huge issue that could be mitigated by recycling.
The first key reason for recycling in cities is that it reduces pollution. C40 Knowledge reports that” Improving waste management by reducing waste generation, minimizing non-recyclable materials and single-use items in the waste stream, encouraging the redesign of goods, promoting reuse, increasing recycling, and increasing recovery and treatment of waste can reduce a city’s emissions by 15–20%.” [9] Increasing recycling means there is less of a need for landfills and for incineration. This results in less greenhouse gas emissions and less pollution of water, soil, and the air. Increased recycling also reduces the need to extract and manufacture raw resources to harvest energy, because there will be more recyclable materials available. [10] This decreases the land and air pollution that occurs because of the harmful extractive and manufacturing process of raw materials. [11]
The second key reason for recycling in cities is it reduces the amount of waste put into landfills. The purpose of a landfill is to “store waste not to break it down” so the waste will sit there for years and years. [12] This takes up land and space and will stay there for years to come and brings many undesirable effects. Not only is it unsightly but landfills as previously discussed contribute to both air and water pollution. A decrease in landfills would not only decrease pollution but allow for other uses of the land. To put it into perspective, one ton of recycled plastic would save around 30 cubic yards of landfill space. [13] As the amount of waste has grown in recent years so has the need for more landfills, with space running out for suitable locations for landfills. [14] Cities are scrambling to find more spaces to put in landfills as the amount of waste continues to grow. Recycling would allow cities to allocate land for other uses that better benefit the community than needing it for a landfill.
The third key reason for recycling in cities is because of the economic benefit of recycling. One way recycling benefits the economy is that cities do not have to worry about funds going towards finding and purchasing land for more landfills. Second, recycling brings more jobs into the community. [15] Recycling tends to bring around ten times more jobs than landfills or incineration. [16] The recycling industry not only creates more jobs but creates profit for the city. Overall, recycling has economic benefits through the creation of jobs, saving money, and making a profit.
While many people do not recycle there are ways to incentivize cities and their citizens to recycle. Recycling needs to be inexpensive for citizens, so they are more likely to recycle than to throw waste into the garbage. There could be programs like trash collection where workers pick up your recycling bin and trash bin. An idea is to supply bins for the three-bin system where there are bins for garden waste, recycling, and residual waste (landfill waste). [17] This allows citizens to be able to have more options than just the normal trash can and to be able to differentiate what can and cannot be recycled. Other incentives could also be offered such as a tax exemption for citizens that recycle or free trash and recycle collection for the first 6 months after they become a part of the recycling program.
To conclude, recycling is needed in cities to combat pollution, landfills, and impacts on the community. Pollution impacts the environment and citizens’ health and has a negative impact on the city. Recycling decreases pollution, eliminates landfills, and has an economic benefit for the city.
About the Author
Taylor Reese is a first-year member on Volume 14. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Security Studies from Georgetown College, and studied abroad at Oxford University. Taylor is interested in human rights and public interest work, but is still deciding exactly what field she wants to pursue after law school. In her free time, Taylor loves to be outdoors, read, and play with her dog, Teddie.
References
[1] Frequently Asked Questions: Benefits of Recycling, Stanford University: Land, Building, Real Estate, https://lbre.stanford.edu/pssistanford-recycling/frequently-asked-questions/frequently-asked-questions-benefits-recycling#:~:text=The%20more%20we%20recycle%2C%20the,materials%20has%20on%20the%20environment. (last visited Nov. 11, 2022).
[2] Recycling Basics, EPA (Dec. 21, 2021), https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics.
[3] 74 Recycling Facts + Statistics for 2022, Recycle Track Systems (Feb 23, 2022), https://www.rts.com/blog/recycling-facts-statistics/#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20Americans%20throw%20away,trash%20in%20a%20single%20day.
[4] Ruth Jebe, The U.S. Plastics Problem: The Road to Circulatory, 52 ELR 10018, 10024 (2022).
[5] National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling, EPA (July 31, 2022), https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#recycling.
[6] Stanford University, supra note 1.
[7] Jebe, supra note 4.
[8] Recycling: A Component of Strong Community Development, EPA Archives (Feb. 21, 2016). https://archive.epa.gov/region4/rcra/mgtoolkit/web/html/community.html#:~:text=Some%20of%20the%20many%20benefits,blocks%20for%20sustainable%20growing%20communities.
[9] C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Why Cities Need to Advance Towards Zero Waste, C40 Knowledge (May 2019), https://www.c40knowledgehub.org/s/article/Why-cities-need-to-advance-towards-zero-waste?language=en_US.
[10] EPA Archives, supra note 8.
[11] Id.
[12] 4 Reasons Why Recycling Should Be Mandatory, Growing City, https://www.growingcity.com/blog/recycling-should-be-mandatory. (last visited Nov. 11, 2022).
[13] Stanford University, supra note 1.
[14] Id.
[15] C40 Knowledge, supra note 9.
[16] Id.
[17] Dr. Steffen Lehmann, Exploring How Today’s Development Affects Future Generations Around the Globe: In This Issue: Sustainable Development in the Urban Environment: Resource Recovery and Materials and Materials Flow in the City: Zero Waste and Sustainable Consumption as Paradigms in Urban Development, 11 Sustainable Dev. L. & Pol'y 28, 34 (2010).