by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
Co-workers were standing around the water cooler when the boss came in and asked everyone, “What are you all doing to celebrate Earth Day this year?” One employee answered, “Already done — I sent all my work-related e-mails to the recycle bin.”
There are a thousand recycling jokes, which is ironic because most Americans don’t consider recycling funny. We have been told to recycle for decades, and it has become a badge of good citizenship for millions. It is the law in 25 states and hundreds of cities.
Modern society has become very adept at recycling some products. Aluminum is the world’s most recycled material. Seventy percent of all aluminum cans in the world are recycled, and more than three-fourths of all the aluminum ever produced (1.5 billion tons) is still in productive use. In the U.S., 57% of all the metal produced originates from recycled scrap.
Similarly, vast quantities of paper are recycled. Americans produce nearly 70 million tons of post-consumer paper waste annually, down from a high of 90 million tons 20 years ago. That seems like an outrageous amount of paper, but more than 70% of it is recycled.
No so with plastic.
