Recycling is valuable, why is it so expensive?! We get this question often. All the things we have are made up of something, right? Whether that is paper from trees or metals and plastics in our electronics, all our items are made from resources. Many of our resources are limited, which gives them value.
All of us as individuals are responsible for all the things we consume. We accumulate things from purchases, gifts, and various other ways. It is our responsibility to deal with the disposal in one way or another. We often don’t consider the end of life of items as we buy items, but it is a part of the cost of having them. We can dispose of items in various ways and all have some cost to them, whether that is landfill, recycling, or composting costs.
It is estimated that every year, Michiganders bury an estimated $500 million to $676 million dollars worth of marketable materials in landfills. We are throwing away our resources! By recycling, we are able to capture those resources and put them back into the economy. However, despite the valuable resources we are saving from the grave, recycling is not a very profitable process.
Let’s take a look at the journey our recycling takes. We place our items in the bin at our curb, or drop it off at a recycling drop-off center. From there, the containers are picked up by our haulers. The haulers take materials to their facility to bulk pack before transporting them to the recycling sorting facility, called a materials recovery facility (MRF). All the basic recycling in Southwest Michigan is taken to Recycling Works in Elkhart Indiana.
Costs check in – pick up transportation, staff, compactor, transportation to IN
Once at the MRF, the materials are weighed in and tracked at the gate house. Trucks then unload onto the tipping floor. Next, the items are loaded onto conveyor belts to be sorted by material type (paper, plastics, aluminum, etc.). Sorting is done by machines and people. Sorted materials are then packaged into bales and loaded into semi trailers to be transported to a processing facility.
Cost check in – staff, forklifts, bucket trucks, belts, machinery (most MRFs cost at least $11 Million dollars to build), transportation
The secondary processors, like a paper mill, bring in the material of their specialty. The materials are cleaned, melted, and more to become a usable product. Plastic is often made into pellets which are then sold back to our manufacturers. Manufacturers use the recycled pellets to make new products with or instead of raw materials.
Cost check in – staff, forklifts, equipment, transportation
The recycling process is long and expensive. Staffing and machinery is required at every step in the process. Each person to touch the material is paid, covered by insurance, outfitted, and trained to make this happen. According to The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine the net recycling costs $260–$300 per ton to process. So while our material is valuable, the cost to process our recycling is higher.
When we make the choice to recycle, we also should remember the economic benefit recycling provides to the community. Not only are we keeping materials from the landfill, saving our land and water, we are providing jobs at each level of processing as well. It is estimated that by collecting the recycling currently in our waste stream, we would create up to 4,500 new jobs in Michigan alone. These jobs put an estimated $609 million to $825 million per year back into the Michigan economy1.
Each method of disposal also has long term benefits and potential risks. When we are considering our methods of disposal, remember, the cost you may be paying is much more than the dollar. I try to frame my thoughts like this, “am I throwing away my money into the landfill like my items? Or, am I investing in the land, water, jobs, local economy, and natural resources by paying the costs to recycle my item?”
Referance 1: 2024 Economic Impact Potential and Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in Michigan Michigan Sustainable Business Forum
