To Recycle Or Not To Recycle?
Author: J. B. Howick, Townsend City Councilman
To Recycle or Not to Recycle? This first paragraph won't make many people happy. It costs money to deal with trash. It doesn't matter if it's recycled or not. The economics of trash disposal are ruthless — as we've recently discovered with increases in the solid waste fees charged by the county.
The last three years have seen enormous increases in housing costs, property taxes, trash disposal, food, water fees, electricity and propane... just about everything. Some reports place Montana as the 18th most expensive place to live in the United States and the only reason we're not ranked worse is because, despite listing energy earlier, our energy costs are considered low. (Not that North Western Energy hasn't tried to close that small benefit.) But trash is in many ways the most offensive. And it would seem recycling is the obvious answer.
Except that the economics of trash disposal are ruthless. In the good old days of the 1800s, there were no recycling campaigns and there were few trash disposal services as we recognize them today. People used and reused everything. Clothing was patched, repaired, and reused until eventually the remaining threadbare rags were bought by ragmen to make paper. Everything was reused because "waste not, want not" was the rule. This behavior continued more-or-less through World War II.
But as time progressed, we became more and more a throw-away society. Inexpensive manufactured goods — due only in part to the increased use of plastic — made trading time recycling for time doing anything else easy. Recycling began to be pressed as "the right thing to do" for the environment since the Keep America Beautiful advertising campaign in the 1950s with increasing political support. Political support, not economic support.
And that's the problem. Political support, not economic support. So long as recycling is easy and cheap people — and governments — are willing to do it. But recycling isn't as easy or cheap as most people believe. I remember in the 1980s when environmentalists finally convinced McDonald's to stop using Styrofoam containers for its hamburgers because it wasn't good for landfills. Except that Styrofoam is always recyclable, while the waxed paper wrappers McDonald's finally started using couldn't be recycled due to food contamination.
But the poster child for the difficult economics of recycling is glass. Glass is universally recyclable. One would think recycling glass is an easy choice. But few municipalities today recycle glass. Why? The short list is this: glass is heavy and therefore expensive to transport; if not separated for pick-up, it breaks, contaminating the rest of the trash and making it unrecyclable; it's hard on equipment; and it's really cheap to make new glass. When we look at only a slice of the issue, recycling glass costs about half of the energy needed to make new glass. When we look at the larger picture, recyclers are charging municipalities to accept glass for perfectly good reasons.
Which brings us to the problem here in Broadwater County. All recyclables other than metal are no longer accepted by the county's solid waste department. The reason is simple: it would cost county residents more to recycle paper, cardboard, glass and plastic. More, despite the recent fee increases, just to handle almost everything as run-of-the-mill trash. Which means the easiest way to lower the cost of trash disposal is to return to the 1800s method of reusing everything until it wears out. Except that most everything we buy today is wrapped and packaged in materials that can't be easily reused.
As you can imagine, this was a somewhat depressing article to write. Recycling is something we all should be doing, but while its benefits to the environment are obvious, the economics are, well... ruthless. I've stopped hauling metal to Helena for recycling because Pacific Steel & Recycling pays so little that it barely covers the cost of my gas. But, on the bright side, that's good for the county because they're getting my metal!
What do you think? Visit this week’s survey at https://howick.org/survey or send an email to keithjr@howick.org. Please remember that while I am a member of the Townsend City Council, these opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinions of other council members or any policy of the city.
Local government works best when it hears from the people! And this is one of the many ways we’re trying to hear everyone’s voice. Thank you!
JB Howick Townsend City Council, Ward 1
