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The articles and publications listed below
discuss the benefits of recycling, refute criticisms aimed at recycling,
identify new trends, and highlight the continuing perils of disposal techniques
such as incineration, landfilling, and trash transfer stations. They are
all available for either online viewing or for downloading as PDF files.
Please visit ILSR's Waste
to Wealth Publications Web page for a list of our extensive reports
on recycling and related topics.
Refuting Recycling Critics
- Recycling
Means Big Money in the Big Apple (March
2002)
by Neil Seldman and Kelly Lease
© Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Washington, DC.
When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposes to dramatically reduce
the City's recycling program, he talks about money. Those who want
to save and expand the program talk about values. An extensive story
in The New York Times (March 12, 2002) sums up the thinking well
in its sub-headline, "Bloomberg Puts Doing Well Ahead of Doing Good."
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The Paradigm Shift in NYC's Solid Waste Management:
Citizen Perseverance Pays Off; Still a Way to Go for a Zero Waste City
by Neil Seldman and Kelly Lease,
ILSR.
Presents a recycling-based waste management scenario
for solving NYC's reliance on out-of-state landfills
- Wasting and Recycling in the United States 2000
by Brenda Platt and Neil Seldman
2000, 64 pages $25 (incl. S&H)
GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN)
P.O. Box 49283,
Athens, GA 30604-9283,
(706) 613-7121
Order form available on the GRRN Web site: http://www.grrn.org. This report - prepared for the GrassRoots
Recycling Network - summarizes the state of wasting and recycling
in the U.S., details recycling's many environmental and economic
benefits, introduces the concept of zero waste planning, and concludes
with an agenda for action. Recycling continues to increase, but
is being outpaced by the rise in wasting. Landfill tonnage and interstate
shipments of waste are growing. By documenting these trends, this
report points to the need to expand public policies to eliminate
waste and conserve resources. A must-have for recycling advocates.
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Who's Behind The Attack on Recycling? (December
1996)
by Neil N. Seldman, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
One would think that recycling, like motherhood and apple pie, would be an activity beyond reproach. After all, an enterprise that requires less than a minute a day, that makes us feel good about ourselves, that reduces pollution and saves energy would seem to have a lot going for it. Yet, in the past 12 months, increasingly vicious attacks on recycling have appeared in the popular press.
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The Five Most Dangerous Myths About Recycling (September 1996)
Twenty five percent was considered a maximum level in 1985. Today
it should be considered a minimum, not a maximum. By continuing
to build the reuse, recycling, and composting infrastructure and
integrating the best features from the best programs - local and
state - the nation as a whole can achieve 50% recycling by 2005.
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Recycling at the Crossroads: Debating Its Potential
(September 1996)
Remarks of Brenda Platt at the National Recycling Coalition conference,
September, 1996
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Recycling and the New York Times (July
1996)
by David Morris
"Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America..."
Thus wrote John Tierney, a staff writer for the New York Times in
a Sunday magazine cover story. The article generated more mail than
any piece the magazine has ever published and spawned a slew of
Op Ed pieces by conservatives crowing about how the liberal Times
finally had accepted their view of the world.
Perils of Disposal Techniques
Moving Toward Zero Waste
- Pushing
for Refillables (August
2002)
This ILSR letter to the editor of Waste News (pending publication)
defends Senator Jefford's national bottle bill and argues for a refilling
strategy. It responds to a Waste News editorial arguing against a
national bottle bill.
- Testimony
in Support of Refilling (July
2002)
On Earth Day 2002, Senator Jeffords introduced Senate Bill 2220, the
National Beverage Producer Responsibility Act of 2002. The bill calls
for a minimum 80% recovery level, a 10 cent beverage container deposit,
and an incentive to refill containers. This ILSR testimony urges Senator
Jeffords to strengthen the language in the bill to more directly encourage
refilling.
- Defending
the Zero Waste Movement(April
2002)
This ILSR letter to the editor of MSW Management (unpublished) responds
to an editorial critical of the zero waste movement.
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Extended Producer Responsibility: The Next Phase of the U.S. Recycling
Movement (March 2000)
by Neil Seldman, ILSR.
The U.S. recycling movement once again is flexing its muscles, this
time in the direction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR
proponents see discarded products and packages are an "unfunded mandate."
While some see unfunded mandates only as federal dictates that force
spending at the local level, EPR advocates see unfunded mandates as
corporate dictates that force local governments and small businesses
to spend $43.5 billion annually for handling the materials that manufacturers
so carelessly let loose upon the land.
Audio Resources
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