Table Of ContentWaste Age/
Recycling Times'
RECYCLIN
HANDB K
Edited by
John T. Aquino
Editor and Publishing Director
Waste Age Publications
Environmental Industry Associations
Boca Raton London New York
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First published 1995 by Lewis Publishers
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ISBN 13: 978-1-56670-068-9 (hbk)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Waste age/Recycling times' recycling handbook/ compiled by John T. Aquino
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56670-068-X
I. Recycling (wastes, etc.)-United States.
I. Aquino, John. II. Waste age. Ill. Recycling times.
TD794.5.W347 1995
363.72'82'0973---dc20 95-14479
CIP
Library of Congress Card Number 95-14479
PREFACE
In the Middle Ages, alchemists tried to turn base metals into gold.
In recent times, newspaper articles have turned into a cliche the idea
that recycling—processing material for reuse—is a modern form of
alchemy, turning waste into gold.
Recycling is valued as the equivalent of gold in some cultures. In
Mexico, for example, as in other Latin and South American countries,
the pepenadores have lived for years near landfills and, by birthright,
picked certain materials from the trash to sell for some form of reuse.
Nor is recycling new. The Romans who pulled the stones from the
Coliseum to pave highways were pioneers in C&D (construction and
demolition) recycling. The Germanic hero Siegfried, as portrayed in
Richard Wagner’s operatic Ring cycle, rather than patching his great
sword, melted it down and reforged it. He was practicing metal recy-
cling. The steel industry in America has almost always recycled its old
steel.
What is new in the late twentieth century is the fervor with which
recycling has been adopted. Many of the United States set a certain
level of recycling. By focusing on package recycling, Germany has re-
portedly brought the recycling level for packaging to 50%, due to man-
dated packaging recycling. Similar mandates have been enacted in other
European countries and even proposed in the United States. A hauling
company I toured in 1992 told me of having acquired the municipal
contract to pick up recyclables and being told the participation rate
would be no more than 28%. The first day, over 80% of the community
participated, and the haulers, who didn’t have enough vehicles, made
numerous trips and spent the evening knee deep in plastic bottles.
The fervor is due to a concern about the environment, about con-
serving our resources, and about the lack of landfill space in at least
some of the United States and many other countries. Recycling is easy
to understand—something new is made out of something old. It is not
thrown away, it is reused.
And yet, the late 1980s, as the recycling flame burned bright, pro-
duced stories of gluts of some materials that had been picked up for
recycling. Warehouses were full of old newspaper (ONP) that, rather
than being sold for a profit, cost money to have removed. Market
prices dropped. The hauling away of trash, which once was a direct
trip to a landfill, now included the cost of the collection and market-
ing of recyclables. Hauling companies used to ask me to publish arti-
cles telling “the truth about recycling,” which basically meant that it
was unprofitable. While public interest in recycling was high, some
companies wished that it would go away.
As this is being written, the markets for many recyclables are
high. Technology has improved, decreasing some costs. Lessons that
have been learned are that (1) modem recycling is still in the develop-
ment stage, and the learning process will continue; (2) modem recy-
cling is not going to go away; and (3) modem recycling is not the
modem alchemy. It is not magic. It is a technological process that will
be refined and improved as years go by.
Waste Age magazine is credited by many as having given the
modern concept of recycling special exposure in the United States
under the editorship of Joe Salimando in the mid- to late-1980s. In
1989, Waste Age introduced a sister publication, Recycling Times. It
seems appropriate, then, to base this Recycling Handbook on articles
that appeared in Waste Age in the early 1990s, sometimes reworked
and expanded from Recycling Times.
In doing an anthology of articles, I am reminded of the story of
Irish playwright and author George Bernard Shaw, who, when asked
to republish his music criticism of previous years in book form, said
that nobody was interested in reading about dead sopranos. However,
the articles here have not been selected for their historical value, but
rather as still pertinent explications of recycling issues, written for a
professional audience. When appropriate, they have been updated.
The ultimate purpose of the book is to provide a detailed back-
ground of markets, regulations, basic workings, important issues, and
representative programs related to recycling. The original audience for
the articles was the audience of Waste Age—solid waste professionals—
in both private companies and government—as well as engineers and
consultants. In this revised and updated anthology format, the material
in the chapters is intended for solid waste professionals to use as a re-
source and/or to develop a holistic, broader understanding of recycling,
as well as for those who work with them or have to address the issues
that the professionals address—attorneys, accountants, businesses inter-
ested in recycling or required to recycle, and the general public who
want to understand the issues from the professional perspective.
—John T. Aquino
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks must be given to Joe Salimando, Waste Age editor from 1985
to 1990, for his pioneer work in bringing the concept of recycling to
more and more people; to Kathleen Meade, editor of Recycling Times
from 1990 to 1992; to Cheryl McAdams, executive editor of Waste Age,
who was responsible for much of the original editing of the pieces; to
Chaz Miller, recycling manager for the Environmental Industry Associa-
tions, whose contributions form a substantial part of this book; all of the
Waste Age writers and editors represented in this book and all those who
contributed to the topic but for whatever reason are not represented here;
to Karen Finkel and Kim Leaird, who created the original design and for-
mat for these articles as they appeared in Waste Age, and the entire Waste
Age production staff; to Carolyn Baird, Waste Age editorial assistant, who
painstakingly proofed the manuscript; to Eugene J. Wingerter, executive
director and CEO of the National Solid Waste Management Association
(NSWMA) from 1972 to 1994; and to Allen “Mike” Frischkom, current
president of the Environmental Industry Associations, the reconstituted
umbrella organization for NSWMA, the Waste Equipment Technology
Association, and the Hazardous Waste Management Association.
The greatest thanks is given to the people in the solid waste indus-
try who have, through a long process, developed recycling in order to
meet their customers’ needs and keep the earth whole.
John T. Aquino
Editor-in-Chief/Publishing Director
Waste Age Publications
Washington, D.C.
John T. Aquino has been editor-in-chief/publishing director for Waste
Age Publications since January 1991. He was previously vice presi-
dent of Hanley-Wood, Inc., publisher of Builder and Remodeling mag-
azines, and editor of Mortgage Banker magazine and Music Educators
Journal. He is the author of seven collections/bibliographies for asso-
ciations, including Performance-Based Teacher Education: An Anno-
tated Bibliography and Careers in Music, and five monographs and
numerous articles on his own. He was born in Washington, D.C. and
lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife Deborah.
Waste Age Publications staff.
Waste Age is the leading publication in the solid waste industry. It
is owned by the Environmental Industry Associations and is published
monthly. In 1993, it was selected as the best publication in the field of
manufacturing by the editors of Magazine Week and Folio.
Recycling Times is Waste Age's biweekly sister publication, cover-
ing recycling markets.
The Environmental Industry Associations—the National Solid
Wastes Management Associations, the Hazardous Waste Management
Association, and the Waste Equipment Technology Association—is
the leading association in the solid waste industry.
CONTRIBUTORS
John T. Aquino John A. Legler
Editor-in-Chief/Publishing Executive Vice President
Director Waste Equipment Technology
Waste Age Publications Association
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C.
Richard B. Curtis Michael G. Malloy
Manager, Equipment and Safety Contributing Editor, Waste Age
Waste Equipment Technology Editor, Infectious Waste News
Association Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Chaz Miller
Jennifer A. Goff Recycling Manager
Managing Editor Environmental Industry
Recycling Times Associations
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C.
Mike Holderness Michael Misner
Writer Former Market Analyst
London, England Recycling Times
Washington, D.C.
Michael Knoll
Project Coordinator Robert W. Ollis, Jr.
Department of Sanitation Partner
New York, New York Chapman and Cutler
Chicago, IL
