SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Over the past few decades, the perception of recycling in the US has gone downhill. While the vast majority of Americans still believe recycling is positive for the environment, an increasing number of them are losing confidence in recycling programs’ actual effectiveness. Plastic recycling in particular is criticized for failing to process a critical mass of materials.
But plastic isn’t the only problem. As e-commerce habits evolve and package deliveries climb, US paper and cardboard recycling is struggling to keep up. A recent study from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that, out of the 110 million tons of paper and cardboard waste managed in 2019, 62 million tons (56%) ended up in landfills.
The researchers pegged the market value of all that trashed paper and cardboard at $4 billion, plus another $4 billion in associated landfilling fees. The estimated loss of combustion energy (incinerating paper and cardboard to generate power) is equivalent to 4% of primary industrial energy consumption across the country, according to the study. In 2019, paper and cardboard accounted for 26% of all municipal solid waste in the US.
NREL’s topline finding — that only about 38% of cardboard is recycled — echoes conclusions from other research. In its 2024 State of Recycling report, The Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit that works with corporations to improve US recycling systems, found that only 21% of all recyclable materials are actually recycled each year, including 32% of residential cardboard.
The American Forest and Paper Association says that 93% of cardboard was recycled in 2023, but Scott Mouw, a lead researcher at the Recycling Partnership, says this number is driven by commercial efforts. “The commercial and industrial recovery of cardboard is one of the greatest success stories of recycling in the country,” Mouw says. “[But] when we do the math and build an analysis, we see that residential cardboard lags behind commercial recycling and draws the overall recycling rate down.”
Cardboard’s residential recycling gap is growing alongside the rise in e-commerce sales. “E-commerce has boomed over the last couple of years, so it’s not surprising that we get all of these goods imported in boxes [and] then the actual product is in a box,” says Anelia Milibrandt, a lead researcher at NREL. The pandemic boosted that trend: Online sales jumped 4% in the second quarter of 2020, and e-commerce now accounts for 15% of total retail sales, according to the US Census Bureau.
But e-commerce isn’t the only culprit: Many Americans lack adequate access to recycling programs. According to the Recycling Partnership report, just 37% of multi-family homes in the US are able to recycle at home, which along with local laws is critical for boosting uptake. When families can recycle, cardboard tends to be the top material, at 81% recycled, the report notes.
Recycling rates vary by state, as does accumulation of un-recycled materials. The same NREL study, which looked at 1,776 landfills and 85 combustion facilities in the US, found that higher amounts of waste occur around population centers. But waste from cities also ended up in rural areas, where landfill fees are lower. In the Southeast, a quarter of waste was paper and cardboard in 2019. Even in the Pacific region, which had the lowest percentage of paper and cardboard waste, it accounted for 17% of the total.
“The idea behind the study is to show opportunities,” Milbrandt says. “We wanted to pinpoint the locations because at the end of the day, local governments could support the right initiatives that would help divert these materials from landfills.”
Four US states — Colorado, California, Oregon and Maine — have passed extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws, which require companies to fund efforts to recycle the products they create. Colorado also reimburses local governments for recycling costs, a setup that encourages more local recycling programs, which in turn drive up residential recycling rates.
Recycling gaps will merit increased scrutiny as pressure ramps up to reach net-zero emissions in the US by 2050. Landfills are currently the third-largest emitter of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. Diverting waste to recycling facilities reduces those emissions, and prolongs the life of a landfill by utilizing less space.
Courtesy: www.bloomberg.com
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