Introduction – A Dramatic Investment in Recycling Is Required Without an estimated $17 billion intervention over five years, recycling will fail to deliver on the needs of industry, the sustainability promises of companies, and the expectations of consumers and elected officials.
The flat performance of the U.S. recycling system over the past two decades is due to its inability to serve the entire U.S. population with fully optimized collection systems, provide comprehensive education and outreach, and create an adequate materials recovery facility (MRF) infrastructure.
These shortfalls illustrate fundamental constraints that must be addressed through bold leadership. The interventions described in this report, which are based on the Recycling Capital and Education Needs Model (model), will reverse the current system inertia, overturn the status quo, and dynamically move us beyond the dismal 32% residential recycling rate, which will remain stubbornly stuck without large-scale investment. As illustrated in Figure 1, for decades industry sectors have invested in recycling for their materials. As packaging types evolve, new investments by different material sectors emerge. However, to date there has not been a systematic and large-scale investment in recycling, so improvements are uneven across locations and material types. Figure 1: Investment in Recycling Infrastructure by Material Sector
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PAYING IT FORWARD: HOW INVESTMENT IN RECYCLING WILL PAY DIVIDENDS
