I was talking last week with the CEO of a national waste management company and she talked me about the widespread consequences of a major recycler in California going out of business. RePlanet handled about forty percent of the recycling waste throughout the state and for those who don't know California consumers pay a 5 cent fee when they purchase beverages a portion of which they can get back at recycling centers. Unable to easily recycle anymore waste ended up in landfills, jobs were lost, and people who made part of their livelihood on collecting recyclables are out of money.
My friend said that this was only what is called the downstream issues. What the real problems were with all of the upstream issues, where all of this waste comes from before it is waste. It starts with design of the container which mixes plastics making it hard to recycle and with the use of cheap virgin (non-recycled) plastic which has become less expensive with increases in natrual gas production. The environmental costs are not bourne by the producers or retailers but by consumers, municipalities and seabirds. We are at a tipping point were these costs can no longer be ignored and must be addressed before we die from eating plastic like the birds. The Plexus Instutite and the Commons Project are working on just such a solution.
