What does Recycling Really Cost?

As the enthusiasm for recycling spread throughout the U.S. in the late 1980s and early 1990s, concern about the cost of recycling also became widespread. But the movement had grown so quickly that data were sparse. In 1992 and 1993, the National Solid Wastes Management Association funded two studies: one on the cost of processing recyclables and the other on the cost of collecting recyclables. The article summaries of these studies are reprinted here.