The Economics of Recycling

Recycling need not cost more than waste collection and disposal. In fact, recycling can make good economic as well as environmental sense, according to our recently published study The Economics of Recycling and Recycled Materials (l), The study documents 1992 costs of residential curbside recycling versus disposal systems in four Washington State cities Seattle (2), Spokane, Bellingham and Vancouver which are geographically diverse, use different collection and materials marketing approaches and different disposal methods, and range in population size from 47,000 (Vancouver) to 535,000 (Seattle). $200