The hidden economic and environmental costs of eliminating kerb-side recycling

Abstract

Local governments provide household collection of garbage and recyclables on a routine schedule, and these recycling programmes represent the most visible opportunity for everyday citizens to engage in sustainable practices. In the face of unprecedented challenges, and citing costs as the major driver, many US communities are shrinking or eliminating kerb-side recycling. Here we show that when recycling commodity markets were most lucrative in 2011, net US recycling costs were as little as US$3 per household annually, and when markets reached a minimum (in 2018–2020), the annual recycling-programme costs ranged from US$34 to US$42 per household. This investment offsets the greenhouse gas emissions from non-recycled household waste buried in landfills. If local governments restructure recycling programmes to target higher value and embodied carbon-intensive materials, recycling can pay for itself and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our analysis highlights that kerb-side recycling provides communities a return on investment similar to or better than climate change mitigation strategies such as voluntary green power purchases and transitioning to electric vehicles. Eliminating recycling squanders one of the easiest opportunities for communities and citizens to mitigate climate change and reduce natural resources demands. Rising costs have recently reduced local governments’ efforts to collect recyclables from households, but this study shows that kerb-side recycling should be reconsidered as it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and be a very cost-effective climate change mitigation strategy.