How the Price of Oil Impacts Recycling Practices

If there is one thing that greases the engine of society, it’s oil. The flow of cheap oil has had perhaps more impact on the creation of what many critics have termed as the “throwaway” society. When the price of oil goes up, so does transportation and just about everything else. The cost of hauling trash to a landfill is no exception.

You might think that a rise in the price of oil would decrease the amount of packaged goods that people are willing to buy. That is only partially true and depends upon the length and “slope” of the increase. If there is only a short spike in the price of fuel, then less expensive purchases tend towards many lesser-priced goods with more packaging, such as fast food instead of a sit down meal at a restaurant.

However, in the case of long-term higher energy costs, reducing, reusing and recycling are seen as far better options. You could expect to see more emphasis on consumer sorting, as investment in recycling infrastructure decreases.

When Free Market Recycling Mechanisms Must be Tampered With

As was evidenced toward the end of 2008, free markets don’t always work as they’re supposed to without a bit if intervention. The same is true in the case of recycling. There would be no such thing as municipal recycling programs if it were not for public monies to help these industries get started.

The same is true whenever a new recycling technology is introduced. To offset the cost of innovation, the “free market” is manipulated by the injection of large sums of public cash to make it affordable more quickly.

Like many other services that are invested in for the public good, recycling is something that has tangible benefits beyond the basic balance sheet. It is an investment in future savings by encouraging a behavior and establishing a market for recycled products.

Complimenting Recycling With Reusing

Recycling isn’t the most environmentally friendly game in town, but it’s a good start. If you really want to make your contribution to the environment go a lot further, you can simply get in the habit of reusing items instead of throwing them in the bins after a single use.

There are many ways to reuse products, often limited only by your own imagination and certain health concerns. For instance, it is never safe to reuse a pesticide container to hold drinking water for you or your pets. Other than that, reusing containers or sharing them with other people who can use them (as in the case of cooperative groceries) is a far more environmentally friendly option.

Of course, one can always turn old materials into very different items. For instance, DIY jewelery makers routinely find new ways to infuse old objects with new art and up-cycle them into much higher value commodities.

Do Co-Mingled Recycling Schemes Result in Higher Recycling Rates?

In some areas, consumers are required to do all the sorting themselves, with recycling facilities merely checking their work on the other end. On the other extreme are programs where all the recycling is tossed together in a single bin to be sorted through with a combination of automated and human effort. Cities that practice co-mingling further designate that glass should be kept separate.

But, which is better? Does removing the requirement to do the sorting by consumers really result in higher overall rates of recycling? Recent studies would suggest that it does, even in cities where most people are accustomed to sorting. Furthermore, it allows collection vehicles to fill up higher when they don’t have a bunch of separate compartments to manage, since one always fills up faster than the others.

With nearly 80% of many trash streams being recyclable or compostable, investment in the equipment that makes co-mingling schemes possible is thought to pay for itself in a few years of higher recycling rates and revenues.

Is Wood Really a Renewable Resource?

Wood is very often touted as a highly recyclable resource that is vastly superior for its ability to be simply regrown and eventually decompose when done. Depending upon the type used, it is relatively strong and sturdy for its weight. The energetics of wood in a marketplace that is temporally biased towards the short term are very favorable as compared with most metals.

However, wood exists not juts on spreadsheets, but also as a major component in a larger and more complex ecosystem. For instance, it is impossible to consider the energetics of wood without considering the impact that removing trees has on the elimination of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Another important thing to consider is the difference between a small tree and a large tree. Even a tree that is several decades old and nearing what most in the paper and logging industry would deem “harvestable” size differs considerably in the composition of the ecosystem around it from an old growth tree. The characteristics of the wood are also different.