Recycling Experts Discuss Benefits of Recycling on 1A Radio Show

Three recycling experts visited the 1A radio show on WAMU 88.5 American University Radio to discuss the benefits of recycling, particularly the continued benefit as opposed to a reduction in consumption in the face of China’s National Sword policy.

The guests were David Biderman, executive director and CEO of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA); Monica Wilson, policy and research coordinator at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA); and Reid Lifset, research scholar and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industrial Ecology at the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

1A has more information:

From its first spread in the 1970’s to today, municipal recycling has been a huge success in the United States. This is a recycling nation, and many Americans try to act on their concern for the environment.

Two-thirds of Americans have recycling bins in their homes. According to the EPA, just over a third of Americans’ trash is recycled.

But what happens once you put your recyclables in the bin? Some of it used to go to China, but is now just piling up. And when waste is recycled, it takes time, money and energy.

When a reduction in consumption could have greater effect, is it worth it to bother with the blue bin?

Read the full story here.