REPORT TO CONGRESS ON RESOURCE RECOVERY
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
February 22, 1973
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2d edition
April 1973
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PREFACE
Section 205 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act (P.L. 89-272) as
amended requires that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) undertake an investigation and study of resource recovery.
This document represents EPA's Report to the President and the
Congress summarizing the Agency's investigations to date and
reporting the manner in which the Congressional mandate is
being carried out.
The findings of this report are based on a number of con-
tractual efforts and analyses by the Agency staff carried out since
the passage of the Resource Recovery Act. Extremely valuable
assistance in these investigations has been provided to EPA by The
Council on Environmental Quality.
The report is organized into a summary, four major sections,
and an appendix. The first section discusses the problem to which
resource recovery is the potential solution. Next, key findings
related to resource recovery are presented. A section outlining
major options follows. The report concludes with a discussion of
EPA's program activities in resource recovery.
The appendix presents summaries of information about the status
of resource recovery by major materials categories and a listing of
existing resource recovery facilities.
A number of typographical errors that appeared in the first
printing have been corrected in the April 1973 printing, and the
references have been restyled.
iii
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CONTENTS
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
SUMMARY
THE PROBLEM
KEY FINDINGS
DISCUSSION OF MAJOR OPTIONS
DISCUSSION OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
Paper Recycling
Ferrous Metals Recycling
Nonferrous Metals Recycling
Glass Recycling
Plastics Recycling
Textiles Recycling
Resource Recovery Installations
References for Appendix
Page
v
1
7
25
31
42
A-l
A-12
A-22
A«33
A-36
A-40
A-43
A-46
1v
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SUMMARY
.This report presents an exploration of resource recovery as a
method of solid waste management and resource conservation. Infor-
mation developed over the past several years is summarized and the
many questions surrounding the complex subject of resource recovery
are discussed.
.The emphasis of the report is on the recovery of materials
and energy from mixed municipal wastes and other "post-consumer"
wastes that are discarded outside the normal waste collection
channels. Although only 5% of the total national solid waste load,
these wastes tend to have the most frequent population impact in
that they occur in the nation's urbanized places. More than 50%
of the total waste load comes from agriculture and is usually returned
to the soil. More than 40% of the total burden is mining waste,
which occurs in the hinterland.
.Nearly all major materials are recovered to some extent by
recycling. Most recovered materials are derived from industrial
fabrication wastes. Post-consumer wastes are also recovered to
some extent (waste paper, old automobiles); post-consumer recycling
has grown in an absolute sense. However, the proportion of the
nation's materials requirements satisfied from recycling materials
has remained constant or has declined in most instances.
.The level of recycling depends almost entirely on economics.
Recycling takes place to the extent that it is the most efficient
use of resources. In the absence of artificial economic subsidies
for "natural" or "virgin" materials more secondary or recycled
materials would be used. The economics of recycling are also in-
fluenced by apparently inequitable freight rates—both ocean and rail —
which make the transportation of secondary materials relatively more
costly than the movement of virgin resources.
.There has been sufficient technology development to allow ex-
traction of materials and energy from mixed municipal wastes. However,
few full scale recovery plants exist. The Environmental Protection
Agency is funding the demonstration of the most significant con-
ceptual alternatives.
.The costs of recovery plants are estimated to be relatively
nigh, making recovery by technological means attractive only in areas
where high disposal costs prevail and local markets for the waste
materials exist. There is evidence that recovery by separate collection
is not only feasible but economically attractive provided that the
collection makes use of an existing transport system and markets for
the collected materials exist.
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.Preliminary research and analysis indicates that, when compared
with virgin materials extraction and processing, resource recovery
results in lower quantities of atmospheric emissions, waterborne wastes,
mining and solid v/astes, and energy consumption. There is substantial
disagreement among experts about the extent of such differential effects
over time, particularly as strengthened environmental constraints on
use of both virgin and secondary materials begin to narrow the differentials
that now exist.
.Recycling should become more economical relative to other solid
waste disposal options during the next several years. Energy costs
are rising, making energy recovery more attractive and more economical.
As pressures increase to bring about environmentally sound waste disposal,
the costs of disposal will rise and recovery will become more attractive
as an alternative. Finally, to the extent that air and water pollution
control regulations are intensified, the incentives of industry for
using secondary materials will improve.
.Other incentives for recycling also exist under existing Federal
policies. The General Services Administration does not purchase paper
unless it contains a specified amount of recycled paper. The military
services are exploring procurement policies to reduce waste quantities
or to mandate inclusion of secondary materials. The Treasury Department
has determined that tax exempt industrial revenue bonds may finance
the construction of recycling facilities built by private concerns to
recycle their own wastes.
.Additional Federal incentives for recycling are not considered
desirable at this time. Studies to date indicate that the effectiveness
of specific incentive mechanisms that can be formulated is extremely
difficult to predict. New tax incentives may well distort the economics of
resource utilization much as preferential treatment of virgin materials
distort them today.
.There is an obvious need for further exploration of the complex
issues of materials utilization in the Nation in the context of total
resource utilization. Resource recovery is an important part—but only
a part—of the larger picture. Before additional Federal policies
are developed—aimed possibly at overcoming institutional and market
imperfections in some areas—a better understanding of the complex
materials and energy situation must be developed.
VI
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Section 1
THE PROBLEM
U.S. Materials-Use Pattern. Resource recovery in its varied aspects
must be seen as part of a much larger economic structure—the total
materials and energy use patterns of the nation. Today the recovery of
waste materials supplies a very small part of the total material and
energy requirements of the U.S. population, and while both population and
materials consumption are increasing, the use of materials from waste
sources is declining relative to overall consumption.
In 1971, the U.S. economy used an estimated 5.8 billion tons of
materials for its total activity, equivalent to 28 tons for each man,
woman, and child. Of this total approximately 10 percent comes from
agriculture, forestry, fishing,and animal husbandry (food and forest
products); 34 percent is represented by fuels; and 55 percent comes from
the minerals industries in the form of metals, construction materials,
and other minerals.'
Materials use is growing at a rate of 4 percent to 5 percent yearly.
Per capita consumption was 22 tons in 1965, 24.7 tons in 1968, and 28
tons in 1971.z During the same period, population grew at a rate of
1.3 percent annually.
A high rate of materials and energy consumption means a high rate of
waste generation. Approximately 10 to 15 percent of annual inputs to
the economy represents accumulation of materials in use (in structures,
plant, and equipment, etc.); the rest of the tonnage is used consumptively
with residues discharged to the land, water, and air, or is used to
replace obsolete products and structures which in turn become waste.3
Nearly all of the materials and energy required in the U.S. comes
from virgin or natural resources. The tonnage of fabrication and obsolete
wastes recycled is approximately 55 to 60 million tons*, equivalent to
less than 1 percent of total minerals tonnage required overall by the
nation.
If we disregard food and energy substances, the estimated 1971 demand
for nonfood, nonenergy materials was 3.6 billion tons, and waste recovery
satisfied 1.5 to 1.7 percent of the total requirement.
Environmental Consequences of Materials Use. Any form of materials
use has environmental consequences.Materials resources must be extracted,
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purified, upgraded, processed, and fabricated into products; in addition,
there are transportation steps between most of these steps.
At every point, solid, waterborne, and airborne wastes are generated
and either enter the environment or are removed from processing steps at
some expense.
The production of 1,000 tons of steel, for instance, results in 2,800
tons of mine wastes, 121 tons of air pollutants, and 970 tons of solid
wastes.5 Similar waste flows are associated with every materials flow,
although, of course, the magnitudes vary depending on the types of materials
obtained. The sheer growth in materials consumption per capita indicates
that more pollution and waste is generated per citizen today than was
generated in years past.
As will be discussed, reports at this time indicate that the amounts
of air pollution, water pollution and waste that result from production
systems that use recycled wastes are lower than the effluents from pro-
duction systems that rely on virgin resources. Thus, any decrease in
resource recovery relative to total consumption means an increase in the
quantity of residuals generated.
Solid Waste Generation. Ever increasing per capita materials consump-
tion necessarily means that more solid waste is generated. This can be
illustrated graphically by trends in packaging consumption since packaging
is a short-lived product category which becomes waste immediately after use.
Per capita packaging consumption (in pounds per capita) has been
increasing steadily as shown below. 6
1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1970
404 425 450 475 525 577
The situation in packaging is merely an illustration of a general
phenomenon of waste generation resulting from a materials consumption rate
which grows faster than population.
The total quantity of waste generated in 1971 is estimated to have
been 4.45 billion tons, up nearly 1 billion tons from 1967. The make-up
of this waste is shown below:
Million Tons
Municipal*? 230
Industrial8 140
Mineral wastes9 1700
10
Crop wastes10 640
Animal wastes10 1740
tes
10
^Includes residential, commercial, demolition, street and alley sweepings,
and miscellaneous (e.g., sludge disposal).
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The 230 million ton municipal waste load plus that portion of industrial
waste occurring in large metropolitan areas constitute what is normally
referred to as the "solid waste problem" in popular discussion.
One reason for the growing solid waste burden is that resource recovery
has declined relative to total materials consumption. A second reason is
the substitution of material-intensive practices (practices which result
in consumption of large amounts of raw materials) for less materials demanding
practices, e.g., one-way containers for returnable bottles, paper towels for
cloth towels, and disposable one-time use products of all sorts — in the home,
the office, the hospital, etc.--for products designed for reuse.
The resulting solid waste load is especially burdensome in urban areas
because of greater population concentrations and because disposal in urban
area is particularly difficult. The urban population, for example, has
grown from 64 percent of the total population in 1950 to 74 percent in 1970,
thereby increasing the quantity of solid waste in urban areas by a
substantial percentage. Additionally, urban populations generate more
waste than nonurban residents—approximately 20 percent more per capita.''
Disposal in urban areas is an especially difficult problem because
in the city, waste disposal is, at the same time, an environmental, economic,
and political problem. Waste collection is labor intensive, labor costs
are rising rapidly, and the productivity of most municipal waste collection
systems is low. In many urban areas, land suitable for waste disposal has
disappeared or is rapidly being used up. Movement of the waste across the
boundaries of the political jurisdiction where it occurs is difficult and
sometimes impossible. As cities are required to travel longer distances
to dispose of their wastes or alternatively are forced to process them to
achieve volume reduction, the costs of waste management are increased. To
eliminate potential air and water pollution from landfills and incinerators,
the waste processing facilities must be properly designed, located, and
operated, and must include proper pollution control devices. This degree
of control is technologically possible but often costly, particularly
in the case of incineration.
Given these circumstances, many cities increasingly are viewing resource
recovery as both an environmentally and economically desirable alternative
to disposal. Unfortunately, this option is most often not available because
demand for materials from wastes is nonexistent or severely limited.
The Recovery Rate. Nearly all major materials are recovered to some
extent by recycling.the recovery rate varies from nearly 100 percent for
solid lead (50 percent for all lead),* 50 percent for copper, 31 per-
cent for iron and steel, and 19 percent for paper and board, to 4.2
*A substantial proportion of lead is used in gasoline as an anti-knock
additive; this lead is dispersed and is unrecoverabe.
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TABLE 1
RECYCLING OF MAJOR MATERIALS (1967)
M 4-«v--;^i Total Consumption
Material , . , , . , c >
(million tons)
Paper
Iron and steel
Aluminum
Copper
Lead
Zinc
Glass
Textiles
Rubber
Total
53.110
105.900
4.009
2.913
1.261
1.592
12.820
5.672
3.943
191.220
Total Recycled Recycling as Percent
(million tons) of Consumption
10.124
33.100
.733
1.447
.625
.201
.600
.246
1.032
48.108
19.0
31.2
18.3
49.7
49.6
12.6
4.7
4.3
26.2
25.2
Source:
Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for materials in
solid wastes. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972.
p. xvii.
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percent for glass (Table 1). The percentages, refer to the proportion of total
consumption of the materials satisfied from both wastes recovered in fab-
rication steps in industry and wastes recovered from obsolete products like
junk automobiles and old newspapers.
Consumption of major materials—iron and steel, paner, nonferrous
metals, glass, textiles, and rubber--was taking place at a rate of 190
million tons in the 1967-1968 neriod. During this neriod the total recycling
tonnage of the same materials was 48 million tons, equivalent to 25 percent
of consumption of these materials.
Historical data in this aggregated form are not available for all
materials. In general, however, for most materials, the portion of
total consumption of that material derived from waste sources has been
declining. Consumption of these waste materials has generally not kept
pace with total consumption.
.Paper waste consumption as a percent of total fiber consumption
has declined from a rate of 23.1 percent in I960 to 17.8 percent in 1969J2
.Iron and steel scrap consumption as a percent of total metallics
consumption has declined slightly overall from the 1959-1963 to the
1964-1968 period, from 50.3 to 49.9 percent. Purchased scrap consumption,*
representing the recycling of fabrication and obsolete wastes, has been
losing ground: in the 1949-1953 period it was 44.9 percent of total scrap;
in the 1964-1968 period, 40.0%.13
.Rubber reclaiming is a declining activity both absolutely and in
relation to total rubber consumption. In 1958 reclaim consumption was
19% of total rubber consumption, in 1969, 8.8%.14
.The major nonferrous metals—aluminum, copper, and lead--
are reused at a composite rate of around 35% of total consumption and this
percentage has remained fairly constant over time.15
Historical data on other materials are not readily available in
aggregate form, but declining recovery is generally the rule.
It is reasonable to assume that a secondary material, one that has
already been processed, should be a more attractive raw material to indus-
try than a virgin material that must be extracted or harvested and processed.
The secondary material is already purified and concentrated; scrap steel,
for instance, is nearly 100 percent steel while the iron ore from which it
is made contains high proportions of silicate materials which must be removed.
Why, then, the relatively low recycling rate found in the United States
today? The low rate is the result of the action of a number of forces,
among them the following:
*In the iron and steel industry, distinctions are made between "home"
scrap, a process waste in furnaces and in mills; prompt scrap, ocurring in
fabrication plants; and obsolete scrap, from discarded products or obsolete
structures. Purchased scrap is the combination of the last two categories.
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(1) The delivered price of virgin raw materials to the manufacturer
is almost as low in many cases as the cost of secondary materials, and virgin
materials are usually qualitatively superior to salvaged materials. Con-
sequently, demand for secondary materials is limited.
(2) Natural resources are abundant and manufacturing industries have
directed their operations to exploit these. Plants are generally built
near the source of virgin materials (e.g., paper plants near pulpwood
supplies). Technology to utilize virgin materials has been perfected;
due to the adverse economics, similar technology to exploit wastes has not
been developed.
(3) Natural resources occur in concentrated form while wastes occur
in a dispersed manner. Consequently, acquisition of wastes for recycling
is costly, and is particularly sensitive to high transportation costs.
(4) Virgin materials, even in unprocessed form, tend to be more
homogeneous in composition than waste materials and sorting and upgrading
of mixed wastes is costly.
(5) The advent of synthetic materials made from hydrocarbons, and
their combination with natural materials, cause contamination of the latter,
limiting their recovery. The synthetics themselves are virtually impossible
to sort and recover economically from mixed waste.
(6) There are artificial economic barriers which favor virgin material
use over secondary material use. For example, depletion allowances,
favorable capital gains treatments, and apparently favorable freight rates
are available to virgin materials processors but not to secondary materials
processors. Also, producers presently do not have to internalize all costs
of environmental pollution.
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Section 2
KEY FINDINGS
The key findings of this report can be reduced to four major points:
(1) The use of recycled materials appears to result in a reduction in
atmospheric emissions, waste generated, and energy consumption when compared
with virgin materials utilization.
(2) The recovery of materials from waste depends largely on economics.
The cost of manufacturing products from secondary materials is generally as
high or higher than manufacturing products from virgin materials, and con-
sequently only high quality and readily accessible waste materials can find
a market. Artificial economic advantages available to virgin materials users
(e.g., depletion allowances and capital gains treatments, and inability of
the traditional market to internalize pollution and resource depletion costs)
appear to have been major contributors to this economic situation.
(3) There has been sufficient technology development to allow extrac-
tion of materials from mixed municipal wastes. However, the cost of extraction
is high making recovery processes attractive only in areas where high disposal
costs prevail and favorable local markets exist for the materials.
(4) Recovery of materials (as opposed to energy) from mixed municipal
wastes, while conceptually the best alternative to disposal, cannot be in-
stituted on a large scale in the absence of: a substantial reduction in
processing costs and/or upgrading in quality, which is simply unattainable
given reasonable projection of technology; and/or a major reordering in rela-
tive virgin and secondary materials prices, to make secondary materials more
economically attractive.
A more detailed discussion of each of these findings follows.
Environmental Impacts. The environmental impacts of recycling are of
major importance. Studies conducted to date indicate that resource recovery
generally results in reduced consumption of energy and materials and reduced
effects of air and water pollution.
Resource recovery has three major environmental benefits: (1) recovery
and reuse of a material conserves the natural resources from which that
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material is derived; (2) recycling of materials eliminates disposal, thus,
the negative environmental effects of inadequately controlled solid waste
disposal are reduced; (3) substitution of waste materials for virgin
materials in the production system results in decreased energy requirements
and decreased air and water effluents (based on studies of glass, paper,
and ferrous metals) and avoids other kinds of environmental degradation,
particularly in the extraction phase (e.g., strip mining). Data to
substantiate these points are presented below.
Glass. Environmental impacts occur at every step of glass manufacturing
from the mining of raw materials to final waste disnosal. Changes in the
amount of cullet (glass scrap) in the raw materials batch are responsible
for significant changes in environmental effects.
Comparing the environmental impact of glass manufacturing using
15 and 60 percent cullet mixes, it is clear that increased cullet usage
results in reduced quantities of residual discharge. Table 2 illustrates
the impact changes for the two cullet mixes. A 60 percent cullet batch
would result in over 50 percent less mining and postconsumer waste, 50
percent less water consumption, and up to 22 percent less atmospheric
emissions. The energy requirements either increase 3 percent or decrease
6 percent depending on the recovery system used for obtaining the cullet.
Paper. There are significant changes in environmental impact when
waste paper is substituted for virgin wood pulp in the production of
paper products. Table 3 summarizes the environmental impacts produced
by manufacturing 1,000 tons of pulp from recycled fiber rather than
from virgin wood pulp. The recycled fiber case requires 61 percent less
water and 70 percent less air pollutants.
If deinking and bleaching are required to upgrade the secondary fibers
for high quality finished products, recycling still produces environmental
benefits in almost every category. Table 4, which compares virgin pulp
with recycled deinked oulp, indicates that 15 percent less water and
60 percent less energy are required, and FO percent less air pollutants are
generated. However, the waterborne wastes increase significantly. The
increase in solid wastes generated in processing is more than offset by
the recovery of paper from municipal solid waste.
Ferrous Metals. There are also substantial changes in environmental
impact from utilizing recycled steel rather than producing steel from iron
ore. A comparison of the impacts of producing 1,000 tons of steel
reinforcing bars from virgin ore and from scran indicates that 74 percent
less energy and 51 percent less water are used in the recycling case.
Additionally, air pollution effluents are reduced by 86 percent and mining
wastes by 97 percent (Table 5).
The results presented in Tables 2-5, were derived from surveys con-
ducted from 1968-1970 and represent pollution in a relatively uncontrolled
situation. As air and water pollution control legislation and implementing
regulations become more effective,some of the costs of environmental
8
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TABLE 2
SUMMARY OF GULLET DEPENDENT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FOR 1,000 TONS OF GLASS CONTAINERS, BY IMPACT CATEGORY
Environmental 15%
impact Gullet
Mining wastes 104 tons
Atmospheric emissions 13.9 tons
(all sources)
Water consumption onn nrin „,•.
/. . i . -i • i- \ 2UO.OOU qals .
(intake minus discharge) ' y
Energy use 16,150 x 106 BTU
60%
Gullet
22 tons
13 tons
10.9 tons
100,000 gals.
16,750 x 10 j! BTU
& Change3
-79%
-6%b
-22%
-50%
+ 3%
15,175 x 10U BTU
Virgin raw materials 1,100 tons 500 tons -54%
consumption
New post-consumer 1,000 tons 450 tons -55%
waste generation
Negative numbers represent a decrease in that impact resulting
from increased recycling.
Calculated for the Black-Clawson wet recovery system for cullet
recovery from municipal waste.
Calculated for the Bureau of Mines incinerator residue recovery
system for cullet recovery from municipal waste.
Based primarily on surveys conducted in 1967-1969.
Source:
Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of
policy formation on resource recovery. Unpublished data,
1972.
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TABLE 3
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT COMPARISON FOR 1,000 TONS OF LOW-GRADE PAPER
Environmental
effect
Unbleached
kraft pulp
(virgin)
Repulped Change from
waste paper increased
(100%) recycling (%)
Virgin materials
use (oven dry fiber)
Process water used
Energy consumption
Air pollutants
effluents (trans-
portation, manufac-
turing, and har-
vesting)
Waterborne wastes ,
discharged - BOD
Waterborne wastes
discharged- ,
suspended solids
Process solid
wastes generated
i
Net post-consumer
wastes generated
1,000 tons
24 million
gallons
17,000 x 106 BTU
42 tons
15 tons
8 tons
68 tons
850 tons(
-0-
10 million
gallons
5,000 x 106 BTU
11 tons
9 tons
6 tons
42 tons
-250 tonsc
-100
-61
-70
-73
-44
-25
-39
-129
Negative numbers represent a decrease in that category, or a
positive change from increased recycling.
Based primarily on surveys conducted in 1968-1970.
c This assumes a 15% loss of fiber in the papermaking and converting
operations.
This assumes that 1,100 tons of waste paper would be needed to
produce 1,000 tons of pulp. Therefore 850-1100= 250 represents the net
reduction of post-consumer waste.
Source:
Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of
policy formation on resource recovery. Unpublished data, 1972.
10
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TABLE 4
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS RESULTING FROM THE MANUFACTURE OF 1,000 TONS
OF BLEACHED VIRGIN KRAFT PULP AND EQUIVALENT MANUFACTURED FROM
DEINKED AND BLEACHED WASTEPAPER
Environmental
effect
Virgin fiber
pulp
Deinked
Pulp
Increased
recycling.
change (%)'
Virgin materials
use (oven dry fiber)
Process water used
Energy consumption
Air pollutants
(transportation,
manufacturing, and
harvesting)"
Waterborne wastes ,
discharged - BOD
Waterborne wastes
discharged-
suspended solids
Process solid wastes
Net post-consumer
waste disposal
1,100 tons
47,000 x 103
gallons
23,000 x 106 BTU
49 tons
23 tons
24 tons
112 tons
850 tonsc
-0- -100
40,000 x 103 -15
gallons
9,000 x 106 BTU -60
20 tons -60
20 tons
77 tons
224 tons
-550 tons
-13
+222
+100
-165
Negative number represents a decrease in that category resulting
from recycling.
Based on surveys conducted in 1968-1970.
Q
This assumes a 15% loss of fiber in paperworking and converting
operations.
This assumes that 1,400 tons of waste paper is needed to produce
1,000 tons of pulp. Therefore, 850-1,400 = -550 represents the net
reduction in post-consumer solid waste.
Source:
Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of
policy formation on resource recovery. Unpublished data, 1972
n
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TABLE 5
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT COMPARISON FOR 1,000 TONS OF STEEL PRODUCT
Environmental
Effect
Virgin Materials
Use
100% Waste
Use
Change From
Increased
Recycling (%)
Virgin Materials Use
Water Use
Energy Consumption
Air Pollution
Effluents
2,278 tons
16.6 million
gallons
23,347 x 106 BTU
121 tons
250 tons -90
9.9 million -40
gallons
6,089 x 106 BTU -74
17 tons -86
Water Pollution
Consumer Wastes
Generated
Mining Wastes
67.5 tons
967 tons
2,828 tons
16.5 tons
-60 tons
63 tons
-76
-105
-97
a Negative numbers represent a decrease in that category resulting
from recycling.
Source:
Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of
policy formation on resource recovery. Unpublished data, 1972,
12
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degradation will be internalized. This might result in an improvement
in the environmental impacts of virgin material utilization and decrease
the cost advantage of virgin versus secondary materials. EP,A is carrying
out further analysis of this process and the attendant costs and results
will be presented in subsenuent reports to Congress.
The results presented indicate that in most cases studied the
atmospheric effluents, waterborne wastes, solid wastes, energy and water
consumption are substantially lower for resource recovery as compared
to virgin material utilization. However, the full environmental imnact
of this result is difficult to assess completely. Residuals and wastes
produce different degress of environmental damage depending both upon
their composition and the location in which they are released. Emissions
in high population areas could affect public health and welfare, vhile
in rural areas, plant and wildlife ecology could be altered. Further
research and analysis is needed to evaluate the overall environmental
impact of the different mix and different location of emissions brought
about by increased levels of recycling.
Economics. There are a number of historical, technical, locational,
attitudinal, and other reasons for the decline of resource recovery, all of
which can be translated into relatively high total costs for waste recovery
compared with virgin materials processing. Secondary materials derived
from municipal waste in almost every instance have a higher cost to the
material user than virgin materials.
Again glass, paper, and ferrous metals provide illustrations.
Glass. Cost comparisons of glass manufacture from either waste glass
(cullet) or virgin raw materials depend primarily on the delivered cost
to the plant of each raw material. Glass can be made from cullet in
existing plants with minor and inexpensive process changes. The production
costs are essentially the same with either raw material. Similarly, a
new plant designed to use cullet would be very similar to a olant based
on virgin materials and would be no more costly to construct.
Table 6 compares the cost of using virgin raw materials with the cost
of using cullet. The lower end of the cullet price range reflects a
transportation distance of 25 miles or less. As distance from the glass
plant increases, the price obviously rises. Since most recovered glass
would need to be moved more than 25 miles, the upper end of the range
provides the best estimate.
Glass manufacturers are not likely to make even the minor process
changes required to increase cullet consumption where the cost of using
the virgin materials from well established sources with predictable
supplies and prices is equal to or less than that of bringing an unfamiliar,
possibly contaminated substitute.
Paper. The comparative economics of using supplemental waste paper
in existing mills for manufacturing certain paper products are shown in
Table 7. These examples are by no means exhaustive of the many paper
industry products, but these cases representing three products with
different economic characteristics support what would seem to be obvious
from the current industry orientation. The cost penalty for increasing
13
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TABLE 6
COST COMPARISON FOR GLASS ($/TON)
Gullet
Cost Component Virgin Materials (Waste Glass)
Raw Materials Delivered $15.48 $ 0
Gullet Delivered 0 17.77 - $22.77
Fusion Loss 2.95 0
Incremental Handling Costs
at Glass Plant 0 .50-1.00
TOTAL $18.43 $18.27 - $23.77
Source:
Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in
support of policy formation on resource recovery.
Unpublished data, 1972.
14
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TABLE 7
COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS OF PAPER MANUFACTURE
FROM RECYCLED AND VIRGIN MATERIALS
Printing/
Product Linerboard Corruga ing writing
ItlGdlllin
paper
Newsprint
Baseline case
(recycled fiber
content)
Baseline average
operating cost
0%
$78.50/ton
15%
Supplemental fiber
use (recycled fiber
content)
25%
40%
Operating cost with
increased use of
recycled fiber $82.25/ton
Net cost of
increased
recycled fiber
usage
$3.75
0%
100
0%
$79.50/ton $80-$120/ton $125/ton
100
$82.00/ton $100-$150/ton $98/ton
$2.50 $20-$ 30/ton -$27
Source:
Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of policy
formation on resource recovery. Unpublished data, 1972.
15
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the use of paperstock is $2.50/ton for corrugating medium, $3.75/ton for
linerboard (corrugating medium and linerboard are the materials used to
make corrugated boxes), and $20-$30/ton for printing/writing paner. The
latter cost differential is the result of substantial upgrading of waste
paper that would be required to produce a product of the present high
quality required in the printing/writing grade of naper. The cost of
newsprint manufacture, however, is lowered by using 100 percent recycled
fiber (deinked newsnrint). This has heen the only major new market for
waste paper in recent years.
The economics of constructing nev.» mills based on either virgin or
secondary fibers also shows why the industry has preferred to build
plants utilizing virgin fiber. An analysis of folding boxboard (combina-
tion board made from secondary fiber versus solid wood oulp board made
from virgin pulp) found the return on investment for the virgin based
plant to be 8.1% while that for a plant based on waste paper (combination
board) was only 4.5%. Under such circumstancps, construction of new
combination board mills is highly unlikely.
Ferrous Metals. The costs to an integrated steel producer of
using scrap versus ore are difficult to determine. The steel industry
does not maintain or at least does not report such figures. Estimates
have been made, however, which indicate that the cost of using high-grade
scrap is higher than the cost of using
The point of equivalency of scrao and ore in the production process
is the point where either hot molten pig iron or melted scrap is used to
charge a basic oxygen furnace (BOF). The total cost of scrap at this
point was estimated to be $44.00 per ton, including $33.50 purchase price
of the scrap, $6.00 melting cost, $3.50 for scrap handling, and $1.00
for increased refractory wear caused by scrap usage. The cost of molten
pig iron (which competes directly with scrap) was estimated at $37.50 per
ton including $28.50 for the ore and associated raw materials, and $9.00
for melting cost. Thus, the cost of scrap ready for charging to a ROF is
about $6.50 per ton greater than the hot metal derived from ore at the
same point. Thus, without a reduction in scrap cost of at least $6.00
to $7.00 per ton, it is unlikely that there will be a substantial increase
in utilization of scrap by existing steel mills in BOF steel production.
Nonintegrated steel mills using electric furnaces (which operate on
virtually a 100 percent scran charge) of course, find scrap use economical.
These scattered mills are usually located near metropolitan areas and
transport cost of scrap is not a major expense.
The above cases illustrate the fundamental economic barriers to the
increased utilization of secondary materials. The economics of recovery
today result in the recovery of all waste materials that are of high
-------
quality and can be obtained from reasonably concentrated sources. Extrac-
tion of materials from solid waste is limited both by the relatively low
quality of such wastes due to contamination and admixture with foreign
materials, and by the relatively greater effort required to acquire such
materials.
Economic Disincentives. A part of the cost differentials between
secondary and virgin raw materials are in fact artificially created by
public policy actions. Virgin materials enjoy depletion allowances and
other subsidies such as favorable capital gains treatments. For example,
due to the 15 percent depletion allowance on iron ore, the ore producer
could lower his selling price by 13.5 percent without reducing his profit
margin. Publicly controlled freight rates appear to discriminate against
the movement of scrap materials. To a large extent, virgin materials
prices do not reflect the full costs of environmental degradation the
materials create. Furthermore, the fuels required for energy to extract
and to process the virgin materials—which are high energy consumers—are
also subsidized by depletion allowances.
Environmental regulations will tend to internalize pollution costs
and may partially close the relative cost gap between use of virgin and
recycled materials. However, the overall timing and impact of these measures
is difficult to predict. Under the present market conditions, pollution
regulations may in some cases work to the detriment of recycling. For
example, in the paper industry many combination board mills (the major
users of secondary paper) are already economically marginal operations and
will find it difficult to absorb additional pollution control expenditures.
Also, many types of environmental degradation resulting from virgin
materials use, e.g., strip mining are not currently subject to controls.
Resource Recovery Technology. Technology to process mixed municipal
wastes for recovery as materials, commodities and energy has been and is
being developed by private industry, generally without Federal support.
EPA's resource recovery demonstration program, carried out under
Section 208 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act, is designed to demonstrate
the major technologies that have been developed in areas where both economic
and market conditions for successful demonstration can be found.
The major technical options being considered are the following:
Materials separation into saleable components.
Composting of waste and production of soil modifiers.
Waste heat recovery in conventional incineration.
Waste heat recovery in high temperature incineration.
Direct firing of prepared waste as fuel.
Pyrolysis of waste to generate steam or gaseous, liquid, or
solid fuel.
17
-------
Of these options, a number have already been or are now being
demonstrated.
Wet materials separation employing a system developed by the Black-
Clawson Company has been demonstrated at Franklin, Ohio, with EPA support.
After shredding, metals, glass, and saleable pulp are separated.
A number of composting plants have been built and have been operated
successfully from a technical point of view (See Appendix). The majority
have failed, however, because markets for the compost products did not
materialize. The rather high cost of producing compost is not sufficiently
offset by income from its sale.
Waste heat recovery in conventional incineration has been demonstrated
both here and abroad; this is also a well known practice. (See Appendix).
Direct firing of prepared waste as fuel is now being demonstrated in
St. Louis, Missouri. Waste is shredded; ferrous metals are removed by a
magnet; and the remaining waste, including nonferrous metals and broken
glass, is introduced into a utility boiler where it is burned with coal
to generate steam for the utility's turbines.
Partial separation of incinerator residues, i.e., the extraction of
steel cans by magnets, has been demonstrated at a number of locations.
Major technical options or variants that have not yet been demon-
strated include the following:
Total Incinerator Residue Separation as Developed by the Bureau of
Mines. This system recovers glass, nonferrous metals and some fractions
of the minerals in residues in addition to iron and steel. A pilot plant
has been operated by the Bureau of Mines.
Dry Mechanical Waste Separation. Various components of such systems
(such as shredders, magnets, grinders, conveyors, etc.) are commercially
available. An air separator which performs a gross division of wastes into
combustible and noncombustible fractions has been employed as part of an
EPA contract with Combustion Power Equipment Co. in Los Angeles, California.
Materials separators have been widely used in other industries such as
mining and agriculture. To date application of these technologies to
solid waste separation have not been fully exploited by industry because
secure markets for output products do not exist.
Waste Heat Recovery in High Temperature Incineration. Several such
incinerators have been developed; all operate in a similar manner.
Pyrolysis. Several systems have been developed by high-technology
companies (Monsanto, Hercules, Garrett, Union Carbide). Like high temperature
18
-------
incinerators, these are also very similar in operation. They can be
designed to yield outputs of fuel gas, oil, and char, or can be utilized
directly to generate steam.
Economic data on the investment costs, operating costs, and
revenues of major resource recovery system options have been developed
by Midwest Research Institute under contract with EPA and the Council
on Environmental Quality. All of the major systems examined show a
net cost of operation: revenues are not sufficient to cover all
operating costs. In a municipally owned plant with an input capacity of
1000 tons per day, net costs will range from a low of $2.70 per ton for
fuel recovery by direct waste firing to a high of $8.97 per ton for
incineration with electrical generation (Table 8). While the costs
indicate that resource recovery by processing is not a profitable venture,
in those communities where disposal costs are high, the lower cost
resource recovery options offer a means of reducing disposal costs.
Figure 1 shows that recovery system economics improve with size.
These data are based on current prices for secondary materials (Table 9).
The results show that recovery by processing could be attractive in
large cities generating large quantities of waste if the increased
quantities of materials recovered do not drive secondary material prices
down. Table 10 shows the sensitivity of system economics to the market
price of recovered materials. It can be seen that, if higher prices
are obtained, which may be the case if incentives for use of secondary
materials are instituted, system economics are significantly improved.
Using the case of materials recovery as an example, a 50 percent increase
in prices results in a reduction of net costs from $4.77 per ton to $2.56
per ton. A materials price decrease of the same amount would raise net
costs to $6.98.
The costs presented in Tables 8 and 10 suggest that resource recovery
is a more economical option than incineration. The fact that there is
no apparent move to install resource recovery systems is partially
explained by the fact that the markets for recovered commodities are
uncertain. Cities are unable to obtain purchase contracts with local
buyers of waste materials at fixed prices. The failure rate of compost
plants, due to lack of markets, has solidified feelings of market
uncertainty. And finally, traditional municipal reluctance to undertake
large scale capital investment, particularly where there is some element
of risk, and other institutional problems have also contributed to the
failure to move to resource recovery systems.
In summary, in most cases technology is available for implementing
resource recovery through the processing of mixed municipal wastes. The
technical processing route is costly but, in some of the technical options,
costs approach those of other means of disposal. Although technological
improvements would result in some cost reductions, technology is not
19
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TABLE 9
Quantity and Value of Recoverable Resources
in Mixed Waste I/
Resource
Paper
Glass
Ferrous
metals 4_/
Nonferrous
metals
Oil
Fuel (as a
coal sub-
stitute
Steam
Electric
energy
Humus
Recovered Estimated unit Total annual
quantity value FOB plant revenues
Yield 3/ available 2/ ($/unit) ($)
45%
70%
90%
67%
100%
100%
100%
100%
45,000 tons
16,800 tons
20,400 tons
1,200 tons
1,440,000 MBtu
2,700,000 MBtu
2,000,000 M Ib.
200,000,000 kw-h
75,000 tons
15.00
10.00
12.00
200.00
.70
0.25
0.50
.006
6.00
675,000
168,000
244,000
240,000
1,008,000
675,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
450,000
I/ Not all of these values are additive. For example if paper is reclaimed
as fiber it cannot also be recovered as oil or fuel.
2/ Assumes a 1000 TPD plant operating 300 days per year or 300,000 tons of
waste. Also assumes recovery rates based on technology assessment of
available systems.
3_/ Yield equals the percentage of the material or energy in the waste
which can actually be recovered. In general, losses and technical
limitations make this less than 100%.
4/ This assumes recovery from mixed waste. If recovery is from an
incinerator residue, the value is assumed to drop to $10 per ton, and
only 12,700 tons are recoverable.
Source:
Midwest Research Institute. Resource recovery from mixed muni
cipal solid wastes. Unpublished data, 1972.
22
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TABLE 10
Sensitivity of System Economics to Market Value
of Recovered Resources
Materials recovery
Incineration and
residue recovery
Incineration and
steam recovery
Incineration and
electric generation
Pyrolysis
Composting
Fuel recovery
2.56
6.29
5.39
6.98
2.65
4.44
1.17
4.77
7.18
7.05
8.97
5.42
6.28
2.70
6.98
8.08
8.72
10.98
8.18
8.12
4.24
9.20
8.96
10.38
12.98
10.96
9.95
5.77
Source:
Midwest Research Institute. Resource recovery from mixed
municipal solid wastes. Unpublished data, 1972.
23
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likely to dramatically improve the marketability of products. If
incentives for secondary materials consumption were instituted, and
improved prices for waste-based commodities were established, further
technology development by the private sector could be expected.
Recovery from Mixed Municipal Waste
In order to achieve recovery of materials from mixed municipal
waste economics must be favorable at two key points. The municipality
must find the cost of resource recovery competitive with disposal,
and secondly, the user of the materials from these systems must find
the cost of these secondary materials competitive with virgin materials
substitutes. Recovery of materials from mixed municipal waste requires
processing. With the exception of a score or so of very large cities,
most communities have disposal costs which are lower ($2 and $3 per ton)
than the resource recovery alternative. As shown above, recovery pro-
cessing costs tend to exceed revenues from the sale of products, and
the resulting net cost is higher in most places than current disposal
costs.
Even in areas where disposal costs are already high—in excess of
$5 per ton—resource recovery is limited because no markets can be
guaranteed for recovery plant outputs at the tonnage levels at which
they can be produced.
From the standpoint of the municipality, then, two changes that would
bring about larger scale recovery of mixed municipal waste are (1) higher
prices for recovery plant outputs or—alternatively—reduced recovery plant
production costs and (2) an increase in demand for waste-based raw materials,
These requirements, however, are somewhat, at odds with the require-
ments of the user who must purchase the outputs of such plants. As has
been shown, the economics of virgin materials use are already more
favorable than the economics of secondary material use. Lower waste
prices are needed to change this situation. In order to insure a demand
for secondary materials, they must either decrease in price or~
alternatively—their use must be subsidized.
24
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Section 3
DISCUSSION OF MAJOR OPTIONS
EPA's studies have progressed to a point where the major options
available to bring about resource recovery at an increased rate -- where
such action can be justified on environmental and conservation grounds --
are generally identifiable. The fundamental requirement is to create a
situation wherein industrial materials users will substitute secondary
materials for virgin materials to the extent this results in more efficient
use of resources. This situation could be brought about by three types of
activities: (1) actions to inhibit the use of virgin materials, (2)
actions to create a demand for secondary materials, and/or (3) actions
to create a supply of secondary materials of such quality and at such a
price that they will appropriately satisfy the new demand.
Inhibitory mechanisms, aimed at restricting the consumption of
virgin materials, would normally take the form of disincentives or
regulatory actions. Actions to create demand or supply would normally
require the provision of positive incentives. An analysis of each of
the major options follows.
Inhibition of Virgin Materials Use. If the supplies of virgin materials
available to industry were denied or restricted, the cost of the remaining
available portion would rise as a consequence of continuing demand. In
relation to secondary materials, then, virgin materials would become more
expensive, and more secondary materials would be used. Similarly, if
the costs of virgin materials were raised artificially (by taxation, by
removal of depletion allowances, capital gains treatment, or other means),
the same consequence would result.
The desirability of major intervention into virgin materials use in
order to increase recycling can be easily questioned on the grounds that
a very large materials tonnage (5.8 billion tons) may have to be affected
in order to increase a small portion (55 to 60 million tons).
Several "natural" events are likely to cause virgin materials to rise
in cost without any form of government intervention. These events include:
(1) tighter pollution control regulations and enforcement, resulting in
higher pollution control costs; (2) increasing energy costs, which will
affect virgin materials proportionately more because they are more energy-
intensive than secondary materials; (3) depletion of high Duality domestic
reserves and the need to exploit lean ore deposits or to import raw materials
across greater distances; (4) potentially adverse foreign trade policies;
and others. The timing and impact of these market corrections is
difficult to predict but are expected to be significant.
25
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"Artificial" intervention is possible through the institution of
virgin materials taxes and/or the removal or modification of favorable
tax treatment of virgin materials and energy substances, regulation of
virgin materials that are available from Federal land, denial of markets
to virgin materials through Federal procurement policies, changes in
transportation costs through Federal regulation of rail and ocean freight
rates, changes in Federally mandated labeling regulations, and, at the
extreme, the institution of national materials standards that would limit
the use of virgin materials in major materials to some percentile below
that now common.
The costs, benefits, and probable effectiveness of each major action
listed above are under analysis. Based on initial findings, EPA sees
justification for more aggressive Federal procurement policies to limit
the use of virgin materials in products (with all the implied consequences
of such a leadership posture), actions to remove freight rate disparities
that appear to favor virgin materials, and removal of labeling regulations
that discourage consumer purchasing of products that contain "waste"
materials.
An example of Federal procurement changes already exists. The
changes introduced in 76 paper product specifications by the General
Services Administration under orders from the President are already
having some impact on paper and board production. Intensification of such
actions is certain to have beneficial impacts on resource recovery.
Fiscal measures (e.g., taxes to discourage virgin use) could be
addressed to the artificial economic benefits which now favor virgin
materials use. Such measures, however, would have a variety of other
impacts as well, which are being evaluated to determine whether or not
fiscal measures to inhibit virgin materials uses are cost effective. In
light of a series of natural events that will raise virgin materials costs-
especially rising energy costs—fiscal intervention may not appear
either necessary or desirable.
Regulatory actions are viable alternatives for increasing resource
recovery, but such actions, as related to virgin materials resource use,
need further evaluation to determine their side effects, which may be
adverse.
Demand Creation. EPA's investigations to date lead to the conclusion
that positive economic incentives may be desirable in order to arrest the
relative decline of materials recovery and to increase the proportion of
total national materials needs satisfied from waste-based raw materials.
26
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There is evidence that energy recovery from mixed municipal waste will
become a very real option to both private and public sector waste management
organizations without incentives of any sort and that limited materials
recovery—steel, aluminum, and glass—will accompany such energy recovery
activities.
The most efficient incentive for materials recovery would be one
which results in the creation of new demand by industry for secondary
materials, such as some form of tax incentive or subsidy payment to users
of secondary materials. If an incentive results in a "demand pull" by
industry, such demand will automatically result in changes in the way
wastes are stored, collected, and processed. The key to increased recovery
is the waste commodity buyer rather than the commodity supplier. Only if
the buyer finds waste materials a more economical alternative than virgin
materials will greater quantities be utilized. Incentives provided
directly to the buyer are most likely to have the most dramatic effect
on his actions.
Demand creation incentives can take a variety of forms. The
particular form the incentive takes is important from the administrative
and legal points of view. Also, different types of incentives have
different efficiencies (cost --effectiveness). The important point--
regardless of mechanism used—is that the materials producer (steel mill,
paper mill,, glass plant, etc.) should find himself in a situation where the
use of secondary material is to his economic advantage.
Potentially, several types of incentive measures satisfy this criterion:
investment tax credits, tax credits for use of secondary materials, subsidy
payments or bounties, subsidy of plant and equipment for processing or
using secondary materials, etc. If the incentive is made available to the
materials consumer directly, a demand for waste materials will result.
Functionally, the incentive must be high enough so that—at the point
of materials consumption—the cost of the secondary material to the buyer
is at least the same (in the same quality range) as the cost of the virgin
material. Investigations are underway to identify the level of necessary
incentives. As shown in a previous section, it appears that the incentive
required to "equalize" the costs of virgin and secondary materials would
range from $2.50 to $30 per ton of material recovered. These values are
based on a limited number of comparisons and should be viewed as somewhat
tentative. It is estimated that an "across the board" incentive sufficient
to result in substantial increases in resource recovery would range from $3
to $5 per ton of material recovered. A subsidy of this magnitude should
be largely offset by savings in disposal cost since materials recycled
would be removed from the waste stream and thus would not incur the cost of
landfill or incineration. In addition, there would be important environ-
mental benefits from increased recycling.
Supply Creation... Incentives for demand creation are viewed as
sufficient inducement to bring about resource recovery at an accelerated
rate. Such incentives, if appropriately designed, should spur private and
public investment in resource recovery plants and systems, to deliver to
industry the types and quantities of secondary materials it will demand.
27
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As incentives bring about demand by consumers for increased quantities
of secondary materials, the demand will reverberate down the chain of
suppliers and will bring about some changes in supply patterns. It is
likely, for example, that increased "skimming" of accessible wastes
(removal from wastes before discard) such as newspapers, corrugated boxes,
and office papers would occur from municipal and commercial sources and
that such recovery would take place at lower overall costs than technological
sorting.
Most of the solid waste materials that would be demanded by industry
now pass through the hands of municipal solid waste management organizations
who collect waste in mixed forms. In order to sell all proportions of waste
now collected, these organizations face two alternatives: to collect waste
fractions separately or to process mixed wastes into separate fractions.
Both alternatives have drawbacks. Separate collection of different
waste fractions, while once widely practiced, has virtually disappeared.
Combined waste collection using the more efficient compactor truck has
become standard in residential, institutional, and commercial waste collection
practice. Reinstitution of separate collection will require changes in
practices and equipment.
The processing option is capital intensive. The economics of processing
require large plant sizes in order to take advantage of economics of scale.
In order for the economics to be attractive, plant sizes of 1000 tons per
day of input or higher are required. There are few communities with such
high generation rates.
If demand incentives result in hiaher secondary materials prices, public
and private waste management organizations would be able to justify processing
of municipal wastes for recovery in neu of processing for disposal. Higher
prices for waste-based commodities will also permit the use of smaller capa-
city plants; the higher prices will compensate for the higher processing
costs of small plants.
In smaller communities, where recovery by processing is not likely to
be economical, provision of supplies by separate collections is a possibility.
The separate collection option, which was once practiced extensively, will
require technical, institutional, and social changes to become a part of
today's society. At this point, enough knowledge has been gained to see
that citizen enthusiasm for resource recovery (expressed in the institution
of thousands of neighborhood recycling centers), holds the potential for new
and innovative options for solid waste collection. Furthermore, the success-
ful experience of Madison, Wisconsin, where city crews collect newspapers
separated from other wastes by the citizenry, indicates that alternatives
to large scale recovery plants do indeed exist.
Such approaches to supply creation are still being analyzed as part of
EPA's resource recovery studies program.
28
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Other Options. In addition to action programs that would impact
directly on resource recovery, a number of related activities are also
under consideration whose consequences would be to attack the broader prob-
lem of "excessive materials consumption" in the United States rather than
one aspect of that problem, low resource recovery rates.
Source reduction proposals are usually aimed at a particular product
(beverage containers) or a class of products (packaging, appliances).
Source reduction options fall into four categories: (1) bans or other
disincentives applied to a product or class of products; (2) performance
standard setting that will result in longer-lived products, whereby more
"use" or "service" is obtained from a given quantity of materials than is
the case if rapid obsolescence is promoted; (3) substitution of production
processes with low waste yields for waste-intensive processes, for instance,
dry paper-making in place of wet pulping; and (4) substitution of products
with low-materials requirements for those with high materials requirements,
for instance, electronic calculators for the more material-intensive mech-
anical calculators or substitution of electronic communications media for
media that require paper.
EPA's investigation of source reduction concepts is currently aimed at
packaging and other disposables, products which are particularly significant
in their contribution to solid waste quantities and whose consumption has
been growing rapidly. An EPA study is underway to examine alternate taxing
and regulatory measures for reducing the quantities of packaging materials
consumed.
Such measures might be successful in either (a) reducing consumption of
packaging and other disposables, (b) stimulating designs of more recyclable
packaging or products, or (c) providing funds for defraying the litter clean-
up, collection and disposal costs presently associated with these materials.
The secondary effects of these measures, such as economic dislocations and
employment disruptions are also being examined.
Of the various major options available for increasing the rate of
recovery, intensified Federal procurement of waste-based products and further
exploration of positive demand incentives appear most desirable in the
long term, accompanied by activities to bring into line virgin and secondary
materials freight rates. More information is needed about the necessity
for and the effects, fairness, and workability of both source reduction
and resource recovery incentive concepts before any such measures are
implemented.
Demand creation would be achieved most efficiently by the direct route
of rewarding the waste consumer for using secondary materials. Incentives
for demand creation, if properly designed may bring about resource recovery
at an accelerated rate and would probably spur private and public investment
in resource recovery plants and systems to supply secondary materials. Certain
changes in supply patterns may emerge which will result in some waste materials
circumventing the recovery plants. "Skimming" of accessible wastes such as
newspapers, corrugated boxes and office papers is such a change. For
smaller communities where recovery by processing is not likely to be
economical, provision of supplies by separate collection is a potential
solution.
29
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Actions aimed at removing certain artificial barriers are under serious
consideration by EPA, especially Federal procurement policies to increase
the use of secondary materials in products and actions to remove freight
rate disparities that appear to favor virgin materials.
Taxes and regulation to reduce the consumption of certain product
categories such as packaging to reduce the load on the solid waste stream
are presently under investigation. Stimulation of more recyclable package
designs and provision of funds for litter clean-up are secondary benefits
of such actions.
30
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Secti on 4
DISCUSSION OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
The foregoing presentation and preliminary conclusion as well as the
data, information, and discussions of specific materials included in the
Appendix are based on EPA resource recovery program activities, carried
out both by in-house staff efforts and contract research in support of
internal analysis.
An overview of the basic plan for carrying out the Congressional
mandate is shown in Figure 2. The problem is defined in terms of the
adverse environmental effects of materials processing and disposal and
efficiency of resource utilization. The broad solutions identified to
the problem are increased resource recovery and source reduction activi-
ties. A number of policy options available to achieve the solution are
shown. Next, specific program activities to implement the policy option
are shown arranged into "primary" and "secondary" priority emphasis cate-
gories. Finally, an evaluation procedure by which specific action programs
will be selected for recommendation is outlined.
Figure 3 shows the various alternatives available for reaching the
objective of increased waste utilization; Figure 4 illustrates the alter-
natives available to obtain the objective of source reduction; and Figure 5
illustrates the points in the materials cycle where the various action
program alternatives would have their impacts.
For purposes of discussion, EPA's program efforts can be classified
into three types of activities: (1) background studies that provide for
understanding the subject of resource recovery in its many facets; (2)
studies to formulate and to analyze action programs; and (3) studies to
evaluate the impacts and effectiveness of action programs that appear to
have merit. In what follows, the various past, on-going, and projected
activities of EPA will be discussed under these headings.
Background Studies. Background investigations include data collection,
survey, and information classification in order to establish the status and
trends of recycling and identify problems, barriers and opportunities for
increased waste use. To date a number of background investigations have
been completed and are nearing publication. A list of completed studies is
31
-------
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FIGURE 3
OBJECTIVE: TO INCREASE UTILIZATION OF WASTE
INHIBIT THE USE OF VIRGIN MATERIALS
PROMOTE THE USE OF WASTE MATERIALS
Regulate virgin
material supply
\
\Create economic disincentives
[fox* Vtffftn rorATF A RFI TARI F MIPPI Y
material use C OF WASTE MATERIALS CREMEJlPiHW,. FOR WASTE MATERIALS
Discourage virgin
material use
Regulate virgin material use
Create economic
incentive for the use
of uaste materials
Encourage use of uaate
materials
Regulate uaste material
Develop new uses
for aaste
materials
Guarantee purchase
of aaste materials
OBTAINING WASTE MATERIALS
COLLECTION OF SOURCE SEPARATED HATFMALS UP6RAOING HASTE MATERIALS
DIVERSION OF MATERIALS
BEFORE ENTERING WASTE
EXTRACTION OF MATERIALS
FROM WASTE
Create economic
incentive for source
separation
egulate source separation
(Create disincentive for
or regulate disposal
Create incentive for collection
of source separated materials
Create disincentive for
or regulate disposal
ICreate economic incentive
I for uaste upgrading systems
Carry out RtD for
resource recovery system
UPGRADING PRODUCTS THAT PRODUCE WASTE
Create economic incentive
for resource recovery systems
Encourage source separation
Encourage neu product
design Regulate
product design
Create economic incentive
for product redesign
Carry out RtD
for nea product design
RESOURCE RECOVERY POLICY OPTIONS
33
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presented on Table 11. These cover topics such as municipal resource
recovery practices, secondary materials recovery, unit processes in
resource recovery, and comprehensive recovery systems.
Review of this information is underway, data and information gaps have
been identified, and the need for further background investigations has
been established in the following areas:
(1) Recycling base line - In order to assess an incentive mechanism
designed to increase recovery of wastes, it is first necessary to
project future recycling that is likely to occur in the absence of the
proposed incentive. Factors which could influence this base line are:
.Rising municipal disposal costs.
.Environmental legislation.
.Recovery technology development.
.Rising energy prices.
.Change in labor productivity.
.Private sector and local government actions.
An investigation is being carried out to forecast this base line in
the absence of Federal Government activity.
(2) Available for recycling - It is also important to estimate the
practical upper limit on recovery in order to assess the effectiveness of
proposed recycling measures. It is not feasible to recover all of the
solid waste generated. The amount available for recycling is determined
by factors such as:
.Losses in processing, collection and handling.
.Amounts generated in remote areas.
.Self disposal activities.
.Materials dispersed in trace quantities.
.Materials concealed or mixed in products.
The practical limits on recycling are being projected to serve as a
guide for evaluating recycling activities.
(3) Freight rates - Transport rates may have an unfavorable effect on
the prices of secondary materials as compared to virgin materials. However,
differences which exist may be justified by cost to the carrier. An inves-
tigation of the basis and structure of transport rates is being carried out
in an attempt to:
.Compare actual freight rates for secondary and primary materials.
.Compare carrier cost of shipping and factors affecting this cost.
.Establish the effect of rates on the relative prices of virgin
and waste materials.
36
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TABLE 11
COMPLETED STUDIES AND INVESTIGATIONS
Background Studies
Salvage Markets for Commodities Entering The Solid Waste Stream -
An Economic Study.
Midwest Research Institute, 1971
Studies to Identify Opportunities for Increased Solid Waste Utilization-
Studies completed for Aluminum, Lead, Copper, Zinc, Nickel and
Stainless Steel, Precious Metals, Paper and Textiles.
Battelle Memorial Institute and National Association of Secondary
Materials Industries, 1971
Identification of Opportunities for Increased Recycling of Ferrous
Solid Waste
Battelle Memorial Institute and Institute of Secondary Iron and Steel.
1971
An Analysis of Federal Programs Affecting Solid Waste Management
and Recycling.
SCS Engineers, 1971
Catalog of Resource Recovery Systems for Mixed Municipal Waste.
Midwest Research Institute and Council of Environmental Quality, 1971
Recovery and Utilization of Municipal Solid Wastes.
Battelle Memorial Institute, 1971
Formulation and Analysis of Action Programs
An Analysis of the Abandoned Automobile Problem.
Booz-Allen Hamilton, 1972
Incentives for Tire Recycling and Reuse.
International Research and Technology, 1971
An Analysis of the Beverage Container Problem with Recommendations
for Government Policy.
Research Triangle Institute, 1972
The Economics of the Plastics Industry.
Arthur D. Little, 1972
37
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TABLE 11 (cont.)
Strategies to Increase Recovery of Resources from Combustible Solid
Wastes.
International Research and Technology, 1972
Evaluation
Economic and Environmental Analysis - Studies completed for Paper,
Ferrous Metals and Glass.
Midwest Research Institute and Council of Environmental Quality, 1971
Preliminary Report on a Federal Tax Credit Incentive for Recycling
Post Consumer Waste Materials.
Resource Planning Associates, 1972
38
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(4) Source separation and collection - In order to analyze incentives
and policies to promote increased recycling, the reliability and costs of
obtaining wastes from different sources must be known. There are three
source separation techniques currently employed to collect wastes segregated
at households or business establishments,
.Community recycling centers.
.Separate collections (by volunteer organizations, municipal or
private collectors, and secondary material dealers).
.Separation of wastes during regular household collections.
An example of the latter type of operation exists in Madison, Wisconsin,
where segregated newspapers are collected with other household wastes and
placed in a separate bin hung below the collection vehicle.
In order to provide the background information needed to evaluate
these techniques studies will be carried out to assess:
.Consumer attitudes to source separation techniques.
.Costs involved in collecting segregated materials and transporting
them to users.
.Amounts of material that can feasibly be recycled through these
channels.
Formul_a_tion__of_ Ajc^ipn. Programs. Work in this area involves identifying
and formulating means of increasing recycling through demand creation, supply
creation and inhibiting virgin material use. Studies of incentive alterna-
tives that have been completed but not yet released are listed in Table 11.
These involve incentives for automobile hulks, plastics, tires, beverage
containers and combustible wastes. These studies are presently under internal
review and, where appropriate, recommendations will be forthcoming. The con-
tract reports will be available for public distribution when the review is
complete.
Program plans are being developed for the following incentive and reg-
ulatory measures which will be analyzed and evaluated in the next year.
Economic Incentives:
.Recycling tax credit or subsidy for the use of post consumer waste.
.Investment credit or subsidy for recovery equipment.
.Virgin material tax to increase cost of virgin material use.
.Waste generation tax to reduce the amount of waste produced.
.Government procurement to create a demand for waste materials.
.Depletion allowance adjustment to increase costs of virgin materials.
Regulatory Measures:
.Transport rate adjustment to equalize freight rates.
39
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.Material standards specifying waste use in certain products.
.Virgin resource control on Federal lands.
.Regulation of waste and virgin material imports and exports.
Evaluation. Evaluation of the programs listed above consists of
determining:
1. The wastes recycled.
2. The resources conserved.
3. The environmental impacts.
4. The costs and savings.
5. The implementation requirements.
6. Other impacts such as employment, foreign trade, industrial
dislocation, etc.
Work in this area involves first developing a methodology for carrying
out the evaluation of the different aspects and secondly, applying the
methodology to the specific incentive and regulatory measures. As indicated
by the reports listed on Table 11, environmental impact analysis for paper,
ferrous metals, and glass has been started and a preliminary cost effec-
tiveness study has been carried out for one type of incentive—the recycling
tax credit.
As will be discussed below, additional work is required in the areas
of predicting waste recycling and estimating resource requirements and
environmental impacts. The costs and savings follow directly from these
measures. The implementation requirements and other impacts must be evaluated
on an individual basis for each particular incentive or regulatory mechanism.
(1) Predicted recycling - In order to predict the amount of waste
material that would be recycled as a result of an incentive or regulation
it is necessary to estimate the elasticity of supply and demand with price
for the waste and the competitive virgin material. This requires analysis
of historical price-quantity data, financial analyses to determine the
effect on profit, return and investment decisions, and analysis of material
processing costs. Work is underway aimed at recycling through the major
waste using industries (such as waste paper, scrap steel, and glass).
(2) Environmental impacts and resource consumption - Work in this area
involves laying out the entire waste material use system from acquisition
to disposal. At each element of the system the air and water pollution pro-
duced are calculated along with the energy, water and materials consumed.
Comparisons are made with and without recycling and the net environmental
impact is determined. The work completed for paper, ferrous metals and
glass will be expanded to include calculation of the pollution abatement
cost savings due to recycling. Similar analyses will be carried out for
aluminum, rubber, textiles and plastics.
40
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In summary evaluation of the regulatory mechanisms and incentives
involves:
1. Determining the effectiveness of the measures proposed.
2. Comparing this to the recycling base line and practical upper limit.
3. Estimating costs and benefits.
4. Making an informed .judgement as to the value of the measure.
Program activities described above are aimed at providing information
necessary to formulate meaningful resource recovery policy. In the last
half of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1973, recommendations will be made
for measures to accomplish the goal of increased resource recovery on an
environmentally, economically and socially sound basis. These measures
will be described in the Second Annual Report to Congress.
41
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REFERENCES
1. Ayres, R. U., and A. V. Kneese. Environmental pollution. In Resource
Recovery Act of 1969 (Part 2). Hearings before the Subcommittee on
Air and Water Pollution of the Committee on Public Works, U.S. Senate,
91st Cong., 1st sess., S.2005, Serial No. 91-13. Washington, U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1969. p.821.
2. Ayres, and Kneese, Environmental pollution, p.821. (Data for 1968 and
1971 are extrapolations from the 1963, 1964, 1965 base data.)
3. Ayres, and Kneese, Environmental pollution, p.819.
4. Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for materials in solid
wastes. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972. 187 p.
5. Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of policy
formation on resource recovery. Unpublished data, 1972.
6. Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. The role of packaging in solid waste
management, 1966 to 1976. Public Health Service Publication No. 1855.
Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969. p.105.
7. EPA extrapolation based on (1) data for 1967 from: Black, R. J., A. J.
Muhich, A. J. Klee, H. L. Hickman, Jr., and R. D. Vaughan. The national
solid wastes survey; an interim report. [Cincinnati], U.S. Department
of Health, Education, and Welfare, [1968]. p.13. (2) census data from:
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical abstract of the United States
1971. 92d ann. ed. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office. 1,008 p.
8. EPA extrapolation based on data for 1965 from: Combustion Engineering, Inc.
Technical-economic study of solid waste disposal needs and practices.
Public Health Service Publication No. 1886. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1969. [705 p.]
9. EPA extrapolation based on (1) data for 1965 from: Air pollution—1969.
Hearing before the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the
Committee on Public Works, U.S. Senate, 91st Cong., 1st sess., Oct. 27,
1969. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. 244 p.
(2) U.S. Bureau of Mines estimates.
10. EPA extrapolation based on (1) data for 1966 from: Air pollution—1969.
(2) [Agricultural handbook, 1971.]
11. Black, Muhich, Klee, Hickman, and Vaughan, The national solid wastes survey,
[1968], P.13.
12. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.35, 45-7.
13. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.58-11.
42
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14. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.81.
15. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.64-5.
16. Midwest Research Institute. Resource recovery from mixed municipal
solid wastes. Unpublished data, 1972.
43
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APPENDIX
-------
PAPER RECYCLING
Status and Trends
Paper is one of the major manufactured materials consumed in the
United States and the largest single component--35 to 45 percent by
weight—of municipal waste collected. In 1969, the Nation consumed
58.5 million tons of paper, and by 1980 this is projected to increase
to about 85.0 million tons (Figure A-l). Paper, paperboard, and
construction paper and board are the three major paper categories
and accounted for 51.5, 40.8, and 7.7 percent respectively of the 1969
paper consumption.
Only 17.8 percent (10.4 million tons) of the paper consumed in
1969 was recovered for recycling compared with 23.1 percent in 1960
and 27.4 percent in 1950.! Most of the remainder was discarded as
waste (put in landfills or dumps, incinerated, or littered) and a
portion was diverted, obscured, or retained in other products. Trends
for disposal and recycling (Figure A-l), show that the percent
recycled to consumption has been steadily decreasing. This downward
trend in recovery ratio coupled with an increase in consumption has
resulted in an accelerated rate of waste paper disposal. Between 1956
and 1967 waste paper disposal increased nearly 60 percent from 22
million tons/year to 35 million tons/year.2
Sources of Waste
Waste paper can be classified into four major grades: mixed,
news, corrugated, and high grades accounting for 27.4, 19.8, 32.6,
and 20.2 percent respectively of the waste paper recovered in 1967.
This waste paper comes from residential, commercial, and conversion
sources accounting for 16.6, 43.6, and 39.8 percent respectively of
the 1967 paper recovery. Table A-l shows the relationships between
the waste grades and sources. The recovery pattern of paper wastes
follows directly from the characteristics of each waste paper source.
Waste paper generated in conversion operations, where paper and
board are made into consumer products, is almost all recovered. It
is easily accessible, generally uncontaminated, and almost half of
such waste consists of the desirable high grades. This waste is
often baled on site by the converter and never enters the waste stream.
Quite the opposite, paper waste from residential sources is
widely dispersed and highly contaminated with adhesives and coatings
and also with other materials in the waste stream. It is costly and
difficult to remove by paper mills. Thus, almost none of the mixed
paper in residential waste is recovered.
-------
Figure A-l Paper Trends, Consumption, Disposal and Recycling
TOO
80
60
c:
o
£40
20
Consumption
\
Diverted or Retained
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
Source: Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for materials
in solid wastes. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office,
1972. Chap. IV.
A-2
-------
TABLE A-l
WASTE PAPER RECOVERY BY GRADE AND SOURCE, 1967
1,000 TONS
Grade
Mixed
News
Corrugated
High Grades
Total
Percent of Total
Residential
70
1,610
—
__
1,680
16.6
Commercial
1,860
50
2,300
200
4,410
43.6
Converting
850
345
998
1,841
4,034
39.8
Total
2,780
2,005
3,298
2,041
10,124
100.0
Note: Net exports add another 176,000 tons derived from
converting operations.
Source: Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for materials
in solid wastes. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office,
1972. p.45-23.
A-3
-------
The only paper recovered in significant quantities from residential
waste is old news. Those newspapers recovered are kept separated from
other waste by homeowners and usually collected by charitable organi-
zation's. Some municipalities have started experimenting with collecting
the newspapers along with the regular refuse collection by placing them
in special racks on the collection vehicles. This offers promise for
increasing the recovery of old newspapers from residences.
Commercial waste consists largely of business papers, mail, and
packaging materials, especially corrugated boxes and is usually concen-
trated at commercial/retail centers. It is obviously more accessible
and desirable than mixed papers from residential sources but generally
less so than conversion wastes. Corrugated boxes comprise about 52
percent of the commercial paper waste recovered. They are usually
baled or at least kept separate from other waste by the store or office.
Significant quantities of mixed papers are also recovered since they
often occur at commercial establishments in high concentrations with
few contaminants.
Additional quantities of waste are potentially recoverable from
residential and commercial sources. Based on Midwest Research Institute
estimates in 1967 there were 35.2 million tons of paper discarded as
waste and not recovered—6.3 million tons were newspapers, 8.6 million
tons were corrugated and 20.3 million tons were all other types.3 Of
course, not all of this waste is potentially recoverable. A portion of
the waste is discarded in rural or remote locations and will never be
practically recoverable. A portion is lost in litter or burned, and a
portion would be unusable for technical reasons. The MRI study estimated
that the most likely recoverable tonnage is 10.2 million tons or 29
percent of the presently unrecovered paper waste (Table A-2). Recovery
of this additional amount would have meant an increase in recycling of
over 100 percent in 1967.
Approximately half of the additional recoverable tonnage is made
up of newspapers and corrugated board, two grades already recovered in
substantial quantities. Recycling of these wastes can be facilitated
by the creation of a demand for materials so that they will be collected
prior to discard. Prior separation and separate collection of these
wastes holds forth the possibility of a relatively quick and efficient
means of increasing recycling of substantial quantities of wastes.
The remainder of the tonnage that is potentially recoverable is
mixed paper which would require further processing before recycling.
A promising technology for recovery of paper from mixed residential
waste has now been developed, however. This is the wet pulping process
developed by the Black-Clawson Company which is currently being
A-4
-------
TABLE A-2
ADDITIONAL WASTE PAPER RECOVERY POTENTIAL FROM
SOLID WASTE IN 1967
(million tons)
Newspapers
Corrugated
All other
TOTAL
Unrecovered and
discarded
as Waste
6.3
8.6
20.3
35.2
Most likely
recoverable
2.2
3.0
5.0
10. 2
Recoverable as a
% of presently
unrecovered
paper waste
35.0
35.0
24.6
29.0
Source: Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for materials
in solid wastes. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office,
1972. p.45-24.
A-5
-------
demonstrated in an Environmental Protection Agency project in Franklin,
Ohio. In this process about 400 pounds of paper fiber are recovered
for each ton of mixed waste input. Ferrous metals and glass are also
recovered during the processing. The economic feasibility of large
scale plants of this type looks promising.
Markets
From a waste utilization point of view the paper industry is made
up of an integrated segment using primarily wood pulp and an independent
segment using primarily waste paper (called paperstock by the industry).
Most recycling takes place in the independent sector. Major products
made from paper stock (and major products of the independent segment)
include combination board (e.g. cereal, detergent, and shoe boxes),
deinked newspapers, and construction paper.
Figure A-2 shows the consumption of wood pulp and paperstock in
the three major product grades of the paper industry—paper, paperboard,
and construction paper and board. Paperboard accounts for 79.0 percent
of paperstock consumption, paper 13.4 percent, and construction paper
7.2 percent of the total paperstock consumed. Thus, paper recycling
is closely tied to trends in combination board consumption.
Combination board production has grown at a substantially slower
rate than that of its direct competitor, solid wood pulp board, made
almost entirely from virgin pulp. From 1959 to 1969, total paperboard
production increased by 65%, solid wood pulp board by 112%, and combination
board by only 5 percent.4 Herein lies the major reason for the decrease
in the waste paper recycling ratio.
There has been only one major new market for waste paper in recent
years, the deinking of old newspapers to make newsprint. Newspaper
deinking is a very promising market for old news and increased news-
paper recycling will be influenced strongly by this market.
Major Issues and Problems of Paper Recycling
There are many interrelated factors that have contributed to the
decline in the percentage of paper recycled; however, the two primary
direct causes are the lack of new markets and the decline in combination
board market share.
It is technically feasible to substitute paperstock for wood pulp
in many paper products (Table A-3). However, this is not practiced
extensively due to economic factors and the present high reliance of
the dominant integrated industry on virgin pulp. Key items which
discourage use of waste paper are listed below.
A-6
-------
Figure A-2
Wood Pulp and Paper Stock Relative »o Major Grades Produced 1967
93.4
Total Paper
6.6
92.5
Newsprint
7.5
Communications
94.9 5.1
Packaging/Converting
95.0 5.0
Tissue
87.6 12.4
Total Paperboard
66.6 33.4
Unbleached Kraft
100.0 Neg.*
Semichemicol
85.1 14.9
Bleached
100.0 Neg.
Combination Board
7.0 93.0
Total Construction
72.5 27.5
Construction Paper
55.2 44.8
Hard Board; Board
93.5 6.5
Legend
| ~] Wood Pulp
| ^] Paper Stock
L
Newsprint 1.9
Percentage Distribution of Paper Stock by End Uses
Paper 13.4
_
in
in
g
X
0
u
"c
3
1
6
(N
*5>
o
u
o
a_
°t
CO
OJ
5>
i—
Paperboard 79.4
IT)
^'
_
U
4)
-C
U
*E
J!
c-
^
c
1
"e
0
Construct
7.2
m
•
i_
8.
o
a-
ion
Board
0.7-J
Note: Other fibrous materials were excluded; expressed in percent of total wood pulp and paper stock.
Based on MRI estimates.
'Small percentage of paper stock used but cannot be verified in statistics.
Source: Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for materials
in solid wastes. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office,
1972. p. 45-2.
A-7
-------
TABLE A-3
TECHNICAL LIMITS FOR RECYCLED MATERIAL FOR
PAPER AND PAPER BOARD
Paperboard
Unbleached kraft
Semi chemical pulp
Bleached kraft
Combination board
Paper
Newsprint
Office, communications
Publishing, printing*
converting
Recycle limits (% paperstock)
10-25%
100%
5-15%
90-100%
100%
10-80%
10-80%
Source; Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of
policy formation on resource recovery. Unpublished data, 1972,
A-8
-------
i 09 Is tics. Paper must be collected from diverse sourc.es>
transported to a processor, and then transported to a consuming mill.
Combination board mills are usually within reasonable distances of
waste paper sources, but the integrated mills are generally locrtod
in the South or West, near forests, but far from cities where waste
is generated. Thus, the high costs of collection and transport;-. Lion
work to the detriment of paper recycling.
Contaminants in waste paper have affected recycling economies
unfavorably, ~and also have influenced industry orientation. Separation
of waste paper by grade and removal of contaminants are labor intensive
and thus costly.
Haste paper prices have a history of wide fluctuation due to the
relative rigidity of supplies and the marginal costs of acquiring new
supplies in periods of demand upswing.
Improvements in wood pulping technology have enabled the PC. per
industry to tap abundant virgin raw materials at increasingly lov:cr costs.
PaPer mills own their own forests and most
paper equipment installed since 1945 has been wood pulp based and located
close to these virgin raw materials. The mills are designed as contin-
uous operations starting with wood, going into pulp and ending with the
finished product. L\y integration, paper mills have also been oble to
exercise control over the supply and price of their raw iraterials.
Tax Treatments. The cost of virgin wood pulp can be kept down
significantly by T~/O tax treatments—a cost depletion allovanco (credit
against income taxes based on timber owner's invested car-ital in a
forest and percentage of reserves sold) and a capital gains allowance
(profit from sales of timber is treated as a capital gain if the timber
has been owned for more than six months).
Economics
Most of the above problems have a negative effect on the economics
of waste paper use. If one examines the economics of using waste paper
in the manufacture of certain paper and board products, it is obvious
that increasing the amount of paperstock in these products increases
the cost to manufacture them.
Table A-4 shows the comparative economics of using supplemental
waste paper in existing paper mills for certain products. These examples
are by no means exhaustive of the many paper industry products, but
these cases support what would seem to be obvious from the current
industry orientation. The cost penalty for increasing the use of
A-9
-------
TABLE A-4
COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS OF PAPER MANUFACTURE
FROM RECYCLED AND VIRGIN MATERIALS
Product
Corrugating Printing/Writing News-
Linerboard Medium Paper print
Baseline case
(recycled fiber
content)
Baseline average
bperating cost
Supplemental fiber
use (recycled fiber
content)
Operating cost with
Increased use of
recycled fiber
1 5%
$78.50/ton $79.50/ton
25%
40%
0%
$80-$120/ton
100
Net cost of increased $ 3.75/ton $ 2.50/ton
recycled fiber usage
Q%
$125/t.on
100
$82.25/ton $82.00/ton $100-$150/ton $98/ton
$ 20-$ 30/ton -$27/ton
Source: Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of
policy formation on resource recovery. Unpublished data, 1972.
A-10
-------
paper stock is $2.50/ton for corrugating medium, $3.75/ton for linerboard
(these are the materials used to make corrugated boxes), and $20-30/ton
for printing/writing paper. The latter cost differential is the result
of substantial upgrading of waste paper that would be required to produce
a product of the present high standards. The cost of newsprint manufac-
ture, how:-.vor, is lowered by using 100 percent recycled fiber (deinked
newsprint). This has been the only major new market for waste paper in
recent years.
The economics of constructing new mills based on either virgin or
secondary fibers also supports industry's tvend toward use of more
virgin fiber at the expense of secondary fiber. An analysis of folding
boxboard (combination board made from secondary fiber vs. solid wood
pulp board made from virgin pulp) found the return on investment from
a virgin based plant to be 8.1 percent while that for a plant based on
waste paper (combination board) was only 4.5 percent.5 Under such
circumstances, investments in new combination board mills are very
unlikely. The reason for the shift in recent years of boxboard manufac-
ture from combination board mills to virgin based mills is obvious.
A-11
-------
FERROUS KLTALS kLCYCLING
Status and_ T/
Ferrous solid waste (primarily in L
containers and discarded consumer cpplif
percent of collected municipal solid w.v-
14 million tons in 1970. However, a mi'-
and discarded ferrous products (an csti^
generated annually and appears on our li-
as abandoned automobiles, discarded faro
rail cars, construction and demolition v.1
v) form of food and beverage
,i.es) constitutes 7 to 8
:- and totalled roughly
: p»jre sizable amount of used
!t?d 3B--54 million tons) is
c'fcape in such visible forms
"!r,iplevents, out of service
-L-te, and othor steel products
In 1967 American industry consumer! about 83.5 million tons of
iron and steel scrap and 7.6 million tons were exported (Table A-5).
The domestic scrap consumption represent^ about 65 percent of the
raw steel production (Fig. A-3). Fifty iiullion tons of this do.nestic
scrap consumption was "home" scrap that v/-?s generated in the iron and
steelmaking process and was fed back into the furnaces. Excluding
home scrap and exports, 35 million tons of scmp, or about 20 percent
of the iron and steel consumption, was recycled in 1967.
For the past 25 years, scrap os
to steelmaking has remained esscn,':ia
of this scrap purchased by the steel
the steel plant) has been decreasing
a percent of total metallic input
lly constant. Howo"?r, the amount
industry (originating froni outside
slir'itly while th:;t generated within
the steel mills hes increased. A:> shov.Vi in Fig. A-4, purchased scrap
as a percent of total scrap input to stcclnir.king has decreased froni
44.9 percent for the period 1949 -1953 to 40.0 percent from 1964-1968
In absolute terms while total steel production increased 35 percent
over the period 1950-1969, and total scrsp consumption increased 30
percent, scrap purchased increased only 8 percent.
Sources
There are two basic types of iron and steel scrap, "home" and
"purchased."
"Home scrap", the ferrous waste product generated during iron
and steel production, includes ingot croppings, sheet trimmings, and
foundry gates and risers. Being generated in the steel mill, the
scrap is of known composition and purity, and the total amount generated
is normally consumed. Home scrap represented 60 percent of the domestic
scrap consumption in 1967.7
A-l?
-------
TABLE A-5
U.S. IRON AND STEEL SCRAP CONSUMPTION - 1967
(Million short tons)
Domestic scrap consumption 85.4
Home Scrap 50.2
Purchased scrap 35.1
Prompt 13.6
Obsolete 21.5
Exports 7.6
TOTAL 93.0
Source: Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for materials
in solid wastes. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office,
1972. p. 49 and 58-11.
A-13
-------
FIGURE A-3
DOMESTIC RAW STEEL PRODUCTION AND SCRAP CONSUMPTION
150
l/y
^J^
O
I—
o:
£
CO
Ll_
o
I/O
rr
o
100
50
Raw steel
Production
Total scrao
Consumption
Purchased scran
Consumption
1
1955
1960
1965
1970 YEAR
Source: Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for
materials in solid wastes. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1972. p. 58-1 and 58-11.
A-14
-------
S-
rO
O>
I
o
I—I
H-
a.
CO
2:
o
ctr
o
CO
Q
Ul UJ
ni co
cr re
»—t o
u. or
Q_
Q
c
1V101 JO
o
CO
CTi
O t—
CM
C «
•rt 0>J
r^
w
-------
"Purchased" scrap is further classified as "prompt" or "obsolete."
"Prompt" industrial scrap is generated by metal working firms in
their fabrication of products. Standard procedures have been developed
for the recycling of prompt scrap and it never really enters the waste
stream. At least 90 percent of the available prompt scrap is estimated
to be recycled. The scrap is desirable because of its known composition,
condition, and freedom from contaminants. In addition, it is considered
a reliable material source because the quantities available are pre-
dictable and recycling channels have been established. Prompt scrap
represented about 16 percent of the domestic scrap consumption in
1967.8
"Obsolete" scrap comes from discarded iron and steel products.
Major sources are structural steel from building demolitions, ships,
railroad equipment, and abandoned motor vehicles. Ferrous solid waste,
of course, occurs in many other forms such as food and beverage cans
and home appliances which are not generally recovered due to logistics,
contamination, or other factors. Obsolete scrap represented about
25 percent of the domestic scrap consumption in 1967.9
Not all of the steel consumed flows immediately into the waste
stream and is available as scrap. Considerable portions go into
semi-permanent use (buildings, machinery, etc.) and enter the waste
stream years later. It is estimated that the 21.6 Million tons of obsolete
scrap purchased or exported in 1967 was 43-56 percent of that available
in the solid waste stream. Taking into account scrap located in remote
locations and probably not recoverable and scrap disposed by individuals,
it is estimated that roughly another 24-39 million tons of ferrous scrap
could feasibly have been recovered in 1967J0
Markets
The major markets for iron and steel scrap are the domestic steel
industry, the domestic foundry industry, and exports. In 1969, the
percentage of total scrap consumption by each was 73.8, 17.5, and 8.7
respectively.H However, in terms of purchased scrap (prompt and
obsolete) foundries and exports weigh more heavily. For the steel
industry about 35 percent of scrap consumed is purchased, while foundries
purchase about 60 percent of their scrap consumption, and exports are
naturally purchased scrap.
A-16
-------
The American steel industry is composed of approximately 110
companies of which 21 are fully integrated (coke ovens, blast furnaces,
and steelmaking furnaces), 9 operate mostly blast furnaces, and 80
operate only steelmaking furnaces, with electric steelmaking pre-
dominating. These 80 companies currently produce less than 10 percent
of the nation's steel output, but are a significant outlet for ferrous
solid waste.
The type of furnace used in steelmaking has a direct bearing on
scrap usage. Three types of furnaces are used; open hearth, which
uses approximately a 45 percent scrap charge, basic oxygen (30 percent
scrap charge), and electric (100 percent scrap). (These charges are
based on standard operating conditions which take into account both
technological and economic factors). Basic trends have been: (1) the
decline of the open hearth (from 87 percent of steel production in
1960 to 50 percent in 1968); (2) rapid rise of basic oxygen furnaces
(from 3.3 percent of production in 1960 to 37.1 percent in 1968); and
(3) moderate growth of electric furnace steel production (8.4 percent
in 1960 to 12.7 percent in 1968). To date, declines in scrap require-
ments from decreased open hearth steelmaking have been balanced by
increased scrap needs from rising electric furnace production.
In the foundry industry, scrap already accounts for about 85 percent
of the metallic input, and product specifications dictate that pig iron
be a portion of the charge in some cases. The cupola furnace which
uses an 84 percent scrap charge dominates, comprising about 90 percent
of the furnaces. Electric furnaces, which make up most of the remainder
and use 100 percent scrap have been making inroads, however. Potential
for increased scrap consumption by foundries is limited, but factors
such as increasing trend toward replacement of cupola facilities with
electric furnaces, geographic dispersion of foundries putting them closer
to scrap sources, and a growth rate in excess of domestic steel production
indicate that use of scrap by foundries should at least hold its own
and may increase slightly. However, the foundries do not have potential
as major markets for increased scrap consumption.
Exports are a significant market for iron and steel scrap,
constituting 24 percent of total purchased steel in 1970. Exports are
particularly important for movement of obsolete scrap, since a large
portion of the exports are from obsolete sources. Japan is the largest
consumer of export scrap, taking 48.8 percent of the market in 1970.
Copper precipitation is the major market for steel can scrap at
present, but is quite limited. Only about 300,000 to 400,000 tons of
old steel cans and can-making wastes, a small percentage of the estimated
5 million tons of cans produced each year, are consumed annually by this
market.'^
A-17
-------
Issues and Problems
Differential Tax Treatment. Iron ore enjoys a 15 percent
depletion allowance, and in addition iron ore producers are allowed
to use certain capital costs as current deductions. Both of these
policies reduce tax liability and thus the price at which the ore
must be sold to maintain a given profit level. For example, the
15 percent depletion allowance permits a 13.5 percent decrease in the
selling price without reducing the profit to the producer. The
percentage depletion allowance continues as long as income is derived
from the property, which is usually long after the capital investment
in the property has been recovered. Thus, iron ore producers enjoy
a major tax subsidy which is not available for secondary materials
processors.
Steel Industry Structure. The integrated portion of the steel
industry is iron ore oriented and has significant investment in ore
processing equipment. The integrated steel manufacturers generally
own virgin raw material sources and are able to exercise control over
supply and price. Uncertainties in scrap price and availability
are inconsistent with the steel industry practices of long range
planning and long term commitments to equinment and raw materials.
Scrap Quality. Rigid steel production specifications require
that scrap be processed in order to remove contaminants and impurities.
Home and prompt scrap are from known sources and are generally higher
quality than obsolete scrap (with the exception of certain obsolete
scrap such as rail, ship, and structural). Cans present a special
problem because of their contamination with tramp elements—aluminum
from tops, lead from the seams and tin. For example, lead can be
harmful to furnace refractories and too much tin causes undesirable
properties in finished steel. Thus, except in periods of peak demand
or hot metal shortages, the availability and low cost of higher quality
raw materials tends to reduce the steel maker's incentive to use the
lower quality portion of obsolete scran.
Changing Iron and Steelmaking Technology. Replacement of open
hearth furnaces by basic oxygen furnaces has tended to reduce scrap
requirements. However, the increase in usage of electric furnaces
has kept total scrap consumption roughly constant overall. Future
scrap consumption is tied closely to continued increase in electric
furnace melting. Investment decisions depend on comparative return
on investment from various types of furnaces. The ROI from an electric
furnace which uses 100 percent scrap is obviously strongly influenced
by scrap prices.
A-18
-------
The technical feasibility of using increasing scrap proportions
in other steelmaking furnaces has been demonstrated. The EOF charge,
for example, can be increased by preheating the scrap, but since this
entails additional costs, it can only be justified if scrap cost
decreases relative to ore cost.
Logistics. As with most materials occurring in solid waste,
logistics is a significant deterrent to recycling. Collection and
transport from diverse sources is costly. Recycling of large
appliances, steel cans, and other ferrous materials in mixed municipal
waste is strongly inhibited by high transport costs relative to scrap
value.
Low Growth Rate of Consuming Industries. The domestic iron and
steel Industries are not growing as rapidly as the rest of the
American economy, primarily due to increased imports, replacement of
steel by other materials, and increased use of lighter, high strength
steels. Over the past decade, while the United States economy has
grown at an annual rate of over 5 percent, iron and steel production has
grown at about 3 percent.
Economics
Most of the above issues add up to an unfavorable economic
picture for scrap use in the steel industry, though their individual
impact is difficult to measure. The total costs to an integrated
steel producer of using scrap vs. ore in a EOF were estimated by
Midwest Research Institute, in a study for the Council on Environmental
Quality.'^ The comparative costs are difficult to determine, since
the steel industry does not maintain or at least does not report such
figures. Estimates have been made, however, which indicate that the
cost of using scrap is slightly higher than the cost of using ore.
The closen point of equivalency in the production process was
the point where either hot molten pig iron or melted scrap could be
used to charge a BOF furnace. The total cost of scrap at this point
was estimated to be $44.00 per ton, including $33.50 purchase price
of the scrap, $6.00 melting cost, $3.50 for scrap handling, and $1.00
for increased refractory wear caused by scrap usage. Molten pig iron
cost was estimated at $37.50 per ton including $28.50 for the ore and
associated raw materials, and $9.00 for melting cost. Thus, the cost
of scrap ready for charging to a BOF is about $6.50 greater than the
cost of hot metal derived from ore at the same point.
The mill operator may actually perceive an even higher relative
cost of scrap usage since there will be a tendency for him to associate
a loss with letting ore reduction facilities which are already in
A-19
-------
place sit idle. The mill operator will also associate a cost (in this
case a real one) with the possibility that end products made from scrap
may be rejected because they do not meet product specifications.
Thus, without a reduction in scrap cost of at least $6.00 to $7.00
per ton, it is unlikely that there will be any increased utilization of
scrap in BOF furnaces by existing steel mills.
Usage Considerations
The reluctance of integrated steel industry to risk contamination
in situations where specifications are demanding is understandable.
However, for the small electric furnace operator serving the crude
steel rebar market—and not participating in specification steel at
all—there is no particular quality problem.
Table A-6 shows how well various steel products are suited for
input of lower grades of scrap, and it shows their tonnage figures
and percentages of total output in 1970. Rebars and hot rolled light
shapes can be produced from miscellaneous waste scrap with no signi-
ficant sacrifice in properties. In plants producing a considerable
variety of products, including high specification items, low grade
scrap would be unattractive even at low prices, since the trend is
to produce steel furnace output which can meet a wide range of product
specifications, and since low grade scrap could result in lower
quality home scrap.
The total market for rebars and light shape raw material would
be sufficient to handle the gatherable supply of low grade ferrous
scrap if all of these products were produced by electric mini-mills.
There is in fact a reasonably good fit between the ferrous solid waste
problem and the mini-mill requirements—in price, material, and
geography. However, the large integrated steel producers also share
in the rebar and shape markets and as stated above they are reluctant
to use the lower scrap grades.
A-20
-------
TABLE A-6
STEEL PRODUCT SUITABILITY FOR INCLUSION OF LOW GRADE SCRAP
Product
Reinforcing bars
Selected HR. light shapes
Subtotal
Selected wire rods
Selected rail accessories
Subtotal all above
Selected plates
Subtotal all above
Oil country goods
Heavy structural shapes
Steel piling
Subtotal all above
1970 Net
Tons Shipped
(millions)
4.891
6.076
10.967
1.607
0.440
13.014
7.777
20.791
1.307
5.566
0.495
28.159
Percent
of 1970
Shipments
5.4
6.7
TCTT
1.8
0.5
T4~4"
8.6
2370
1.4
6.1
0.5
3170
Suitability of
Low Grade Scrap
as Ingredient
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
Very good
Very good
Very good or better
Good
Good" or better
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair or better
Hot rolled strip
Hot rolled sheet
Subtotal all above
All other products
Grand total all products
1.293
12.319
41.771
49.027
90.798
1.4
13.6
46.0
54.0
100.0
Marginal
Marginal
Marginal
or better
Generally
unsuitable
Source: Midwest Research Institute. Economic studies in support of
policy formulation on resource recovery. Unpublished data, 1972.
A-21
-------
NONFERROUS METALS RECYCLING
In 1969, a total of 10.5 million tons of aluminum, copper, zinc,
and lead were consumed in the United States, and 3.2 million tons were
recycled, an average of 30 percent of consumption. Figures A-5 through
A-8 show consumption and amount of these materials recycled from 1960
to 1969. For 1969, recycling as a percent of consumption for each was
23 percent for aluminum, 46 percent for copper, 42 percent for lead,
and 10 percent for zinc.'4
Approximately 24 percent of the aluminum, and only about 4 percent
of all the other major non-ferrous metals consumed occur in municipal
waste. These four metals constituted less than one percent or roughly
1.2 million tons of collected municipal solid waste in 1968. Aluminum
accounted for 83 percent of this total.'5
Sources and Markets
Table A-7 shows the amounts of each of the nonferrous metals
recovered from prompt and obsolete sources. Copper and lead recovery
from obsolete sources is a very important part of the recovery, while
for aluminum and zinc little of the recovered scrap comes from obsolete
sources. In al1 cases virtually all of the available prompt scrap from
industrial fabrication is recovered. Recovery of the metals from
obsolete sources is directly related to the form in which the scrap
occurs and to its location. Thus, large quantities of lead are recovered
from worn out batteries returned to dealers by consumers. Obsolete zinc
which is widely scattered and usually appears in small quantities and
in combination with other materials is largely unrecovered.
The aluminum can recycling programs of aluminum producers
and soft drink producers have been the most visible effort to reclaim
aluminum from municipal waste. In 1970, these programs resulted in the
removal of about 2,875 tons of aluminum from the solid waste stream.
This was 1.3 percent of the quantity of aluminum cans reaching the
market.16
The feasibility of these programs depends on the continued voluntary
delivery of aluminum cans to the centers at no more than $200/ton. Thus
far, this price has proved to be sufficient incentive to persuade individuals,"
Boy Scout groups, and others to collect cans and bring them to the centers.
It has been estimated by one of the major aluminum manufacturers partici-
pating in the recycling program that the quantity of aluminum cans ultimately"
recoverable by this method will be between 5 and 30 percent of that reaching
the market.
A-22
-------
Figure A-5
Aluminum and Aluminum Scrap Consumption
Aluminum
Consumption
4.0
c
o
t-
c
c
o
3.0
2.n
Aluminum Scrap Consumption
(excluding home scrap)
i.n
1
-------
Figure A-6
Copper and Copper Scrap Consumption
c
o
o
£ 2
Copper
Consump
tlon
Copper Scrap Consumption
(excluding home scrap)
1960
1965
1970
Source:
Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study
to identify opportunities for increased solid waste
utilization. Book 2, v.3. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.]
A-24
-------
Figure A-7
Lead and Lead Scrap Consumption
Lead Con-
sumption
1.2
1.0
s_
c
c
o
^ n.o
0,6
0.4
Lead Scrap Consumption
(excluding home scrap)
1960
1965
1970
Source:
Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study
to identify opportunities for increased solid waste
utilization. Book 2, v.4. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.]
A-25
-------
Figure A-8
Zinc and Zinc Scrap Consumption
2.0
Zinc con-
sumption
1.6
o
O
.c
to
o
1.2
0.8
Zinc Scrap Consumption
(excluding home scrap)
1960
1965
1970
Source: Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study
to identify opportunities for increased solid waste
utilization. Book 2, v.5. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.]
A-26
-------
Table A-7
Amount of Obsolete Scrap Recovered from Prompt and Obsolete Sources, 1969
Material
Aluminum
Copper
Lead
Zinc
Source
obsolete
prompt
obsolete
prompt
obsolete
prompt
obsolete
prompt
Amount Recycled
(1000 tons)
175
855
657
832
497
88
41
141
Source: Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study
to identify opportunities for increased solid waste
utilization. Book 2, v.2-5. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.]
A-27
-------
The major sources and markets for recycled aluminum, copper, lead, and
zinc, in terms of product type, are shown in Tables A-8, A-9, A-10, and
A-ll respectively.
Issues and Problems
Nonferrous metals are high value materials for which a steady demand
exists. Compared to other materials (paper, steel, glass, textiles and
plastics) the cost of collecting, transporting, and processing non-ferrous
metal scrap is not as high a percentage of its value. In addition, costs
of refining virgin nonferrous ones are high. Since handling non-ferrous
scrap does not run cost up inordinately, the scrap is considerably cheaper
than virgin material. Thus, the scrap moves freely.
Probably the major reason that more nonferrous scrap is not recycled
is the form and location in which it occurs. Most of the non-ferrous scrap
that is easily accessible is recycled. However, there are certain types
of scrap that are too contaminated and too widely scattered to allow econom-
ical recovery despite the high value of the materials (dealers buying
prices range from $60 to $920 per ton). For example, copper in cartridge
brass and lead in ammunition are usually widely scattered over the country-
side. Zinc is usually used as an alloying agent and coating and thus is
extremely difficult to separate. Aluminum occuring in consumer durables,
transportation vehicles, and construction is often only a small part of
the product and thus much of it is never recovered. Aluminum used in
packaging and ending up in the municipal waste stream cannot be economically
recovered at present. It could only be feasibly separated as part of a
large reclamation system where other materials (constituting a higher
percentage of the waste) were also recovered.
An interesting perplexity of nonferrous metals recycling is that for
some of the metals, copper is a good example, the scrap dealers perceive
that they are pulling in about all that is available. Their estimate of
the recycling ratio would be much higher than the actual.
A-28
-------
Table A-8
Recycling of Aluminum Scrap, 1969
Sources of Obsolete Aluminum Scrap
Source
Building and
construction
Transportation
Consumer durables
Electrical
Machinery and equi
Containers and
packaging
Other
TOTAL
Estimated available
for recycling
(1 ,000 tons)
71.0
329.0
197.0
7.0
pment 61 .0
486.0
183.0
1,334.0
Estimated amount
recycled
(1,000 tons)
9.0
100.0
25.0
6.5
15.0
2.n
17.5
175.0
Percent
Recycled
13.0
30.0
13.0
93.0
25.0
0.4
9.2
13.1
Use
Markets for Prompt and Obsolete Aluminum Scrap
Scrap
Consumption
(1,000 tons)
Percent
Casting alloys
Wrought aluminum products
Exports
TOTAL
741
255
7_7_
1,073
69
24
7
100
Source: Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study
to identify opportunities for increased solid waste
utilization. Book 2, v.2. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.]
A-29
-------
Table A-9
Recycling of Copper Scrap. 1969
Sources of Obsolete Copper Scrap
Estimated available Estimated amount
for recycling recycled Percent
Source (1,000 tons) (1,000 tons) Recycled
Electrical Wire and 471.0 19.4 68
Copper Tube
Magnet Wire 158.0 13.5 9
Cartridge Brass 112.1 35.4 31
Automotive Radiators 53.0 48.5 91
Railroad Car Boxes 22.6 20.0 88
Other Brass, Cast 703.3 213.9 30
and Wrought
Alloying Additives 96.9 0 0
Miscellaneous 6.1 6.1 100
TOTALS 1,623.2 656.8 40
Markets for Prompt and Obsolete Copper Scrap
Scrap
Consumption
Use (1,000 tons) Percent
Wire and Cable 292 20
Brass Mill Products 701 47
Brass/Bronze Foundries 369 25
Other 127 8
TOTALS 1,489 100
Source: Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study
to identify opportunities for increased solid waste
utilization. Book 2, v.3. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.]
A-30
-------
Table A-10
Recycling of Lead Scrap, 1969
Source
Sources of Obsolete Lead Scrap
Estimated available1
for recycling
(1,000 tons)
Estimated amount
recycled
(1,000 tons)
Percent
Recycled
Batteries
Cable Sheathing
Solder
Bearing Metal
Type Metal
Ammunition
Other
TOTALS
922
350
32
9
10
29
5
62
497
72
25
14
30
100
6
62
54
Use
Markets for Prompt and Obsolete Lead Scrap
Scrap
Consumption
(1,000 tons)
Percent
Type
Tetraethyl Lead
Batteries
Solder
Cable
Bearings
Other
TOTALS
28
75
400
31
19
13
19
585
99.0
1 271,000 tons of lead used in tetraethvl lead for qasoline end 125,000
tons of lead used in oxides and chemicals are not included since there
is no possibility for its recovery.
Source: Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study
to identify opportunities for increased solid waste
utilization. Book 2, v.4. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.]
A-31
-------
Table A-ll
Recycling of Zinc Scrap, 1969
Sources of Obsolete Zinc Scrap
Estimated available
Source
Zinc base alloys
Old galvanized
Oxides and Chemicals
Other
TOTAL
for Recycling
(1,000 tons)
353
390
190
_T30
1,063
Estimated amount
Recycled
(1,000 tons)
33
0
0
_8
41
Percent
Recycled
9
0
0
!„
3.9
Use
Markets for Prompt and Obsolete Zinc Scrap
Scrap
Consumption
(1,000 tons)
Percent
Slab zinc
Zinc dust
Alloys
Oxides and Chemicals
TOTAL
76
34
27
45
182
41.7
18.8
14.8
24.7
100.0
Source: Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study
to identify opportunities for increased solid waste
utilization. Book 2, v.5. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National Technical Information
Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.]
A-32
-------
GLASS RECYCLING
Status and Trends
In 1967 the glass manufacturing industry produced 12.8 million tons
of glass. This production was divided among the three major segments of
the industry: containers, flat glass, and pressed and blown glass.
Containers, the most significant segment, accounted for 8.9 million tons,
while flat glass accounted for 2.1 million tons and blown glass for only
1.8 million tons.
Glass constitutes only 6 to 8 percent by weight of municipal solid
waste. There is virtually no recovery of glass from mixed waste, but a
small amount of glass is recycled through voluntary collection centers
and cullet dealers. Compared to other materials, glass is among the
lowest in recycling ratios (about 4.5 percent of consumption) when home
scrap (scrap generated in the glass manufacturer's plant) is excluded.
Of a total of 12.8 million tons of glass produced in 1967, purchased
cullet consumption was approximately 580,000 tons.17
Sources and Markets
Only a minute portion of glass waste (almost exclusively flat glass),
is associated with industrial sources. Thus, municipal waste is the main
potential source for old glass for recycling. In 1968, there were about
11.6 million tons of glass in municipal solid waste.
The best sources of quality cullet have been declining. Clear glass
milk bottles and returnable glass containers rejected from bottle washing
operations, major sources of cullet in the past, are gradually disappearing.
Sorting, collection, and delivery costs have risen, principally because
these operations are highly labor intensive. Plants have not been maintained
and equipment has not been purchased due to limited capital of the few
dealers still in operation. As the quality and availability of purchased
cullet has deteriorated, its use in the glass industry has declined.
The glass container segment of the industry, which accounts for over
70 percent of the total glass tonnage output, purchased only about 100,000
tons of cullet or 1 percent of its raw materials consumption in 1967. This
percentage is significantly lower than in the other two segments of the
industry, largely because of an increase in utilization of in-plant cullet.
Flat glass producers purchased 10 percent, or 244,000 tons, and pressed
and blown glass producers 12 percent, or 256,000 'S
A-33
-------
In addition to the use of purchased cullet in glass furnaces, there
are several alternatives for cullet utilization. The most widely publi-
cized alternative is in "glasphalt," a road surfacing material in which
cullet replaces part of the asphalt aggregate. Initial testing results at
the University of Missouri indicate that glasphalt is equal to or superior
to conventional asphalt. However, cullet would have to compete economically
with asphalt aggregate, which ranges in price from $1.50 to $5.00 per ton
delivered to the asphalt plant. Present cullet prices are significantly
higher than this amount.
Other proposed uses for cullet include construction materials, such
as glass-cement blocks, and cullet-terrazzo. Experiments to determine
feasibility of cullet utilization in these products are currently underway.
Problems and Issues
The glass industry has certain characteristics that make high levels
of recycling from waste much more favorable in the glass industry than
other industries. First, the manufacture of glass containers is essentially
a one-step process, starting with raw materials and ending with the finished
product. And second, cullet can be substituted for virgin raw materials in
large percentages, provided that the cullet meets minimum specifications of
color, cleanliness, and purity. From a technology standpoint, glass
manufacture from 100 percent cullet appears possible.
There are, however, two problem areas: comparative economics and the
recovery of cullet from mixed waste. With respect to economics the cost of
virgin raw materials averages $15.48 per ton batch as compared to a range of
from $16.00 to $22.50 per ton batch of cullet (both include freight charges
to the plant). Processing cost differentials are not significant. The
conversion of an existing plant to use increased quantities of purchased
cullet would cost from $50,000 to $100,000, depending upon the plant, but
the changeover could be accommodated within a framework of normal periodic
plant improvements. A new plant designed to use cullet would be no more
costly than a new plant designed for virgin materials.'9
The recovery of large quantities of cullet from municipal waste is
dependent on the development of a technical process for separation and
upgrading of the cullet. However, the possibility of source separation of
glass containers in the home for separate collections is an alternative that
cannot be eliminated. Neither traditional cullet dealers nor voluntary
citizen delivery of glass to recycling centers are likely to increase the
cullet flow by more than a few percent.
Mechanical separation methods for removing glass from other components
of municipal waste are still under development. One promising system that
combines density classification and optical color sorting is currently
being tested at Franklin, Ohio, while other methods, including one developed
by the Bureau of Mines, are not yet ready for a comprehensive test.
A-34
-------
Until the technology is further developed, utilization of purchased
Gullet on a large scale does not appear possible. Further, since glass
is only a small percentage of solid waste, complete glass recovery from
mixed waste is not likely to come about until full scale recovery centers,
that are concerned with all major materials, are set up.
Unless source separation of glass containers is found to be feasible,
utilization of purchased cullet on a large scale appears to be closely
tied to development of full scale municipal resource recovery centers.
The glass coming out of such systems will not be attractive to the glass
industry on a cost basis, however, unless economic incentives are provided.
A-35
-------
PLASTICS RECYCLING
Status and Trends
Plastics are becoming an ever more important material in our
society as their growth rate continues at an impressive rate. From
1960-1970, plastics consumption increased at an average annual rate of
11.8 percent, and totalled 8.5 million tons in 1969. Consumption by
1980 is expected to reach 19 million tons.2°
Today, plastics account for only about 2 percent by weight of
municipal solid waste and by 1980 will average about 3 percent. Very
little plastic scrap is recycled other than that reused within the
manufacturing plant in which it is generated. This, however, is a
fairly significant quantity. Plastics fabricators, for example, con-
sumed internal scrap equal to about 1.5 million tons in 1970.2' There is
essentially no recovery of plastic waste from obsolete products.
The plastics reprocessor is the recycling channel for all industrial
plastics recycled outside of originating plants. About 500,000 tons of
waste plastics were handled by reprocessors in 1970. Of the plastics
recycled through reprocessors about 55 percent came from resin producers,
30 percent from fabricators and 15 percent from converters."
There are two types of plastics, thermoplastics and thermosettlng
plastics. The thermosetts--20 percent of plastics consumption—cannot
be softened and reshaped through heating and are thus not recyclable.
In addition, most of the plastics used as coatings and adhesives are
impossible to recycle. Thus, about 75 percent of the plastics consumed
are potentially recyclable.
Sources and Markets
Table A-12 shows the major markets for plastics. Packaging and
construction are by far the most significant, accounting for 20 and
25 percent respectively of consumption in 1970. Plastics from packaging
account for about 60 percent by weight of the plastics in the solid
waste stream (much of the other plastic consumed is "held-up" in
permanent and semi-permanent end uses). Although some of the waste
generated in the various stages of plastics production is recycled,
the portion that is not makes up about 15% of the plastic in the
waste stream. Thus, packaging and industrial waste account for 75%
of plastic waste.23
A-36
-------
TABLE A-12
CONSUMPTION OF PLASTICS, 1967 TO 1969, TOTAL AND SELECTED
MAJOR END USE MARKETS, IN 1,000 TONS
Total consumption
Consumption in selected markets:
Agriculture
Appliances
Transportation
Construction
Electrical
Furniture
Housewares
Packaging
Toys
1967
6,550
75+
198
109
1,070
396
250+
313
1,121 +
208
1968
7,558
85
238
334
1,215
452
273
373
1,508
243
1969
8,535
95
234
536
1,327
567
328
425
1,729
269
Source: Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for
materials in solid wastes. Washington, U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1972. p.88-5.
A-37
-------
As a general rule scrap plastic has to be used in an end application
having wider specification requirements than the product yielding the
scrap. The primary markets for scrap plastic include such items as
hose, weather stripping, toys, cheap housewares, pipe, and similar
applications where (1) plastic properties and performance are not para-
mount, (2) relatively noncritical processes are used (compression molding
or heavy extrusion), and (3) where the cost of plastic resin is a high
proportion of total product cost.
Plastics also have potential as a fuel supplement for energy genera-
tion due to their high BTU value of 11,500 BTU/lb. (The BTU content of
paper is about 8,000 BTU/lb. and that of coal is about 12,000 BTU/lb.)
This is particularly appealing for recovery of plastics (or value from
plastics) in municipal waste, where plastics are hard to separate from
other materials.
Issues and Problems
Technology. There is a fundamental difference between the nature
of plastics recycling and that of metals, paper, glass, and other
materials. Metals production, for example, begins with an impure ore
which is progressively concentrated, smelted, refined and freed from
impurities. Plastics production, on the other hand, begins with high ourity
virgin polymer to which various additives, colorants, and reinforcements
are added. Thus, in the metals industries, there is a background of
technology designed to purify and upgrade ores and concentrates. Such
technology can also be applied to the upgrading of scrap. In the plastics
industry, where the basic raw material is progressively "contaminated"
in production, little technology has been developed which can be applied
to purify waste plastics.
Compatibility. The principal difficulty in recycling plastics is
that different polymers (polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, etc.) are not
compatible with each other and must be separated, a very difficult and
costly task.
Economics. Continually decreasing cost of basic plastic materials
has made scrap plastic less competitive with its main competitor, off-
grade virgin resin. For example, since 1961, the price of low density
polyethylene has decreased from 24 to 13 cents per pound. Scrap plastic,
limited by rising labor and distribution costs, did not drop as rapidly,
and the price of the scrap is now only about 1 cent per pound under the
offgrade resin price, versus about 3 cents in 1961.
A-38
-------
Logistics. This problem, common to recycling of all materials,
is important to plastics recycling. The extremely low density of
plastics makes transportation very costly.
Separation. Separation of plastics from other waste is extremely
difficult, making recovery of plastics from municipal waste almost
impossible unless the plastics can be diverted from the waste stream
and kept separate.
A-39
-------
TEXTILES RECYCLING
Status and Trends
The United States textile industry consumed approximately 5 million
tons of textile fiber in 1970, an increase since 1960 of 61.5 percent.
Far more significant to textile recycling was the change in the type of
fiber consumed, with a major shift occurring from use of natural to man-
made fibers. In 1960, natural fibers constituted 69 percent of fiber
consumption, and man-made fiber 31 percent. In 1970, the figures were
39 percent for natural fibers and 61 percent for man-made. By 1980,
the ratio of natural to man-made fiber is expected to be 25/75. The
implications of this change are discussed below.24
In 1970, an estimated 0.8 million tons of waste textiles were
processed by waste textile dealers and sold (recycled) to various
markets.25 in addition, an undetermined amount of used clothing which
potentially would enter the waste stream was collected by social welfare
agencies and redistributed.
There are not sufficient historical data available to show trends
in textile recycling. However, it is known that secondary textile
consumption in many traditional markets has been declining and that
others such as the important wiping cloth market have been growing
at a slower rate than total textile consumption. Thus, it is almost
certain that the rate of textile recovery (waste recovered vs. textile
consumption) has been declining.
Textiles represent only a small portion of municipal solid waste.
In 1968, textiles in collected municipal solid waste totalled 1.2 million
tons, 0.6 percent of the total. Most of the textile consumption which
does not appear in the municipal waste stream is either collected by
social welfare agencies, disposed of or sent to secondary textile dealers
by industry, or is being accumulated in households.
Sources and Markets
Fig. A-9 represents the major sources and markets for textile
waste. The mill waste is the "home" scrap of the textile industry,
the manufacturing waste the "prompt" portion and consumer discards
"obsolete."
In contrast to most of the other materials discussed in this
report, the "home" scrap (mill waste) is not reused within the generating
plant, but instead passes through the secondary textile dealers. Mill
waste accounted for about 1/3 of the material handled by waste textile
dealers in 1970.
A-40
-------
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Waste from fabrication ("prompt") is a considerably less important
source of recycled waste than in the case of many other materials. It
has been estimated that waste recovered from fabrication is only about
60 percent of that generated.26 Fabrication waste accounted for an
estimated 20 percent of the waste handled by waste textile dealers in 1970,
Obsolete waste accounted for the remaining 45 percent of recycled
textile waste. The waste is provided mostly by social welfare agencies
and institutions (such as Goodwill Industries) from items deemed unsuit-
able for reuse as clothing.
Issues and Problems
The increasing trend toward use of cotton-polyester blends and
wool-polyester blends probably represents the major problem of textile
recycling of the 1970's. These blends are not only generally unusable
in themselves, but they tend to become mixed with other usable waste
textiles and thereby reduce the economic value of the total waste supply.
This has caused problems particularly in the three major markets for
cotton waste:(1) rag paper, (2) vulcanized fiber, and (3) wiping cloths.
In the case of the first two markets contamination of cotton is
limited to a maximum of 1 to 2 percent. Thus, increase in blends means
greater control by the textile processors, resulting in increased cost.
It also greatly reduced the usable yield from used textiles.
Fiber blends have essentially the same effect on the wiping cloth
business. Wipers are less sensitive to small percentages of polyester
fiber, but fiber blends with over 50 percent polyester do not have
satisfactory absorption characteristics. (Garments with polyester/cotton
blends of 50/50 and 65/35 are extremely common.) The present percentage
of such blends in mixed rag bundles is unknown, but the increased replace-
ment of man-made fibers by synthetics is testimony that they are likely
to increase, reducing usable yields.
Another major problem of textile recycling is that used textiles are
losing ground in many traditional markets. Wool markets are one of the
most serious problems, due mainly to the Wool Labeling Act (the effect
has been a psychological one on consumers who perceive that virgin wool
is cleaner or purer) and increased competition from secondary wool from
foreign sources. Also, virgin based materials are replacing used textiles
in some markets. The incentive for using secondary textiles as paddings,
filler, etc. has traditionally been their low cost. Now, development of
virgin based products such as urethane foams at competitive prices has
resulted in fading used textile markets.
A-42
-------
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Resource Recovery Installations
TABLE A-14
INCINERATORS WITH MAJOR
HEAT RECOVERY OPERATIONS
Location
(Southwest)
Miami, Florida
Hempstead, L.I., N.Y.
(Oceanside)
U.S. Naval Station
(Norfolk, Virginia)
Braintree
Providence, R.I.
Oyster Bay, N.Y.
Boston, Massachusetts
Hempstead, L.I., N.Y.
(Merrick)
Chicago, Illinois
(Northwest)
Type of Installation
Refractory
Refractory
Waterwall
Waterwal1
Refractory
Refractory
Refractory
Refractory
Waterwell
Design Refuse
Capacity TPD
Atlanta, Georgia
Chicago, Illinois
Volund
Refractory
700
1200
900
600
360
240
1600
Source: Systems study of air pollution from municipal incineration.
'3 v. Cambridge, Arthur.D. Little, Inc., Mar. 1970. (920 p.)
(Distributed by National Technical Information Service,
Springfield, Va., as PB 192 378 to PP 192 380.)
A-45
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REFERENCES
1. Darnay, A., and W. E. Franklin. Salvage markets for materials in solid
wastes. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972. chap.4.
p.35, 45-7.
2. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.45-13 and 45-14.
3- Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.45-24.
4. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, chap.4. p.35.
5. Resource Planning Associates, Preliminary report on a federal tax
incentive for recycling post-consumer waste materials. Unpublished
data, 1972.
6. (1) Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.49.
(2) Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. Identification
of opportunities for increased recycling of ferrous solid waste. U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, [1973]. p.116. [Distributed by National
Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 213 577.]
7. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, chap.5. p.58-2.
8. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, chap.5. p.49.
9. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, chap.5. p. 58-11.
10. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, chap.5. p.49.
11. Battelle Memorial Institute, Identification of opportunities for increased
recycling, [1973]. p.118.
12. Battelle Memorial Institute, Identification of opportunities for increased
recycling, [1973], p.167.
13. Midwest Research Institute, Economic studies in support of policy
formation, 1972.
14. Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study to identify
opportunities for increased solid waste utilization. Book 2, v.2-5.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1972. [Distributed by National
Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 212 730.)
15. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, chap.6. p.59.
16. Battelle Memorial Institute, A study to identify opportunities, 1972,
Book 2.
17. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, chap.7. p.65.
A-46
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18. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.66-67.
19. Midwest Research Institute, Economic studies in support of policy
formation, 1972.
20. Darnay, and Franklin, Salvage markets, 1972, p.82, 83, and 88-5.
21. Milgrom, J. [Arthur D. Little, Inc.] Incentives for recycling and
reuse of plastics. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1972,
p.3-18. [Distributed by National Technical Information Service,
Springfield, Va. as Publication PB 214 045.]
22. Milgrom, Incentives for recycling, 1972, p.3-15, and internal
communications from A.D. Little.
23. Milgrom, Incentives for recycling, 1972, p.3-57.
24. Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus Laboratories. A study to
identify opportunities for increased solid waste utilization.
Book 3, v.9, p.10. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1972.
[Distributed by National Technical Information Service, Spring-
field, Va. as Publication PB 212 731.]
25. Battelle Memorial Institute, A study to identify opportunities,
1972, Book 3, y.9, p.16.
26. Battelle Memorial Institute, A study to identify Importunities,
1972, Book 3, v.9, p.26.
ms820R
A-47
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al Promotion i«encjE
Literary, ?.»tf-v*
'
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