PA/SW-29
            V
            r
     THE
   SALVAGE
    INDUSTRY

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 THE    SALVAGE   INDUSTRY
     what  it  is—how  it  works
Salvaging materials in solid wastes is
an essential part  of improved solid
waste management: It  reduces the
quantity of wastes requiring collection
and disposal.  At the same time, it
helps conserve valuable  natural re-
sources.
  But salvaging has not traditionally
been viewed as a solution to  waste
management problems. The activity has
been a necessity, pursued for its own
sake. Man has alway scrutinized wastes
and has  extracted whatever valuable
materials he could. The  reason was
simple: It required less human energy
to recover waste materials than to ob-
tain and process virgin raw materials.
  In the latter half of the 20th century,
in a few highly developed countries of
the world,  modern technology and the
use of fossil  fuels have created a
situation where this frequently is  no
longer true. Consequently many mate-
rials that in earlier times would have
been recovered are now discarded.
 This decline  in salvaging of wastes
comes at a time when the American
people are showing great interest  in
resource recovery. Schools and other
civic groups organize drives to collect
bottles, cans, and paper, and neighbor-
hood recycling centers are being estab-
lished. These moves may increase the
supply of salvaged materials, but they
do not necessarily increase demand—
as many  dedicated  volunteers have
found out when no scrap dealer wanted
his bottles, cans, and paper.
  Recognizing  that   availability  of
markets is crucial to greater use of
waste-derived  materials, the  U.S. En-
vironmental Protection Agency con-
tracted for a study to  evaluate potential
markets. The  study,  by Arsen Darnay
and  William   E.  Franklin,  Midwest
Research Institute,  Inc.,  Kansas City,
Missouri, focussed on the economics
of  recovering  the   commodities  en-
countered  in  municipal  wastes  and
on how the salvage  industry handles
these commodities.

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SALVAGE
INDUSTRY
Salvaging of wastes has  never been a
major activity  of  mankind  (like trans-
portation, agriculture, or  construction),
but it could always be found on the
margins  of  major activities.  For  this
reason, it  is  a  somewhat mysterious
activity,  poorly lighted  by  statistical
facts  and  reporting systems.  It is a
world  of  small   entrepreneurial ven-
tures—sometimes  the  part-time  busi-
ness of one man—with prices that shift
like  quicksand,  poor  records,  and  a
demand-supply picture  dependent  on
innumerable unique  local  conditions.
Salvage is also an activity in transition,
characterized  by the  disappearance of
traditional structures and emergence of
new ones.
  In 1967, the United States salvage or
secondary materials,industry consisted
of 8,000 companies employing  79,000
people  and  ringing up sales of  $4.6
billion.  The industry  handled 80  mil-
lions tons of metals, paper, glass,  tex-
tiles, and rubber. This is the "formal"
portion  of  the salvage  industry—the
dealers,  processors, and brokers  who
accept secondary materials from many
sources,  sometimes process them,  and
finally sell them to industrial users.
  Not all the waste  materials  recov-
ered  or  sold pass  through the  hands
of the traditional salvage industry. Most
of the glass and much of the metal re-
cycled in the United States are derived
directly from the  basic manufacturing
processes and  are recycled without
leaving their point of origin. The render-
ing  industry,  which  accepts organic
wastes for reprocessing, is not generally
considered  a part of the  industry.
Numerous   waste   products  such  as
metallurgical slag,  fly  ash, and rubber
tires do not involve junk dealers or
brokers.
how

the industry

is  structured
The salvage industry has several iden-
tifiable layers.  At  the  bottom  is the
scavenger  or  junkman—an  individual
who supports himself in part or entirely
by picking up waste  materials from
sources such as small  machine shops
or printing shops and selling them to
secondary  materials  dealers.  The two
most  important characteristics  of the
scavenger or junkman are that he is an
independent operator and that his par-
ticipation in the salvage business usu-
ally  is a  part-time activity, and  only
marginally economical.  A special form
of the junkman is the small  private
hauler who segregates salable  materials
from wastes as they are dumped into
his truck,  then sells them to salvage
dealers from time to time.
  The next layer is represented by the

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naterials flow through many channels in the salvage industry
                     SCRAP-CONSUMING INDUSTRIES
                      DEALER
                      PROCESSOR
      SPECIALIST
      DEALER
BROKER
    WASTE
    HAULER

           SOCIAL
           SERVICE
           AGENCY
SMALL
DEALER
                             SCAVENGER,
                             JUNKMAN

                  CIVIC
                  GROUP

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small  dealer  who  usually  handles
metals, paper, and textiles. He seldom
handles  quantities  large  enough   to
make it worth his while to develop far-
flung contacts with  industrial buyers
of salvage.  He accumulates quantities
of materials and sells the accumulation
directly to a larger dealer. These small
salvage dealers are found in population
centers not  large  enough  to support
specialized  materials  businesses,  and
in industrial centers dominated by large
commodity specialist dealers.
  Above the small dealer  is the dealer-
processor who  usually  specializes  in
either metals, paper, or textiles.  He
processes and upgrades the wastes  be-
fore delivering them  to  the scrap-con-
suming industries.  If  he  can obtain
enough materials  from  smaller dealers
and   if the  materials  are   sufficiently
processed, he does not actually handle
the  commodities  but merely acts  as
broker.  The  salvage  industry also  in-
cludes  brokers  who do  nothing   but
buy  and  sell commodities.
  On the  same  plane  with  the dealer-
processor  and broker  is the specialist
dealer  who  handles for example, only
nonferrous  metals  or synthetic  tex-
tiles.  His  contribution to the  salvage
industry is  his  intimate  knowledge  of
a specific commodity  and its  markets.
  Glass dealers  and some rubber deal-
ers do not  conform  entirely   to  this
picture of the salvage industry,  prob-
ably because  only small  quantities  of
these  commodities occur  in the open
market. In essence, these  dealers are
specialized  waste  removal firms  that
sell  the  wastes they  pick  up. Glass
dealers buy waste glass  from   bottling
operations or flat glass  plants, then
process it and sell it  to a glass manu-
facturer who remelts it to use  in mak-
ing  new  glass.   Rubber  dealers  are
usually the  only  link between  auto-
mobile service   stations  or  garages,
where  tires accumulate, and the rubber
reclaimers who buy old tires.
  Intermediate  between  the   junkman
and  the small dealer  are  three types
of organizations—waste haulers,  civic
groups, and  social  service agencies—
that   collect   commodities   and  sell
them to the  salvage  industry.  These
organizations  are  not  normally  con-
sidered part of the secondary materials
industry.
  Waste  haulers usually service  retail
stores, warehouses, and  industrial orga-
nizations that  discard  large quantities
of corrugated  board. Civic groups, in-
cluding  churches  and schools,  may
conduct  drives, perhaps once or  twice
a year, to  collect  waste  materials.  In
the  past,  newspapers  were  the  chief
commodity  collected,  but  cans  and
glass containers  are  also now  being
collected. The materials are  sold  to  a
dealer,  the proceeds  helping to  sup-
port   the   sponsoring   organization's
activities.  Wastes  also  are  being col-
lected at recycling centers set  up  by
volunteer groups  interested in the en-
vironment  and in  conserving natural
resources.
  Probably the most  extensive  collec-
4

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tion  activity taking place  outside the
formal  salvage industry is conducted
by social  service  agencies.  Organiza-
tions such as the  Salvation Army and
Goodwill Industries are responsible for
most of the waste  textiles  collected in
the United States, plus  some waste-
paper and small quantities of metals.
Social  service organizations  typically
pick  up usable commodities from resi-
dences,  then sell them in  secondhand
stores to help support their charitable
and  rehabilitative  work.  Commodities
also  are  collected in bins placed in
parking  lots of shopping centers.
  Some  of the goods are beyond repair
and  are sold as junk  or  simply dis-
carded  as  wastes.  Social service  agen-
cies  sometimes  compete  with  salvage
dealers  in that they sort  and  process
wastes,  then sell  directly  to  the end
user. As a  rule,  such  agencies pay
below minimum  wages, either because
they  are sheltered workshops exempted
from  requirements of  the  minimum
wage  law  or  because  the labor  per-
formed is quasi-voluntary.
 scrap   is
 sold,  it
 bought
not
An  axiom  in  the  salvage industry is
that "scrap is not sold, it is bought."
The skilled secondary materials  dealer
is  a skilled buyer. Because he sells a
substitute  for  raw materials, he cannot
control his selling  price.  It is  deter-
mined by demand, which  in turn is in-
fluenced by general economic  condi-
tions and  the relative  availability  and
cost of virgin  resources.
  Demand   and   price  fluctuate—the
dealer  sometimes  may be forced to
tap every conceivable source to satisfy
demand. At other times, he must "turn
off"  his poorer  sources.  If necessary,
he  will buy from his best  sources to
protect them during periods when de-
mand is low,  in order  to  retain them
as sources when demand is again high.
  The successful dealer keeps his in-

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ventories low, buying at the appropriate
 price.  He  avoids  long-range  commit-
 ments  to  buy (especially from  poor
 sources) and to sell  (unless  the sales
 price is negotiated high enough or is
 pegged just above a  published market
 price).  The skilled dealer "rides  the
 market," buying only  what he can sell,
 selling everything he  buys, and keeping
 a safe  margin between his buying and
 selling prices.


what's   good

and

what's   bad
 In  selecting  sources  of  waste, the
dealer considers concentration or pur-
 ity,  grade, and quantity. He shies away
from "dirty"  scrap. He chooses high-
grade wastes,  which most  resemble
virgin materials, over  low-grade. He pre-
fers buying in quantities large enough
to resell immediately, rather than buy-
ing smaller quantities  that  must be
accumulated   before  they   can  be
shipped. These factors  can  appear in
many  combinations. Mixed  municipal
wastes  are a  poor source, virtually de-
void  of concentrations of  high-grade
commodities.   Commercial  establish-
ments such as offices,  hotels, and re-
tail stores generate wastes  similar to
mixed  municipal  wastes,  except  that
commercial wastes contain more  paper
and less food wastes. Corrugated  board
and mixed office paper are the only ma-
terials salvaged in  quantity from com-
mercial wastes. Mixed  papers  are sal-
vaged  only when demand for waste-
paper  is high.
  Wastes  from  industry represent the
bulk of secondary materials traded, and
virtually all of the high-grade materials.
The salvage industry favors industrial
wastes  because they are  homogenous,
of known and consistent  composition,
and are generated  in large  quantities
on a regular basis. All industrial opera-
tions  generate  waste materials,  and
plant  managers usually try to reuse or
sell as much as  possible—to  produce
income, rather than to pay for disposal.
For this reason, manufacturing wastes
are kept free of contaminants, are proc-
essed  if  necessary, and are accumu-
lated for delivery to salvage dealers.

who buys

its  wares
Steel  scrap, nonferrous  metals,  glass,
and small amounts of newspapers and
corrugated boxes are the only second-
ary materials that are reprocessed into
essentially the same products that they
were originally.  All others enter new in-
dustries. Most old newspapers and cor-
rugated boxes  become bending  board
or  construction paper.  Old tires  are
converted to material used to  retread
tires. Old  cotton cloth becomes wiping
rags.  The demand patterns governing
the receiving industries are not neces-

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sarily synchronized with those of the
industries that generated the materials.
Thus, an increase in tire production
may in fact  mean a decline in purchase
of retreads.
  The products of the salvage  industry
are bought  by two very different kinds
of scrap-consuming industries. Distinc-
tion  between  the  two  is important be-
cause it explains much about the nature
of salvage and recovery  in the United
States. The two groups are: industries
that use  wastes as  principal  or sole
input,  and  industries that use  small
amounts  of wastes.
  Examples  of industries that depend
on  wastes  as their principal  or only
input are combination-board manufac-
turers, de-inking  mills,  roofing  paper
mills,  wool  reweavers,  electric   steel
furnace operators, secondary  metals
smelters,  glass producers such as ash
tray  manufacturers who use only scrap
glass, rendering plants, and rubber re-
claimers.  These  industries must  ob-
tain  secondary materials on the  open
market, and  they are the  backbone of
salvage   demand.   Their  production
rates  largely  determine  how  much
waste will be recycled. Some secondary
materials  are used  because  they  are
cheaper than virgin materials of equiva-
lent  quality. Others  are used  because
the quality of the manufactured prod-
uct need not be Equivalent to that of
products  made of virgin materials (as
in combination  board) or because a
product  of equivalent quality can be
made from secondary  materials (as in
electric-furnace  steel).
  Examples of industries that use rela-
tivejy small amounts of wastes  are
fine-paper manufacturers,  operators of
basic  oxygen steel furnaces, glass con-
tainer or window glass manufacturers,
plastics  producers,  and tire  manufac-
turers. They  use salvaged   materials
because  technical  factors sometimes
favor  their use,  because not enough
such  scrap is generated  internally to
fill their  needs,  and because the sec-
ondary materials they use are  relatively
cheaper than virgin  raw materials if
processing costs are included. It is diffi-
cult  to generalize  about the relative
value of virgin and secondary materials
when both are used in one operation.
Scrap materials  are not simple substi-
tutes:  They  may be  required by  the
process, they may yield  special  bene-
fits such as  prolonged life for furnace
linings,  they  may have to be used be-
cause they are a process waste material
that  would otherwise  require disposal,
or they may  reduce air or water pollu-
tion.


how

the  industry

operates

In recovering waste commodities,  the
salvage  industry uses up to five types
of operations:  acquisition,  concentra-

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salvage industry performs up to five operations in
         recovering waste commodities
   ACQUIRE
CONCENTRATE
PURIFY OR SEPARATE
         REDUCE SIZE OR SHAPE
      PREPARE FOR SHIPMENT

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tion, purification or separation,  reduc-
tion  of shape or size, and preparation
for  shipment. The  sequence  in  which
they  are   accomplished—or  whether
they are needed at  all—depends  on the
material itself, as well as on its source,
condition,  and end  use.
  The key operation in salvage is sort-
ing.  Except for separating out ferrous
metals magnetically,  sorting  is done
manually  and  so  is very  expensive.
Even magnetic  sorting is not possible
where  the ferrous metal and   some
other material  are  mechanically  or
chemically coupled.
  Technology  is being  developed  to
overcome  the  problems  of  sorting
mixed municipal wastes.  The Environ-
mental Protection Agency has provided
funds to help demonstrate several dif-
ferent systems in full-scale plants. One
system adapts paper  pulping technol-
ogy to produce a  saleable paper pulp
product, metals, and glass. Another sys-
tem  separates metals and glass from
incinerator residue,  using various  mater-
ials-handling techniques developed  in
the mining industry. Four systems ap-
proach the problem of sorting  from  a
different  angle, burning the combust-
ible materials of municipal wastes, and
using the heat produced  Still other
systems are  being  studied  but  have
not progressed far enough to be  demon-
strated in full-scale plants.


operating

costs  are

high
The costs  of  obtaining  and  processing
secondary  materials are high, especially
when  related  to  the price they bring
in the marketplace. Operating econom-
ics are most unfavorable  for those
materials that occur in  large quantities
in waste—mixed  paper,  metals,  and
glass. Not only is demand limited, but
these materials also bring the lowest
prices, and processing costs are higher
than  for better grades of  scrap mater-
ials.  If  the  material must be sorted
from  mixed  municipal  wastes, costs
become  even higher.
  Glass  is a  good  example.  In  mid-
1970 the sand, soda ash, and limestone
used to  make glass cost $15 to $20 per
ton. The glass industry estimates that
the benefits of using scrap glass in the
furnace, instead  of virgin raw materials,
are worth $2 per ton. Therefore, to  be
economical,  scrap  glass  should  cost
no more than $17 to $22 per ton. Instead,
the delivered  cost was  $29 to $36 per
ton for scrap  glass  recovered  from
mixed municipal wastes:
  $13  to $15  for manual sorting
  $14  to $18 for  pickup  and processing
  $ 2  to $ 3  for delivery
  $29 to $36
  It is  hardly surprising that glass  re-
covery  programs involving pickup from
residential sources must be subsidized.
The same  generally  holds true for  all
materials  categories, if  the  materials
must be removed from mixed wastes by
present techniques.

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                 PHOENIX QUARTERLY

Long before the present national interest
in  ecology  and recycling,  the scrap-
processing industry was  at  work  pre-
paring metallic cast-offs for remelting by
steel mills and foundries.
                                         Transportation  is another important
                                       cost consideration in the economics of
                                       salvage. The ultimate value of the ma-
                                       terial determines the relative distance
                                       it can be transported.  Most salvaged
                                       secondary materials  are  consumed no
                                       more than 500 miles  from  where they
                                       originated. Materials with high value—
                                       nonferrous metals and wiping rags, for
                                       instance—can  travel  1,000  miles  or
                                       more, but nearly all low-value materials
                                       —newspapers and scrap glass, for in-
                                       stance—are sold within 75 miles.
                                       some
                                       hidden
                                       costs
The economics of salvage can be hard
to  understand  unless  some  hidden
aspects  are  kept  in  view. The  most
significant aspect is that if waste ma-
terials can be salvaged, they don't have
to be disposed.  A salvage  operation
costing $15 per ton and returning $10
is not, on the face of it,  economical.
Yet it may be practical if disposal costs
$6 per ton.
  The second  aspect of salvage eco-
nomics is that salvaged materials often
ride "piggyback" on  a  system  devel-

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              salvage industry is centralizing
the number of companies is decreasing . . . but sales and employment are increasing
   1958
1963
1967
1970
1958  1967
1958   1967

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oped for other purposes. An example is
the collection  of  waste  textiles from
residential sources. By collecting door-
to-door,  social  service  agencies  get
commodities such as usable furniture
from which they may be able to realize
profits  equivalent  to  several hundred
dollars per ton. The high income justi-
fies collection costs of $80 to $90  per
ton. Waste textiles also are  picked  up,
but they seldom earn the agency more
than $50 to $60 per ton. Thus, collecting
salvageable materials alone  would  not
be  economical,  but it  is  when they
ride  free  with  more valuable mer-
chandise. Another example of the same
principle  involves  trucks  that carry
merchandise from  warehouses to groc-
ery stores. Normally, the trucks would
return empty to the warehouse; instead,
they carry corrugated boxes back to
the  warehouse, where   large  enough
amounts accumulate to make their  sal-
vage profitable to  management.
  The third  special economic  consid-
eration related to salvage is that  the
recovery of some classes  of  material is
indirectly subsidized by:
• Voluntary contribution of labor, time,
and transportation by neighborhood re-
cycling  centers  or  school-sponsored
paper drives.
• Employment of physically or socially
handicapped persons who receive below
average  wages from  social  welfare
agencies.
• Efforts of people on the margins of
economic existence  who salvage com-
modities as an alternative to welfare
and  who neither  pay themselves an
average wage nor count all of their real
costs  (the  use of a car or truck, for
example).
• Sloppy accounting by some second-
ary  materials   dealers  and processors
who do  not account for all the costs
they  incur,  especially not amortization
of equipment.
  If these hidden subsidies were elim-
inated, recovery of most textiles, news-
papers,  and portions of all  other re-
covered  materials would  become  un-
economical. These  points should  be
kept  in  mind  whenever a salvage pro-
gram is contemplated that would dupli-
cate  an existing  system.  If  the new
system does not enjoy  the same sub-
sidies,  it  might be economically  un-
feasible.
trends

and

development
The salvage  industry  is changing in  a
number of ways,  perhaps the most im-
portant  being  that it is  centralizing.
The  number of  companies has  de-
creased since the  1950's, while industry
sales and  employment have increased.
The trend  toward  bigger companies is
in part a result of economic and tech-
nological  pressures.  The  coming  of
minimum  wage legislation  has  made
labor-intensive  operations  of acquiring
and sorting wastes more expensive. To
remain competitive, salvage companies
have had to  use technology to increase
labor productivity, just as processors of
virgin materials have  done.
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  In  the ferrous scrap  business,  the
pressures have  resulted  in  the inven-
tion  of  large  metal  shredders which
reduce  automobile hulks into fist-sized
pieces of metal that can be separated
magnetically into ferrous and  nonfer-
rous  portions.  These  shredders  are
working  a revolution  in the  scrap busi-
ness. They permit upgrading a plentiful
source  of  scrap, auto  hulks,  so  that
they  sell for $31 to $36 a ton,  instead
of $19 to $24 for unshredded hulks. To
use  a shredder  efficiently,  however,  a
scrap dealer must have sales of about
$500,000, and preferably well above. To
achieve this volume, scrap dealers have
had  to  merge or acquire  other com-
panies  to tap  new  scrap sources and
outlets.
  In  the scrap  paper  business,  the
single most  important innovation  has
been  the high-density  baler. Such ma-
chines  cost  around  $120,000 and can
handle  30,000 tons of  paper per year.
They  reduce freight costs as much as
$5 per ton on  trips of 500 miles, they
make the paper  easier to handle, and
they  provide a  better  product  to  the
user. As of mid-1970, only a few were in
operation. To  use one efficiently, com-
panies  must  have   sales  of  about
$600,000 annually, and, again,  centrali-
zation   is occurring  to   permit  taking
advantage of new technology.
  In the textile  salvage  industry,  eco-
nomic  pressures  have taken four basic
forms:

• Overseas  sales  of waste textiles  are
declining.
• Labor costs are rising.
• Percentage  of  pure cottons  in waste
textiles is decreasing.
• Paper and new nonwoven fabrics are
gaining ground in the markets for wip-
ing rags.


  Instead of  combining  with  stronger
dealers, textile salvage dealers are go-
ing out of business. The  same situation
prevails in other  waste  materials, and
the numbers  of  companies dealing  in
glass,  rubber,  feathers, hair, bone, and
other  wastes  have   decreased  drasti-
cally.
  Another  trend working  to  the  dis-
advantage  of the  salvage  industry  is
that  the  ratio of   scrap  materials
consumed  to total  new  products made
has been declining in nearly all basic
manufacturing  industries.  As a  result,
relatively more  scrap is available than
is needed.  The  industries  consuming
scrap materials  can be far  more selec-
tive in their purchasing. They can and
do  insist that  secondary materials be
of higher quality.
  At  the  same  time,   the  obsolete
products and the wastes  from industrial
operations that make up the  salvage
industry's  resources  are  generally  be-
coming more  contaminated.  Base  ma-
terials such as  steel, paper  fiber, wool,
cotton,  rubber,  and glass  are  being
combined  with  materials  that  are  in-
compatible  with the  operations of the
raw materials processor.  To provide the
raw materials processing industry with
pure  scrap,  the salvage  dealer  must
choose  his  sources more  carefully, or
he  must  do  more  processing,  which
favors larger dealers with the capabil-
ity to invest in  technology.

                                 13

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               SALVAGE  AND   SOLID   WASTE
           MANAGEMENT   ORGANIZATIONS
Until quite recently, solid waste man-
agement organizations  viewed salvage
as a  nuisance that  interfered with
their principal  purpose: to collect and
dispose of waste  materials  efficiently
and in a manner that protected the
public health and  the environment. In
1968, the organizations handled  almost
194 million tons of municipal wastes.
The tonnages were about equally  di-
vided between public forces and  private
companies. This service cost the Na-
tion $3.5 billion annually, or $1.1  billion
less than  the salvage industry's sales.
  The job  of collecting the Nation's
municipal wastes is big—and it's get-
ting bigger. The population is growing,
and each person  is consuming more
goods and so is discarding more  wastes
than  before. Furthermore, new air pol-
lution regulations  ban open burning.
Wastes that once were burned in back-
yards must now be collected and  dis-
posed of.
  In the past,  many solid waste man-
agement organizations attempted  to
salvage  commodities  from  municipal
wastes,  but today  the only large-scale
salvage  practiced  by  public  agencies
is  recovering steel  cans from  inciner-
ator residues—and  that is done by only
a few communities. In addition, some
dumps permit scavenging.
  Public solid waste management orga-
nizations gave  up  on  salvage because
they found they couldn't sell the com-
modities at a profit. It proved simpler
to  pick up,  transport, and  process  a
single mass  of waste than to split  it
into two or more streams, each requiring
specialized treatment techniques, man-
agement and labor  skills, collection  and
distribution networks, markets, and ul-
timate disposal arrangements. As  the
waste  management  process has  been
streamlined, marginal activities that in-
terfere with the rational organization of
the system  have been eliminated.
  The  current attitude  toward salvage
is not  solely a result of the decline of
markets.  A  number of  other develop-
ments  since World War  II  have pushed
or enticed  waste disposal agencies in
the direction of simplified and efficient
practices:
• Introduction of the compactor truck,
which  permits  carrying  larger loads,
but  prohibits salvage because wastes
are mixed together and contaminated.
• Public   resistance  to   segregating
wastes prior to collection.
• Increase  in kitchen garbage grinders,
which  divert organic solid wastes into
sewers, and concomitant  decrease in
using  wastes for  animal  feed. When
14

-------
public health  considerations dictated
that garbage had to be cooked before
it  could be fed to animals, a  new
cost was introduced that  closed  down
virtually all feeding lots based on gar-
bage.
• Growing  use of sanitary  landfilling.
Scavengers who were welcome at open
dumps  are unwelcome  at sanitary
landfills, where their presence  inter-
feres with  efficient and  safe  opera-
tions.
  Today, salvage  must  show an  over-
whelming advantage before  it is  con-
sidered  by  the more efficient and well
organized   solid  waste  management
agencies.  Financial  incentive is not
enough. Income from a smalt percent-
age of the waste is readily sacrificed
if it impedes disposal of the bulk of
the  waste.
  Municipal waste  management  prac-
tice, characterized as it is by bureau-
cratic  regularity,  presents a poor fit
to  the usually roller-coaster operation
of the salvage business, where supplies
a  quarter  of  major  manufactured
          materials  are  salvaged
1967-68
Material
PAPER
IRON AND STEEL
ALUMINUM
COPPER
LEAD
ZINC
GLASS
TEXTILES
RUBBER
Total
consumption
(million tons)
53.110
105.900
4.009
2.913
1.261
1.592
12.820
5.672
3.943
Total
recycled
(million tons)
10.124
33.100
.733
1.447
.625
.201
.600
.246
1.032
Recycling as
percent of
consumption
19.0
31.2
18.3
49.7
49.6
12.6
4.2
4.3
26.2
       TOTAL
191.220
48.108
25.2

-------
      over half of municipal wastes
consist  of salvageable commodities
                  EXTILES, RUBBER,PLASTICS,
             03
             in
             O
             w
    PAPER, 40
ASS,
                                   METALS, 8<4
             GO
             w
             O
       FOOD AND
    MISCELLANEOUS    f  {
   WASTES, 33-430/0   i  I
                                1968
must be "turned off"  one  day  and
"turned  on"  a  month  later.  City  offi-
cials have learned by experience that
salvage  dealers are  not  "reliable"
buyers of scrap.
  In the wake of Earth Day 1970, how-
ever, public officials are beginning to
change their attitudes toward salvage.
The growing Federal interest  in  re-
source recovery, as well as industry's
efforts to find ways of reclaiming  ma-
terials, is making public officials take
a second look at salvage. Another  fac-
tor is that public officials  are coming
to view salvage as a way of conserving
scarce space in sanitary landfills.
  Private waste companies  generally
share the  attitudes  of  public sanita-
tion officials, but they are quicker to
react to  the economic  incentives in
salvage. Private haulers handle more
commercial  wastes  than  do  public
agencies, including  sources  rich  in
corrugated paper; their  salvage  activi-
ties,  if any,   usually  involve  corru-
gated.

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             SALVAGEABLE   COMMODITIES
                     IN   MUNICIPAL   WASTES
In the 1967-68 period, 191 million tons
of the  major  manufactured materials
—paper,  metals,  glass,  textiles, and
rubber—were  consumed yearly.  In the
same period.  48 million tons of these
same  materials—about 25  percent—
were recycled  through the market an-
nually.
  Recycled materials  generally come
from either fabrication wastes  or ob-
solete discarded  products returned  to
industry  for  reprocessing. Almost  no
materials are  salvaged from  municipal
wastes, although over  half (by weight)
of such wastes are salvageable.
paper
In  1969,  the United  States consumed
58.5 million tons  of paper—more than
12,000  kinds in over 100,000 finished
forms. Paper consumption has almost
tripled since 1945  and  is expected to
continue to increase.  By  1980,  the
United  States  should  be  consuming
85 million tons  annually.
  Unlike steel  products,  which  have
an average life of 20 years, most paper
is used and discarded in the  same year
it  is purchased.  Its value  is low in
comparison to its  bulk, so  most  dis-
carded paper products enter  the waste
stream. Paper is  the largest component
—40 to 50 percent  by weight—of muni-
cipal wastes collected  in the United
States. Once in  the waste stream, al-
most none is salvaged.  However, paper
is  salvaged  before it  gets   into  the
stream—principally  discarded  paper
products and scrap  produced when
paper is  converted into finished forms
such as  envelopes or  boxes.
  While consumption of paper has in-
creased in recent years, the percentage
recycled  has decreased. In 1969, only
about  17.8 percent of the  paper con-
sumed in the  United States was re-
cycled paper, versus  27.4  percent  in
1950. The result  is that paper  is an
ever-increasing  burden on solid  waste
systems.
  Making paper  starts with harvesting
wood from trees  and  converting  it  to
pulp in pulp mills. The pulp is then
converted in paper mills to the basic
kinds and grades  of paper. Paper mills
can  also use wastepaper; generally, it
is  converted  into cheaper types  of
paper  than  it was originally. The last
step is to convert paper into finished
forms. These various  steps  can be
aligned in a number of ways—ranging
from the  large  integrated  operations
that grow trees and sell envelopes  to
an independent  pulp mill that merely
                                                                                                    17

-------
        paper is increasing in municipal wastes
1956
1966
1976
1980
                                                    60            80
                          MILLIONS  Or TONS CONSUMED
makes pulp for sale.
  Today, the  U.S. paper  industi
dominated  by the  large  integ
operations. Most of the plants inst
since 1945 have been based on
pulp and located  near virgin raw
terials,  primarily in the South am
West, rather than close to  popul
centers  where paper  is consumed
later discarded. Using improved \
pulping  technology, the  industry
tapped  abundant  raw material
costs low enough and in  quan
large enough  to meet rising derr
for  paper. Only very  recently ha;
technology  for wastepaper  begu
catch up.
  Most of the paper now recycled
into  making  paperboard,  the
forms of paper used primarily to
boxes. Small amounts are used  ii
other major types- of  paper  prodi
construction materials (such as  r<
felts) and paper itself.
  The demand for products  made
dominantly  of waste, or  secoi

-------
paper production facilities are located away from
population centers where waste paper is discarded

-------
fibers  has lagged  in  recent  years  for
three  reasons:

• Products  made  mostly  of  waste-
paper  tend to increase at  a  lower rate
than  other paper products  and  are
losing  markets  to competitive  mater-
ials  such as plastics.

• Wood   pulp  has  taken  over some
markets—packaging, for example—from
wastepaper  as  industry has  upgraded
its products to improve appearance and
to achieve higher "purity," even when
performance  of  the  product did  not
require upgrading.

• Wastepaper   has   penetrated  only
one  new  market  in  recent  years—
newsprint.
  Wastepaper   for   recycling  comes
from these major  sources.- corrugated
boxes  collected  from  stores,   news-
papers  collected  mostly  from  homes,
and  wastes from  paper converters.
  Newspapers  are one of  only two ma-
terials  commonly found  in  municipal
waste  that are still salvaged  in quan-

20
tity. The  other is  textiles, which  are
either  resold  or diverted into second-
ary  uses. These  materials  are  segre-
gated  before  collection,   and  in  a
sense  have  never  been part  of  the
solid waste  stream.  The  mixtures of
other  paper  products   found  in  the
family  garbage  cans  are   not good
candidates  for recycling as  they  are.
Even if they could  be segregated, they
would  be difficult to salvage as com-
modities.
  Almost  anything  added   to   paper,
either  intentionally or  unintentionally,
in  large  quantities or  small, destroys
its  value as  wastepaper  because  of
the  cost  involved  in  removal.  The
paper  for  "slick"  magazines, for  ex-
ample, is coated  with   clay.  Although
clay is easily  removed, it  can  cause
water pollution, and it  also represents
30  percent  or  more of  the  weight of
the  paper.  Plastic  coatings  and  ad-
hesives must be removed before paper
can  be recycled. There  is no  economi-
cal  way of  recycling  laminated  paper,
such as is used in some frozen  orange
juice cans.
  The fundamental problems are those
of accumulating  "pure"  grades and of
fighting  low  levels of  contamination.
The   progressive   contamination   of
fibrous  materials  in  the  converting/
consuming cycle  work  against recycling
of paper.  In contrast,  making  paper
from  virgin  pulp  is  a  process that
progressively upgrades fibers.
  Still,   considerable    quantities   of
paper can  be recovered  from products
commonly  found  in municipal  wastes,
From 5  to   10  million  more  tons  of
newspapers   and   corrugated   board
could  be  recovered  by time-honored
techniques.  An equal amount of mixed
paper, none of which is  now recovered,
might  even  be  recovered—either  by
asking the public to voluntarily  segre-
gate it or by using new technology to
separate   it  and  then  upgrading  the
recovered product  so  it will be com-
petitive  with existing  raw  materials.
  It  is   technically feasible  for  the
paper  industry   to  absorb  additional
quantities  of wastepaper.   But to  do

-------
  paper for recycling conies from ...
 COMMERCIAL
SOURCES, 43.67o
                  RESIDENTIAL
CONVERTERS, 39.8<7b   [SOURCES, 16.6^0
      recycled paper is used in . .

-------
so,  it will  have  to  idle large portions
of  its equipment  for  pulping  wood.
This would require a large drop  in the
price of wastepaper,  a  high tax  on
use   of  virgin   pulp,  or  equivalent
changes  that  would make wastepaper
fiber as cheap as pulp.
  By the 1980's,  however,  new low-cost,
readily-available   pulpwood lands  may
all   have  disappeared.   Then  virgin
prices will  rise,  and industry may turn
to wastepaper out of  necessity.  But
for  now, the  industry  is oriented  to
pulp. Its plants  are principally located
close to forest  sources, and the eco-
nomics  of  using more wastepaper are
unattractive.


ferrous

metals
The  iron  and steel  industry  in the
United States uses large  quantities  of
scrap metal in its operations. In 1967,
it  purchased  33 million  tons,  which
represented   almost  a  third   of  the
metals it used  during the year.  In ad-
dition, 7.6 million tons of scrap were
exported.
  Of the 33 million  tons  of scrap the
industry  purchased,  11.6  million were
supplied  by fabricators of steel  prod-
ucts.  The remaining 21.4  million tons
were obsolete scrap. Almost no ferrous
metals were  recovered out of  munici-
pal solid wastes,  although they consti-
tute about  7  percent by weight  of the
municipal wastes collected in  the U.S.
In addition to the scrap it purchased,
the industry  used 52  million tons  of
scrap generated internally. Use of this
"home" scrap  has  increased  in the
past few decades,  at  the expense  of
obsolete  scrap.
  The  relative  amounts of  scrap and
pig iron the industry uses to make steel
have shifted in  recent years because  of
shifts  in the kinds  of furnaces  being
used:
•  Open  hearth furnaces,  which  proc-
ess 41.7 percent of scrap in their metal-
lic inputs, produced  50 percent of total
steel  output  in  1968, down  from 87
percent in  1960.
• Basic  oxygen furnaces, which  proc-
ess 29.2  percent  scrap,  produced 37.1
percent  of  total   output in  1968,  up
from 3.3  percent  in 1960.
• Electric   furnaces,   which   process
97.9 percent scrap, produced  12.7 per-
cent of total  output  in  1968,  up from
8.4  percent  in  1960.
  The  rapid rise  in the basic oxygen
furnace  has  meant a slight  decrease
in the industry's  use of scrap (down
from 47.8 percent  in the  1947-53 period
to 43.4 percent during 1964-68).  This
decline will  not  necessarily  continue
indefinitely. What  is  more  likely to
happen is that as demand drops,  scrap
prices will  drop,  basic oxygen  fur-
naces will be  modified to permit  using
more  scrap, and more electric furnaces
will be installed.
  Scrap  is used  in steel furnaces as
a relatively  inexpensive source of iron.
Except   in  electric  furnaces,  where
the input is almost  entirely  scrap, it
is not a  direct substitute for  pig iron.
22

-------
scrap satisfies almost a third of the iron and
     steel industry's demand for metals

-------
 Rather, scrap is used  to achieve  best
 technical operations. But much  of the
 scrap  input  is  generated  internally
 and must  be  used  if  industry  is  to
 avoid  severe losses of  its  metals.
  About  a   quarter  of  the  obsolete
scrap  used   by  the   steel  industry
 comes from  automobile  wreckers and
 railroads. A  host  of other sources (in-
cluding demolition projects, farms, and
 shipbreaking) account  for the remain-
der. Steel  makers prefer home  scrap
 because  they know exactly what  it con-
tains,  although  scrap  from  fabrication
 plants is almost  as  good.  Steel from
 demolition  of   buildings,  ships,  rail-
cars, and other structures is high qual-
 ity  scrap because its  composition can
be  readily ascertained. Shredded auto-
mobile steel, if  all nonferrous  metals
and nonmetallics  are  removed,  also
falls  into this  category. Least  desir-
able is mixed scrap of unknown  origin,
which  includes  burned auto   bodies
and metals  derived  from  municipal
wastes.
  Ferrous metals  occurring  in  munic-
ipal wastes  consist   largely  of  tin-
coated  steel cans, which are not suit-
able  for  recycling  in  steel  furnaces.
The  tin  coating  cannot  be  removed
and  contaminates  the  furnace  prod-
ucts.  Tin-free  steel  is  slowly  coming
into  use, so—technically at  least—re-
cycling of steel  cans is becoming more
feasible.
  The small tonnages of ferrous metals
recovered from  municipal  wastes  are
usually in two  forms—massive pieces
removed from  incinerator residues or
retrieved from  dumps or landfills, and
steel  cans   recovered  from  incinera-
tor residues and sold to  copper mines
in the  west.  About  300,000  tons  of
scrap cans and wastes from can  manu-
facturers  are  used  annually at  the
mines   to  recover  copper  from low-
grade  ores.  This  market  may  triple
over  the  next  decade, but  it  is still
a  limited   one.  Large  quantities  of
wastes  in concentrated form are avail-
able  from can  manufacturers,  and the
cost   to  transport  scrap  cans  from
population  centers  to the  mines  is
high.  Therefore,  reusing  a  large per-
centage  of  obsolete cans  in  copper
mining does  not appear to be a  practi-
cal solution.
   In  general,  ferrous  metals are  re-
cycled at a  fairly  high  rate—but  still
far below the  potential supplies avail-
able  and  the amounts  the  industry
could recycle.  More ferrous  scrap will
be consumed only when  its  price  be-
comes more  competitive  with that  of
virgin  raw materials.  As  in  the case
of  paper,  this  will  require  interven-
tion  in  the  normal  market  forces.
24

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nonferrous

metals
The  major  nonferrous metals—alumi-
num,  copper,  zinc,  and  lead—consti-
tute  less than  1  percent of collected
municipal wastes.  In 1967,  nearly 9.8
million tons were consumed, of which
3  million were  provided by recycled
materials, for  a  composite recycling
rate  of  30.8 percent.
  All  these  metals  are  valuable as
scrap.  In  contrast  to  steel,  which
was selling  for $130 per ton in  1967,
their prices  ranged from  $277  per ton
for zinc  to  $754 for  copper.  Their
composite value in 1967 was $517 per
ton. As waste they usually  appear in
small  quantities  and  in combination
with   other  metals.   But   their  high
value   permits  relatively  more  proc-
essing   than  is   normal  with  other
wastes,  as  well as  acquiring  smaller
quantities.
  Copper,  zinc,  and  lead are in short
supply   worldwide.  Their   high  rates
of  recovery—particularly  copper  and
lead—are a  reflection  of this shortage,
and  their  recovery rates are expected
to continue  to  climb.
  Copper  for recycling  comes  from
both  industrial  wastes  and from  ob-
solete  products. Only  small amounts
are found  in municipal  wastes, in the
wiring  of  household  appliances.  It  is
no  longer   economical  to  strip  and
collect this  copper. Most obsolete  cop-
per  scrap comes from  demolition  of
electric  utilities,   spent    cartridges,
railroad car dismantling,  and  auto-
motive radiators.
  Nearly  80  percent  of  all  zinc  re-
cycled comes  from  processing  and
fabrication wastes. The relatively small
amounts recycled from  obsolete  prod-
ucts   is explained  by  the  fact  that
zinc  is used as  an alloying  agent,
a coating, and as small  objects  and
fixtures. All   make recycling difficult.
  Recovery of lead is unusual in  that
most scrap comes from  one discarded
consumer  product,  the  storage  bat-
tery.   More   than  90  percent  of  the
lead  used  in batteries is recovered.
  The  only  nonferrous  metal  occur-
ring in significant  quantities  in  mu-
nicipal solid wastes is  aluminum, prin-
cipally because it  has  become an  im-
portant  container  and  packaging  ma-
terial. Of  the  scrap  the  industry  pur-
chased, about 80  percent came from
fabrication wastes, the  remaining from
obsolete  sources. About  two-thirds  of
the scrap is  remelted by  secondary
smelters,  largely for use  in  castings.
  Unlike   the  situation in  the  steel
industry,   where  scrap  and  pig  iron
do  not  compete  on an  equal basis,
scrap  aluminum  in the form  of  sec-
ondary ingot  competes directly with
primary ingot in the nonintegrated  seg-
ment  of  the  aluminum industry. Sec-
ondary ingot cannot be  used in  ap-
plications  where  a  high level of purity
is  required.  However,  it  has the  ad-
vantage  of being cheaper.  Economics
favor  secondary  aluminum   because
production of primary  aluminum  re-
quires large  investment in plants.  And
freight costs  are   high  for  primary
aluminum  because  the  plants are usu-
ally located in remote areas where the
                                                                                                                 25

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 purchased scrap glass represents less than
            5 percent off production
     TOTAL! 12,820
  PURCHASED
SCRAP (4.7%)
 CONTAINERS


     (1-1%}



 FLAT CLASS


    (11.3%}


PRESSED AND
    BLOWN

    (14.9%}
                                     10     12
                 PRODUCTION IN THOUSANDS OF TONS ,1967

-------
necessary  large  quantities  of cheap
power  are  available.  The  combina-
tion of expanding  markets for alumi-
num castings, favorable economics, and
ever more abundant supplies of scrap
has contributed to  a steady  expansion
of  secondary smelting  of aluminum.
  A new and  growing  source of scrap
aluminum is  the  reclamation  centers
set up  by  aluminum companies. With
the proportion  of aluminum  in  munic-
ipal wastes  rising and aluminum cans
such  a  visible part  of litter, the com-
panies  reacted  to  growing  legislative
pressures by  getting  involved  in  re-
claiming  aluminum   packaging.  The
aluminum  industry  programs  depend
on the  public delivering the cans to
a central collection point where they
are processed for shipment  to  a  sec-
ondary smelter. Success turns on three
points:

• Aluminum  is valuable—about $200
per ton  at  the  collection  center—and
thus  is relatively  attractive  for scrap
processing.
• Large enough quantities are brought
in so  that  the collection centers op-
erate economically.
• The  public  collects  the  cans vol-
untarily.

  To  date,  the  programs  have  suc-
ceeded in recovering 10 to 15 percent
of the aluminum  containers  available
in an  area.  Ultimately,  they might be
able to  recover as  much as  30 per-
cent. There  are  no  technical  limita-
tions to  recycling  aluminum;  rather,
the  problems  are  in separation and
collection.  The  current  aluminum in-
dustry  programs  involve  presegrega-
tion  and special  handling. As yet, no
company has  attempted to tie  alumi-
num  packaging and reclamation  di-
rectly  to a  municipal  waste  system.
glass
Glass has an  extremely low recycling
rate  if  in-plant  scrap  is  excluded.  In
1967,  total glass  production  was 12.8
million  tons,  of  which only  0.58 mil-
lion tons, or  4.7  percent  of consump-
tion,  was purchased  scrap.
  The principal raw materials of glass
are sand, soda ash, and limestone (or
dolomite).  In addition,  for technical
and economic reasons, nearly  every
type of glass requires  scrap  glass,  or
cullet. It  speeds  up the melting proc-
ess in glass  furnaces and  so reduces
fuel costs. The amount of cullet varies,
from  8  percent  to  100 percent; the
average  for  glass containers  is  14  to
16 percent. Most  segments  of the glass
industry  could use much  more  cullet
than they  do.
  The  glass   industry strongly  favors
internally generated  cullet. Not  only
is there no  question about  its com-
position and  quality,  but it is cheaper
because  the   basic raw  materials are
plentiful and  cheap.  If internal  scrap
supplies are  inadequate,  a manufac-
turer  often   devotes  excess  capacity
to  deliberately producing  cullet.  Pur-
chased  cullet  is an  unknown   quan-
                                                                                                                    27

-------
man-made fibers have grown
       at expense of wool and cotton
                                       TOTAL
                                       5,672
1960
                  1964
                                       MAN-MADE
                                       2,598


                                       COTTON
                                       1,994
  OTHER
  841

 i WOOL 239
1968

-------
tity, and  its  use risks  contaminating
and hence  losing a  batch  of  glass.
Most of what  little cullet is purchased
originates in  beer and soft  drink bot-
tling operations.  Small  quantities are
purchased from neighborhood recycling
centers.  In  recent years,  rising costs
and declining sources of  good  cullet
have  pushed  many cullet  dealers  out
of  business.
  Containers account  for about  70 per-
cent  of  total  glass  production,  with
pressed, blown, and flat glass account-
ing for the  remainder. Essentially  the
entire  output of  glass  containers  is
discarded to  municipal  wastes  sys-
tems.  Glass   represents  6  to  8  per-
cent by weight of the materials found
in municipal solid wastes—and  90 per-
cent of that is glass  containers.
  In  the   last  decade,  the  number
of glass  containers consumed has in-
creased 5.2  percent a year.  Beverage
containers have  become the dominant
type of container, reaching 51 percent
on  a  unit basis of total industry out-
put  in 1969,   compared to  26 percent
 in  1959 when  the  switch  to  nonre-
 turnable beer and soft drink  containers
 got  under way.  The  other  important
 end  use, food packaging containers, is
 growing  modestly,  while  drug,  cos-
 metic,  and  chemical   container  mar-
 kets have  stagnated or are  declining.
 Other  materials  such  as plastic, alu-
 minum, and steel, have been intensive
 competition  for  many glass markets
 in recent years.  Thus, the  glass  con-
 tainer  industry's future  growth  ap-
 pears  to  be  tied directly  to its  suc-
 cess  in  nonreturnable beer  and soft
 drink  containers.
textiles

In  1968,  nearly  5.7  million  tons  of
textiles were consumed  in the  United
States;  246,000  tons—or 4.3  percent
of consumption—were  recycled. About
40 percent of total consumption went
into  clothing, followed  by  home fur-
nishings, other consumer products, and
 industrial  uses.  Consumption  of  tex-
 tiles has risen  steadily  in recent years.
 The single most significant change has
 been the phenomenal growth of  man-
 made fibers  at the  expense of cotton
 and wool.  From  holding 24.4  percent
 of the market in  1960, manmade fibers
 had grown  to 45.8 percent by 1968. The
 advent of synthetic fibers has been sig-
 nificant  not  only  because they  cap-
 tured  markets  formerly held  by  cot-
 ton  and wool  but also because  they
 have  reached the market  in combina-
 tion  with  other   fibers, thus  making
 the  job  of  sorting  more difficult.
  Textile  wastes   are recovered  from
 operations  that  convert finished  tex-
 tiles  into  clothing  and  other  prod-
 ucts and from collection of old clothes
 by  social  service  agencies.  Textiles
 represent only about 0.6  percent  by
weight of municipal wastes. Very  little
 scrap is recycled back  into new  tex-
 tile  products. Most  textile wastes are
 either exported  (and  may  then  be
 recycled),  converted to wiping   ma-
terial, or reused  in  making paper  and
                                                                                                                     29

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retreading  is principal form
         off  rubber recycling
board products, stuffings, fillings, back-
ings, and  paddings. Large  quantities
of  textiles collected from households
by social welfare agencies are sold in
secondhand stores to reenter the waste
stream at a later date.
  Recycling of textiles is declining, in
part because textile wastes are  used
in  declining rates in paper and board,
in  part  because the use of pure  cot-
ton, the most desirable fraction  of
textile wastes,  is decreasing.
                                                               rubber
                                                                 In 1969, 3.9 million tons  of rubber
                                                               (natural and synthetic) were  consumed
                                                               in the  United States, about  two-thirds
                                                               of it in the form of rubber tires. About
                                                               1 million tons  were  recovered—26.2
                                                               percent of total consumption.
                                                                There  are  three forms  of rubber
                                                               recycling—reclaiming, tiresplitting, and
                                                               retreading, the  principal  form.  Re-
                                                               treaded tires, however, are losing mar-
                                                               kets to new tires; this decline is ex-

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pected to continue. The decreasing use
of retreads is a reflection of growing
affluence,  competition  from  synthetic
rubber tires specifically designed  and
priced to  be  competitive  in the  re-
tread market, and  technical  problems
within the  retreading  industry  that
have  increased  costs.
  About  1  percent by  weight of  col-
lected municipal   wastes  is rubber,
mostly tires.  Though  largely rubber,
tires  are  composites  of several  mate-
rials.  Removing these other  materials
and  reclaiming  the rubber is cheaper
than  producing  virgin rubber, but  the
savings  are not great enough to com-
pensate  for the technical limitations
of reclaimed rubber. Consequently, rub-
ber  reclaiming, which  is  responsible
for 24 percent of all  rubber recovered,
is  declining.  With this  decline,  the
rubber content of  solid wastes can  be
expected to rise. Use of  waste rubber
to produce new materials or  energy
appears to  offer the  best  hope of  re-
covering  the resource values  in  waste
rubber. The  technology to do this is
under development but it  still is  un-
proved  in  the  marketplace.  Another
problem  is  the cost of  collecting old
tires and  transporting them to central
processing facilities.


plastics
  Consumption  of  plastics  has   in-
creased  dramatically  in  recent  years
and  is  expected  to  continue  to  in-
crease.  Consumption  was 8.5 million
tons  in   1969  and  should  reach  19
million tons by 1980. Although plastics
were  only about 1  percent by weight
of collected municipal wastes in  1968,
they  are  increasing  rapidly   because
their use  is growing in consumer prod-
ucts, especially packaging.
  Large quantities  of scrap  are  pro-
duced  when  plastics  are  fabricated—
as high as 30  percent in  some cases.
Only a  small  market  exists  for  fabri-
cation  wastes,  so that  many  fabrica-
tors  haul their scrap to  dumps and
sanitary   landfills.  Nor  are  obsolete
plastics recycled. The immense  num-
ber of different  formulations—for ex-
ample,  there   are  over  700  different
grades of polyethylene  alone—and the
near impossibility of  sorting these ma-
terials after  discard  prevent their  re-
use.
  A  fundamental  obstacle  to  plastics
recovery  and  reuse  springs  directly
from  their  synthetic  origin.  Unlike
metals  processing, which  begins with
impure  ore  and  purifies   it,  plastics
processing  begins with   high   purity
materials  to  which new materials are
added. A  production  process based on
purification can accept  scrap and treat
it  as though  it  were  partially  proc-
essed ore. Practical means of removing
unwanted contaminants from  plastics
are still  largely nonexistent.
  The rapid growth of plastics and the
very major  barriers  to their recovery
suggest   that  plastics  in   waste  may
best be used  by  burning them  and
recovering  the  heat. Plastics—largely
packaging materials—have  the highest
heat value of any material  commonly
found  in  municipal  wastes.   Should
recovering  the  heat  from  municipal
waste come into use, the  presence of
plastics  will be beneficial.

                                 31

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                   POLICIES   FOR   THE   FUTURE
The  situation  in  recycling  today  is
that secondary materials have difficulty
competing  against  virgin  materials,
which generally cost  less.  In  earlier
decades,  wastes were  not available in
large enough  quantities to satisfy de-
mand  for  materials, while virgin ma-
terials were abundant. The mining (or
harvesting), purifying,  upgrading, and
processing  of  virgin  materials  made
dramatic  technological  and economic
strides forward.  At the  same  time,
scrap   recovery  techniques—in  the
broad  sense of acquiring, upgrading,
processing, and distributing—remained
primitive  and  expensive.
  Virgin  materials  cost  less because
the market  price  reflects  only pro-
duction  costs.  It does  not  reflect all
the social and economic costs of using
virgin  materials, nor  does  it   credit
recycled  materials  with  the benefits
their  use  creates.  Processors of  vir-
gin materials  enjoy  depletion   allow-
ances. They do  not pay the full  costs
of the solid wastes generated or the
damage  done to the  environment by

32
their mining, harvesting,  transporting,
and  processing activities. Also,  many
raw  materials—the  bauxite  ore from
which  aluminum  is  derived,  for  ex-
ample—come principally from foreign
sources, and their  use contributes  to
the  Nation's  balance  of  trade  prob-
lems.
  By contrast,  secondary materials  get
no  credit  for  conserving natural  re-
sources, removing  materials from  the
solid waste stream, providing materials
whose  processing  usually  pollutes  the
environment less than the comparable
processing of virgin materials, and con-
tributing  to a  favorable  balance  of
trade.
  Improved technology can help lower
the prices of secondary materials,  but
more  far-reaching   changes  probably
will be required to  bring about greater
use  of recycled  materials. Our  tradi-
tional accounting system will  have to
be replaced  by one  based on the con-
cept of resource  conservation,  where
resource is defined broadly to include
all  the  substances,  energies,  man-
power,  and conditions that  we  value.
A new comprehensive  accounting sys-
tem  would  consider total  costs, tan-
gible and intangible, of producing, dis-
tributing, using, and disposing  of ma-
terials.  Under  such a  system,  virgin
materials  might  still   be  better  for
some products—it would  be  clearly
undesirable,  for instance,  to  recycle
an abundant material  if doing so re-
quired two or three times more  energy,
water, and  manpower  and  generated
more  pollution  than in obtaining  the
same material   from natural  deposits.
But  probably  more  products   would
be "cheaper"  if made  from secondary
materials.
  In  the future, we will recycle more
of our  wastes.  As  our  natural  re-
sources  give  out, we  may  have no
other choice.  But  if  the   American
people understand the real issues and
roadblocks that stand   in  the  way  of
recycling, they  can then  support  the
changes  needed—changes   in  public
attitudes, laws,  and policies—to bring
much closer the  day  when  we  stop
squandering our natural resources and
heedlessly polluting our environment.
                      ft U S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE • 1973 O - 504- 309    JJ072 1 22

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