How To Establish
Recycling and
Composting Programs
In many countries, recycling occurs informally at landfills, uncontrolled
dumps, and on streets. Scavengers or wastepickers often collect
materials for reuse or sale without any organization, supervision, or
regulation. While scavenging or wastepicking can be very effective at
reducing the amount of plastic, glass, metal, and paper ultimately requiring
disposal, pursuing these activities can be harmful to worker health.
Incorporating scavengers or wastepickers into organized or formal recycling
programs can improve the quality of their working conditions and the local
environment. Composting can also improve local economies and the
environment—by turning organic waste, which is a large portion of many
city waste streams, into a marketable product for urban and agricultural
uses. Together, recycling and composting can provide income, significantly
reduce waste, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. This fact sheet
describes the benefits of formal recycling and composting activities and
provides steps on how you can incorporate scavenging or wastepicking into
formal recycling and composting programs. At the end of this fact sheet, a
case study from Brazil shows how businesses organized scavengers and
wastepickers into successful recycling cooperatives.
What Are the Benefits of Formal Recycling and Composting
Programs?
Recycling and composting activities, if organized properly by the local government, can
generate many environmental and economic benefits. For example, it can create jobs and
income, supply valuable raw materials to industry produce soil-enhancing compost for
agriculture, reduce the need to site or build more landfills and combustors, and prevent
greenhouse gas emissions. An organized approach to recycling and composting can also
have many benefits for your community. Involving scavengers or wastepickers in formal
recycling activities can empower them, increase their income and reputation, and
improve their quality of life, health, and safety.
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Printed on paper that contains at least 50 percent postconsumer fiber.
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How Do I Start a Formal Recycling
or Composting Program?
Establishing and managing formal recycling and
composting programs requires significant local
government time and resource investments.
However, these investments can save money in the
long term by allowing governments to maximize
existing recycling and composting activities before
making significant investments in collecting and
transporting waste. To successfully implement
formal recycling or composting programs,
governments will need to consider social, financial,
institutional, and regulatory issues. The following
steps outline one possible approach for
implementing a program.
Step 1. Plan and set goals. Set flexible goals
and plans for your recycling and composting
programs. As you follow each of the steps and learn
more about the community's needs, adjust the plans
to incorporate this information.
Step 2. Study the complete waste
management system.
• Evaluate the waste stream. What types and
amounts of waste are generated and by whom?
• Identify existing activities. Local governments
should determine all waste recycling practices,
including existing informal practices such as
scavenging or wastepicking, in addition to
existing recycling groups such as cooperatives
and micro-enterprises, which are usually formed
under the supervision of nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs). This information will help
community planners consider the recycling
sector's requirements when they design an
improved solid waste management system.
Academic institutions and NGOs might be able
to help perform surveys or other studies to
gather these critical data.
• Determine possible markets or buyers. Who
will purchase the materials?
Step 3. Work with the community.
• Identify and meet with informal recycling
groups, NGOs, and homeowners in cities.
The local government should select a coordinator
to manage and work with wastepicking groups.
The coordinator should first identify the various
groups or individuals active in recycling or
composting, and then meet with leaders within
those groups to discuss local issues. If more than
one recycling or composting group serves the
community, the decision-makers should
coordinate these groups' activities by assigning
specific service locations to each group and
setting guidelines for the types of waste they can
recycle (e.g., paper, metals, glass, food).
Involving the local government in these activities
could help provide stability for the scavengers' or
wastepickers' work and improve their quality of
life.
• Incorporate scavengers and wastepickers.
The local government should discuss and
determine how existing scavenging or
wastepicking activities and groups, such as
cooperatives and micro-enterprises, could be
incorporated into a formal waste management
system. Emphasis should be placed on the
improved economic, health, and safety benefits
scavengers and wastepickers may experience
under a more organized system.
Step 4. Create a designated recycling or
composting area. The local government should
designate areas within a waste disposal facility
where sorting, recycling, and composting can occur.
These areas can be fixed or moveable to meet the
scavengers' or wastepickers' needs (see text box).
Any recycling or composting that is being done at
the landfill should be located away from the
working surface of the landfill (i.e., where waste is
being compacted and covered) to protect the health
and safety of scavengers or wastepickers. The local
government should determine what additional
equipment might be necessary for a program and
how the equipment will be provided.
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Step 5. Develop operation standards.
The local government should develop standard
operating procedures for the scavengers or
wastepickers. Standard operating procedures
increase efficiency and help improve health and
safety. Determining a time of day for groups to
access a site is an important consideration.
Requirements such as use of safety equipment (e.g.,
gloves or masks) and worker identification (e.g.,
uniforms or badges) can also be included in
standard operating procedures.
Step 6. Determine who is responsible
for selling the recyclables or composted
material. The government should determine
whether it will be involved in the sale of recyclables
and compost, or if the landfill owner, workers, or
cooperatives will interact with the buyers. The
governing agency also should establish an
agreement with the recycling groups that clearly
states how the profits from selling recyclable or
composted materials will be shared. Governments
also need to determine if the compost will be
available for free or packaged for sale to farmers and
other groups.
DEFINITIONS
Composting: The controlled aerobic
biological decomposition of organic material
in the presence of air and water to form
humus.
Humus: A soil-like material resulting from
the partial decomposition of plant and
animal matter.
Landfill: Disposal site for nonhazardous
solid wastes. The waste is spread into layers,
compacted to reduce its volume, and covered
by clay or soil, which is applied at the end of
each operating day.
Recycling: Collecting, reprocessing, and/or
recovering certain waste materials to make
new materials or products.
Establishing Efficient Work Areas
When designating a recycling or composting
area, the government will need to consider the
availability of space and financial resources.
Fixed recycling sites may include buildings and
mechanized equipment for separating out
recyclables. These help to make recycling
operations safer and cleaner. They do, however,
require a higher capital investment and have
increased operational costs because the
recyclable materials must be transported from
the active area of the landfill to the recycling
site. Mobile stations, comprised of
compartmentalized push carts, allow recycling
groups to move from one disposal site to
another. They are a cheaper option, but might
decrease the efficiency and safety of the
recycling process.
A composting area might simply involve neat
piles of organic wastes that are turned over by
machine or rotated manually and watered
frequently to help speed up the natural
breakdown of food and plant waste into a
nutrient-rich compost. Watering also reduces
the potential for material to be moved by wind.
Formal composting activities might include the
use of "windrows," organized rows of organic
material that can be rotated manually or with
machines. Some governments may also find it
useful to purchase a machine to shred fallen
trees and landscape trimmings. Regardless of
how complex the composting activities are, it is
important to monitor the organic breakdown
of materials in order to control odors, keep
rodents out, and ensure a useful end product.
The success of these recycling and composting
activities may affect other components of the
integrated solid waste management (ISWM) system.
Keeping track of materials diverted from disposal
will be useful to local governments considering new
recycling programs or construction of transfer
stations, combustors, and landfills to manage solid
waste.
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CASE STUDY
COOPERATIVE RECYCLING IN BRAZIL
Businesses in Brazil are taking a lead role in organizing recycling collection in the
country's major cities. In 1992, private companies from various sectors established the
Brazilian Business Commitment for Recycling (CEMPRE), a nonprofit organization
dedicated to the promotion of recycling within the scope of integrated waste
management. CEMPRE tries to increase the community's awareness of recycling and other
solid waste issues through publications, technical research, seminars, and databases. The
outreach programs are aimed at those who influence public opinion, such as mayors,
directors of companies, academics, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The
training programs support the development of recycling cooperatives.
Organizing scavenging or wastepicking activities into recycling cooperatives has been one
of CEMPRE's main activities. The official curbside recycling program in the city of Curitiba,
for example, collects 800 tons of recyclables a month at a cost of $180 per ton, while local
catadores (scavengers or wastepickers) collect over 3,000 tons a month at no direct cost to
the city. In organizing informal recycling activities, CEMPRE hopes to better the catadores'
position in Brazilian society, increase the national recycling rate, and create economies of
scale. According to CEMPRE, the catadores' free market approach is more economical than
Brazil's government-run curbside collection programs, and cooperatives enable members to
sell to larger dealers at higher prices. The few cooperatives that already exist have
demonstrated great success. In Sao Paulo, for example, members of a cooperative receive
40 percent more money than they would have earned on their own. To inform the
catadores about the benefits and logistics of organizing into recycling cooperatives,
CEMPRE distributes educational material throughout Brazil and holds courses on the
materials. Catadores attended 10 classes, learning about topics from health care for
workers to the basics of running a cooperative. In addition, the class visited Belo
Horizonte's composting plant and properly designed, constructed, and managed landfill to
learn more about the city's solid waste services. CEMPRE has completed many other projects
to promote recycling in Brazil, including developing a series of recycling handbooks.
CEMPRE also has sponsored a database of solid waste documents, worked to standardize
packaging symbols, and conducted studies of local recycling programs. The organization
also developed a decision-makers' guide to solid waste management in Brazil and
distributed it to every mayor in the country. For more information on CEMPRE, visit the
organization's Web site at: .
United States Environmental Protection Agency
EPA530-F-02-026b
(5306W)
Solid Waste and Emergency Response
May 2002
www. epa. gov/globalwarming
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