Neil Seldman on the Future of Community-based Recycling in the U.S.

In the News: Neil Seldman

February 19, 2020

Media Outlet: Waste 360

In Waste 360, ILSR’s Neil Seldman writes about the history of community-based recycling programs in the U.S., and how this history illuminates a path forward for U.S. recycling.

Here’s an excerpt:

Localization of recycling collection, processing and marketing, plus locally inspired waste reduction ordinances, is the pathway back to the country’s recycling roots and onward to zero waste within a decade.

In the wake of the turmoil caused by China’s rejection of contaminated U.S. recyclables and the rising cost of processing recyclables, cities need to understand some history and perhaps revert to strategies and organizations that started recycling and made it flourish from the 1960s through the early 2000s. These tried and true approaches can lower the cost of recycling and increase the value of recovered materials.

Read the full story here.