Editable-Baltimore's Fair Development Plan for Zero Waste - Flipbook - Page 33
Mission-Based
Recyclers:
Currently, Baltimore’s recycling system is wedded to a Big Waste company, which
has a fundamental conflict of interest: landfill companies make large profits from
having materials placed in their facilities and fear recycling because it diverts
materials from their facilities and lowers their profits.
Landfills are Big Waste’s cash cows and the leverage they can use to stop genuine
competition. By one estimate1, they make 10 times as much profit on landfills as
on recycling.
When organized citizens formed the recycling movement in the late 1960s, the
waste industry responded to the threat of recycling. They took control of MRFs2,
that is, the sites where recyclables are taken to be separated into valuable
materials. Putting these companies in control of recycling presents them with a
dilemma. Their internal economics encourages them to maximize profits by
diverting recyclable materials to their own landfills. Yet society demands they
maximize recycling.
In Baltimore, the city uses an out of town Big Waste company to process the city’s
recyclables. The city pays for shipping the materials about 15 miles out of town,
pays for the company’s 30%+ profit margins for inefficient and low quality
processing (glass, which makes up 20-25% of the recycling stream, is not clean
enough to sell despite heavy demand for materials).
This scenario can be readily changed.
Baltimore can improve recycling through cooperation between the DPW and a
mission based recycling organization. Such an approach would reduce costs of
recycling, improve the value of recovered materials, create new small businesses
and jobs for residents, and stimulate the local and regional economy. At the same
time Baltimore will contribute to stabilizing the global environment by reducing
pollution from extractive industries and making the polluting BRESCO incinerator
unnecessary.
Baltimore’s Fair Development Plan for Zero Waste
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