Recycling pays off for Philly suburb

Roger Jones

Published: August 3, 2012 6:00 am ET

I am puzzled about a quote from a North Carolina official about cities not being rewarded for their recycling efforts (“Recycled resin demand drives support for extended producer responsibility,” May 21, Page 8).

Here in suburban Philadelphia, our township officials say just the opposite.

About a year ago, they broadened the types of plastics that would be collected for recycling from just two types (PET and high density polyethylene) to everything but three types (PVC, polystyrene and “other”). The reason they did it was that recyclers were offering higher prices for such items and tipping fees for landfill trash were continuing to escalate.

In fact, the economics of trash vs. recycling is pushing the township to decrease trash pickups in favor of increasing recycling pickups. Surely, North Carolina must be facing a similar squeeze on increasing tipping fees for landfills — how is it they don’t see increasing recycling as a way to better balance their overall waste removal costs?

Thanks for writing about this.

Roger Jones

Franklin International

Broomall, Pa.


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Recycling pays off for Philly suburb

Roger Jones

Published: August 3, 2012 6:00 am ET

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