Recycling is, indeed, worth it

January 27, 2025

As a recycling professional for 35 years, I’d like to correct the essence of Frank Breen’s letter of last week that questions whether recycling is “worth the effort”: The answer for curbside residential service as in Concord is generally yes. 

If one subscribes to the town service provided by Waste Management, then all of the paper/cardboard is absolutely recycled and made into recycled packaging; the tin and aluminum cans/bottles are recycled, and glass will be recycled, though supply in New England tends to exceed demand from new uses and is a continuing challenge.

Plastics are more nuanced. The relatively valuable No. 1, No. 2, and No. 5 plastics are getting recycled (with a few exceptions, such as black plastic containers often used for takeout food), but practically all other plastics will likely end up getting landfilled or incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant. The low recycling rate that is often quoted for plastics reflects the huge amount of industrial scrap that are frequently composites and for which there are no good markets at the current time.

Recycling rates will likely improve in the years ahead as disposal costs inevitably rise here in Massachusetts (half of our waste is exported to other states for lack of both landfill and incinerator capacity) and the increasing likelihood Massachusetts will join other states in passing an Expanded Producer Responsibility (EPR) law, incentivizing manufacturers to use more recycling-friendly packaging.

In summary, by weight, you can be confident that most of what you’re putting in the large recycling bin is getting recycled. While single-stream recycling is very expensive, so is waste disposal, and there are huge pools of investments seeking better options for all types of scrap plastic. I am optimistic we will improve our recycling rates in the near future.

Mark Cohen

Chestnut Street