A Brief History of Recycling in America
July 2 | Category: Perspective Pieces | Written by Kathryn Breznau
Recycling is a long-standing American tradition but its motivational driver has had many faces.
In the 1800s, recycling was a de-facto part of living. Our clothing was often sewn by people we knew and was respected as such. Wear and tear was repaired until clothes were ready for quilts, rugs, and rags. Time-worn furniture was rebuilt, refinished, and reupholstered. Kitchen discards were returned to the earth via the home garden (which everyone had). Consumable paper was limited to newspaper, catalogs and stationery. Crockery in spring water ice houses and root cellars and cedar storage preserved our bounty.
And so it went… until The Industrial Revolution
Mechanical inventions: labor efficiencies and the birth of mass production systems; electricity: the telegraph, the radio, power; railroads and automobiles: mobility, national identity and economic centers of commodity production and food processing. It is at this point that the human population exploded in its consumption of natural resources: lumber, coal, iron, copper, ad infinitum and the roots of toxic pollutants infiltrated our land, water and air.
As in any complex system’s evolution, ignorance is a driver without limit.
And so it went…until World War II
The demands of wartime materials production inspired a patriotic effort to collect needed scarce materials, such as aluminum, tin, and other metals, for re-purposing and official metal recycling was born. But then, scientists created synthetic substitutes for much needed rubber (tires and treads moved the military now)…and plastic was born. From here it was a small step to an era of modern convenience, consumption and forever waste… the birth of the municipal landfill…truly.
And so it went… until 1962
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring sounded the alarm on pesticides’ impact on the environment and our health and the modern environmental movement was born. If Rachel is the modern environmental movement’s mama, Lyndon B Johnson is it’s papa. As 36th president of the United States, he instituted and signed into law over 300 conservation measures including the Clean Air Act 1963, Water Quality Act 1965, Land and Water Conservation Act 1965, and National Historic Preservation Act 1966. His efforts laid the foundation for the EPA established in 1970. He also had a clear understanding of the environmental injustices associated with poverty and urban living. He worked diligently on these issues and first stated what has become our green amendment mantra: everyone has a right to clean air, water, and natural space.
The activities of the 1960s signaled a broad shift in the attention of the American public to environmental concerns. In terms of recycling, there was one very large obstacle: availability of and access to recycling sites.
Again, need drives innovation. In just ten short years from the institution of landfills, facilities were recognizing the economic and physical unsustainability of current practices and curbside recycling programs were born. We still had to sort our recycling… glass, bottles, paper, but the truck came to our house. Curbside recycling programs solved the convenience issue, although the prevalence varied from city to city. In 1960, just over 6 percent of municipal solid waste was recycled. Since then, recycling rates have increased to about 10 percent in 1980; 16 percent in 1990; 29 percent in 2000, and over 32 percent in 2023. That’s helped decrease the amount of waste going to landfills from 94 percent in 1960 to 52 percent of the amount generated in 2018.
In the late 1990s, single stream recycling was introduced. No more sorting and separating…just throw everything in your recycling bin. It is a tool that reduces recycling costs and supports the necessary goal of reducing landfill use. The cost and success of single stream recycling is impacted by the individual participants' behavior, i.e. following the guidelines published by the recycling facilities on what can be recycled and cleaning food residues from materials prior to recycling. A sticky tin can lid attached to a piece of paper contaminates the whole paper batch. And there it is… individual responsibility for system success. Be responsible and do it right, recycle clean.