Choosing to recycle - because it pays.

Recycled material isn't just in Greenpeace backpacks anymore - it's in many of the everyday products we buy at the mall and supermarket. Plastics, metals and glass now routinely take a second - or even third - trip through our consumer society. These products often cost the same or less to produce than the same thing made from virgin sources. Corporate America is learning that recycling pays.

In some cases, such as in the recycled paper industry, recycling plants are more modern and efficient, consuming less water and polluting less, than their virgin-source counterparts. Paper recycling helps protect American forests. Although U.S. hardwood forests now are being replaced at a faster pace than they are being cut, much of this timber is not available for commercial use. Perhaps more important, the replacement forests are mono-culture tree plantations, not biologically diverse ecosystems - the lack of which can cause unforeseeable environmental problems. "Paper recycling cuts down on the amount of wood needed from virgin sources," says Richard Hoppe, vice president for conservation of The Wilderness Society. "There are fewer trees cut, and less pressure to cut trees in public forests."

The virgin pulp and paper industry generates significant air and water pollutants, as well as toxic wastes, which creates a cleanup problem for industry. Virgin paper mills also use hundreds of corrosive and hazardous substances, compared to just dozens at paper recycling plants, and that fact has led to an explosion in new construction. Some 45 recycled paper mills have been voluntarily built or expanded in the 1990s, and $10 billion in new investments are being committed.

In New York City, two paper recycling plants that may serve as a model for the rest of the country (one the product of a consortium that includes the Natural Resources Defense Council) are presently under construction. Total investment exceeds $750 million, and will result in the creation of thousands of new jobs. (In contrast, landfills produce the fewest jobs of any waste management option.)

Newsprint is another recycling success story. Without any enforced mandates, newspapers like The New York Times have voluntarily agreed to increase their recycled newsprint purchases. The Los Angeles Times is largely recycled paper. The newsprint that local publishers buy - much of which comes from Quebec - will now have to travel fewer miles to its destination, reducing the use of fossil fuels. And the paper will cost no more - or even less - than newsprint created from virgin sources. The plants will also use less water per ton of manufactured product than virgin newsprint mills use.

The Future Is...Recycled Plastic

An increasing number of recycled plastic products, meanwhile, are becoming available on store shelves. Buyers may or may not be aware of their recycled content. According to Evelyn Haught, director of communications for the Institute of Scrap Recycling (ISR) in Washington, D.C., an average of 450,000 tons of beverage containers have been recycled over the past 10 years for everything from flower pots to fences.

"You can go into any Wal-Mart and pick up a doormat and discover it's made of recycled plastic," says Haught.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is recycled from beverage containers and is used for insulation in jackets and sleeping bags, carpets and carpet matting, industrial paints and paint brushes, scouring pads, auto parts, even landfill liners. "PET cleans well and is very durable," says Haught.

Despite its cost-effectiveness, however, PET soda bottle recycling declined dramatically in 1995, dropping to 41 percent from a record high of 57 percent in 1994. According to the American Plastics Council, more than 741 million pounds of PET bottles ended up in landfills in 1995 - one third more than in 1989. Haught remains upbeat, however, noting that many plastics can be effectively recycled, and that the market is growing. "When people see how well recycling works over the course of time, the demand will increase," he says.

Another durable plastic is High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), the kind used for milk jugs and shampoo and detergent bottles. Plastic lumber made from HDPE is used for fencing, decking, playground equipment, park benches, road barrier cones, industrial pallets and other construction. It's expensive compared to wood, but Haught points out that it won't be attacked by termites or fade in the sun, won't splinter and generally doesn't need repairing. "It doesn't sound appealing, but when you see it and sit on it, it is." The City of Chicago has passed an ordinance requiring all future playgrounds, park benches and fences to be built with HDPE.

Lynn Scarlett of The Reason Foundation claims that it doesn't always make sense to recycle plastic. She cites the case of plastic grocery bags, which over time have been reduced in thickness from two mills to .75 mills. "But recycled resin doesn't have the same qualities as virgin resin - it's subject to peeling and tearing," Scarlett says. "The result is that recycled bag makers produce thicker bags, which winds up using more total resources than if you'd made a high-tech, thin virgin bag." But, advocates say, recycled bags are made from material that would otherwise have been thrown out, so their "total resource consumption" doesn't make much difference.

According to the EPA, in 1994, plastics production facilities emitted more than 111 million pounds of toxic fumes, 507 million pounds of production-related wastes, and thousands of pounds of discharges to surface waters. Considering this - and the amount of split oil on its way to refineries to make plastic - buying recycled products is clearly an environmentally sound practice.

Heavy Metal

Metals recycling, meanwhile, has become a major economic success in the U.S. It helps to curb mining impacts on forests and streams, a weighty legacy in the neighborhoods of many now-defunct mines across the nation. It also reduces the need for expensive imports of metals.

The Mineral Policy Center, a bi-partisan research group, has documented the effects of the 550,000 abandoned mines in the U.S., including land erosion, contamination of streams, lakes and reservoirs with bauxite, gypsum, sulfuric acid, cyanide, copper, zinc and mercury. By recycling tin cans (which use tin and iron), batteries (which use cadmium, zinc, mercury, lead and manganese) and aluminum, the U.S. can significantly reduce the need for mining.

The Steel Recycling Institute (SRI) in Washington, D.C. is an industry-sponsored trade organization that tries to encourage steel recycling because it's so lucrative for the industry. Recycling steel - the most reused material in the U.S. - reduces mining waste by 97 percent, and in 1995 helped divert 1.5 million tons of waste from landfills. Overall, 68 percent of steel is recycled, including 17 billion steel cans in 1995 alone. According to SRI's Darren Boyce, all current steel production has recycled content, and there's scrap material "in everything from cars, trucks and buses to bridges, appliances, nails and paint cans." SRI President Bill Heenan adds, "The steel industry's technology has advanced to the point where you simply can't make new steel without scrap steel."

CONTACTS: Institute for Scrap Recycling, 1325 G Street NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005/[phone]; Steel Recycling Institute, 680 Andersen Drive, Foster Plaza 10, Pittsburgh, PA 152202700/[phone]. - A.H.