the industrial specialists who have developed expertise in the handling of thousands of different kinds of scrap materials. To comprehend the complexity of the work involved, one must realize that in every category of recycled materials there are indeed hundreds of different types and grades of scrap.

To the layman, for example, waste paper is simply waste paper. To the paper stock specialist (as one would find in NARI's internationally accepted paper stock specifications) there are dozens of different grades of paper stock.

In metals, the complexity is even greaterbecause the separate metals (copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, precious metals, nickel alloys) are processed for classification into hundreds of different grades, each carrying its own specifications and marketing requirements.

The scrap processor's function therefore is the key to the recycling process. Successful recycling is dependent on the upgrading of recovered waste to the highest possible level. The U.S. scrap dealer has no peer in this highly technical role, nor is he surpassed in his knowledge of market applications for recycled materials. Both talents are vital to the future of recycling.

The extent of the scrap dealer's operation can be measured by the statistics in NARI's study for EPA as shown in the accompanying charts. One can see at a glance that more than 1 million tons of scrap aluminum and more than 1.3 million tons of scrap copper move through the hands of scrap processors in a given year.

To properly handle this large tonnage, the recycling industry avails itself of the latest in materials handling equipment, scientific testing devices, the newest in transport equipment, and trained personnel. It is continually developing new techniques to improve the economics and quality of recycled materials. Copper wire, once recovered only through open burning, is now incinerated under strict air pollution control and even more likely, mechanically stripped; new ways of deinking waste paper are now in active use; shredded metal recovered from scrapped automobiles is now a regular recycling product.

FROM PROCESSOR TO INDUSTRIAL
CONSUMER

The immediate industrial consumer of secondary materials is an integral part of the entire recycling operation. If scrap were only col

lected and allowed to remain in the processor's yard or plant, it would never get recycled into new materials and products.

These intermediate consumers of recycled materials represent a major segment of American industry; they are familiar corporate names in many cases. They are the steel mills which absorb huge tonnages of scrap iron and steel; refineries which convert scrap into new, refined copper; secondary aluminum smelters which produce ingot for sale to foundries and other fabrication plants; brass mills and ingot manufacturers; smelters of lead and zinc; and paper and paperboard manufacturers; roofing material plants; garment and wiping cloth manufacturers-and hundreds of other industrial consumers who use recycled raw materials in their daily operations.

Recycled raw materials production accounts for major portions of the total supply factor in the United States today. It represents 52% of the lead produced; over 45% of the copper used; more than 30% of the aluminum output; over 20% of the zinc supply; and more than 20% of the paper production.

MARKETS FIRST; COLLECTIONS SECOND

The entire recycling concept is built on the premise of "demand-pull" markets. That is, solid waste will flow into the recycling process when a market demand creates the reason for pulling more supplies from this vast raw material stockpile. Only by expanding the markets for recycled materials can we effectively develop increased utilization of solid waste.

Laymen sometimes erroneously think that collections, in themselves, constitute recycling. Actually, while collections do help to clean up the environment and educate the public to the importance of recycling-and are therefore a positive contribution to ecology-they do not represent recycling. Collections of paper, cans or other items merely move solid wastes in an orderly fashion from one place to anotherready to be processed and marketed. Unless the market outlet really does exist for these collected solid wastes, they will not be recycled.

Utilization, therefore, constitutes the essential ingredient in the entire recycling concept. Unless these raw materials can be readily marketed, the collection of recyclable materials may well represent a meaningless step. In fact, collections unsupported by market outlets can actually be counter-productive to recycling. They only serve to weaken the entire supply

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demand balance and reduce the value of recoverable solid waste below the point at which it is possible to economically collect, transport, and process it. The emphasis must be on utilization, not more collections. And utilization outlets can be expanded-both in existing markets and by finding new ones. This requires the cooperation of Federal and local governments, industry, and all of us as citizens and consumers.

Markets First:

Since the priority must be on expanded markets, the initial step must be to remove the economic barriers and impediments to recycling and to establish incentives. Unfortunately, current Federal, state and municipal laws and policies were developed for a different era, when the nation needed to encourage the utilization of natural resources. These laws and policies do not recognize the limits of our raw material wealth and actually encourage the continued, expanded use of virgin materials at the expense of the utilization of recycled materials. These current conditions-which provide tax incentives to primary industries and not to recycling industries, which provide lower freight rates for commodities in a virgin form than in a recycled form-must be changed.

We, as consumers of products, must change our attitudes as well if we are to have expanded markets for recycled materials. We must reject the myth that products made with recycled materials are not as good as those manufactured with virgin goods. Recycled materials are processed and sold to manufacturers on terms which meet the same or equivalent qualitative standards as those for primary materials. Manufacturers have for many years used recycled materials as an integral part of their raw material input. They know how to use recycled materials, and they know when to use them.

And it is this "when" that we must deal with in terms of expanding markets. Manufacturers will only use recycled materials when it is to their economic advantage to do so. That means recycled materials must have economic viability. The use of recycled materials is no magical act; their use is completely dependent on their being marketed on an economically sound basis in direct competition with virgin materials. That means recycled materials deserve, and must have, "economic equality": the same policies, the same benefits, the same treatment as primary materials. That and only that will remove barriers to utilization and provide the

market stimulus favorable to increased use of recycled materials.

Collections Second:

Many centers have sprung up around the country for the purpose of collecting recoverable solid wastes. Though many are billed as "recycling centers," they are in fact often only collection centers. Some are sponsored by environmental groups; others are promoted by industrial companies seeking to align themselves with the recycling objectives; others are offsprings of local government agencies.

The question has often been asked: do such centers serve a worthwhile and productive purpose?

The answer to this question must lie with the ultimate use of the materials that have been collected. It has already been pointed out that if centers are created merely to collect material and have no outlets for their recovered (but not yet recycled) materials, they have at best performed only a limited environmental function. Such centers, unsupported as they are by any economic purpose, must surely, in the last analysis, fail or be fruitlessly and artificially supported by funds of companies and organizations with a public relations motive. If centers are established to collect solid waste materials for known market outlets, then yet another question must be asked: does the market outlet for this material represent an expanded or new use of recycled raw materials? Or is a company merely purchasing recovered materials from a center and substituting it for recycled raw materials traditionally purchased through other sources?

Certainly, the recycling concept is not honestly supported if an industrial company merely substitutes the purchase of one kind of recycled material for another or merely changes from one source of supply to another. Such action represents simply an unfortunate displacement of already effective and orderly recycling. Recycling is only advanced when there is a market expansion factor, when a raw material consuming company buys additional quantities of recycled materials and when it manufactures a product with larger percentages of recycled materials.

Some have sought to justify the need for collection centers when traditional industrial collectors of scrap had no economic interest in certain types of municipal or other low-value waste. Here lies the essence of the market expansion factor: as the market expands for re

cycled materials, more demand will be created for recovered solid waste, and the recycling companies will be interested in a wider and wider range of solid waste items. Until this market expansion occurs, it is not economically feasible for anyone to collect the large quantities of municipal-type solid wastes for recycling.

The technology exists for recovering and recycling practically all forms of solid waste for which there are currently market outlets. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency and Council on Environmental Quality have recognized this fact. The recycling industry today

is the most effective instrument for the recycling of solid waste back into industrial channels. A host of Government agencies and leaders have also recognized this fact. Thus, little purpose is served by local governments or other publicly-supported efforts to establish centers which either collect materials for which there are no supporting market outlets or for duplicating the operations that already exist within the recycling industry. A collection or recycling center only has a purpose if it does truly introduce a new or expanded market utilization factor-or if the operations of the center do truly represent a new and innovative technique for handling wastes not already being recycled.