Scott Mouw: Recycling works in North Carolina

Contrary to John Tierney’s Oct. 18 opinion piece, reports about the demise of recycling are greatly exaggerated. From job creation to its lasting economic and environmental benefits, recycling works for North Carolina.

Recycling is a steady source of employment growth for North Carolina’s economy. In five studies since 1994, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality has documented a consistent increase in the number of our residents who work in the recycling industry. Recycling employment grew 5 percent during the recent recession and continues to grow, as evidenced by the record 17,000 private recycling jobs North Carolina now boasts.

An increasing number of North Carolinians rely on jobs in recycling to pay for their homes, health care and children’s educations. Recycling also makes sense for the bottom line of many North Carolina companies. Unifi, one of our state’s leading textile firms, has learned it’s far less expensive to use energy-efficient recycled commodities than virgin materials. Unifi has created a high-end polyester called Repreve from recyclable plastic bottles, which it sells to customers such as Nike and Ford.

Recycling also makes economic sense for practically all the state’s paving companies, which now use asphalt from old roofing shingles to offset expensive petroleum asphalt for road-building.

Simply put, recycling is smart business. Recycling thrives in North Carolina because there is a steady demand for products made with recycled materials. The aluminum can you open this afternoon has made it through its entire product cycle in less than 60 days.

The same is true for the glass jar from Mount Olive pickles or the bottle from Sierra Nevada. That glass can stay in the state forever, collected and reprocessed repeatedly into new jars and bottles at plants in Winston-Salem and Wilson, where they save tremendous amounts of natural gas by using recycled glass. What makes economic sense also makes environmental sense.

World-class manufacturers are committed to achieving zero-waste-to-landfill as part of their commitment to sustainability. Bridgestone, Thomas Built Buses, Procter & Gamble, Freightliner, Honda, Corning and Daimler Trucks are cutting costs at their North Carolina plants by completely eliminating their Dumpsters and avoiding landfill tipping fees.

These companies reach their zero waste goals through the services of more than 750 recycling firms in North Carolina. Residents, too, are doing their part. Successfully capturing discarded materials for recycling is one reason North Carolina’s per capita disposal of solid waste has decreased by 32 percent since 2006.

Simple acts by North Carolinians are feeding recycled material to manufacturers, producing thousands of recycling-related jobs and expanding the economy rather than the landfill. When millions of people put a steel can, a yogurt cup or a just-finished copy of The News & Observer in their recycling carts instead of garbage cans, they ensure that recycling works for North Carolina.

The length limit was waived for a fuller response.

This story was originally published October 26, 2015 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Scott Mouw: Recycling works in North Carolina."