Missouri Recycling Economic Information Study

Abstract

The recycling of materials is not new, recycling was an element of the war effort during World War II, for example, and recycling has continued in some sectors without active government involvement. Recycling became more prominent in the 1970s and 80s first because of environmental concerns, and later due to the decline in landfill capacity. These concerns culminated in the passage of SB 530 in 1990. The act strengthened the regulations of landfills, authorized the creation of solid waste management districts, and encouraged recycling of newsprint, batteries and tires, and other products. The resulting recycling activities produce indirect benefits, such as the reduction of environmental degradation caused by illegally disposed waste, including vehicle batteries and tires, but recycling activities also produce economic benefits over and above environmental benefits. This study is designed to explore these economic benefits of recycling in the state of Missouri. The study examined four business sectors, recycling collection, recycling processing, recycling manufacturing, and reuse and remanufacturing. The four business sectors are subdivided into 26 business categories. See Table 1 and Appendix A for a description of the business categories. Data gathered from the mail survey were used in 11 business categories, a derivation based on industry data for 2 categories, and existing data were drawn from the NAICS for the remaining 13 categories. The approach used here was designed to be comparable to the United States Recycling Economic Information Study (USREIS) and the several state studies that have replicated that study.