Industrial Recycling ‘Runs Like Clockwork’

Industrial recyclers in the U.S. are efficiently moving the economy toward circularity. Get in on the opportunity to be a part of this system.

While residential recycling has its share of challenges, industrial recycling runs like clockwork, according to Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) Chief Lobbyist Billy Johnson. In addressing the House Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change in June, Johnson said the U.S. recycling system isn’t "broken," as some may suspect. Instead, it is strong and getting stronger. In fact, he said industrial recyclers and commercial sources provide the bulk of quality recyclable materials. Such materials usually travel through recycling infrastructure without incident and get recycled into clean, high-quality, commodity-grade products used worldwide as sustainable substitutes for virgin materials.

ISRI Chief Lobbyist Billy Johnson

“About 80 percent of the recycling industry comes from commercial and industrial materials that tend to be cleaner,” Johnson added. “The other 20 percent comes from the residential and municipal side of recycling. It does have problems and challenges, but it’s not broken.”

Johnson testified about four House bills in a session called “No Time to Waste: Solutions for "America’s Broken Recycling System." Addressing four different areas of the U.S. recycling infrastructure, the House bills include: H.R. 8509, the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (RCAA); H.R. 8183, the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act (RIAA); H.R. 1512, the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act; and H.R. 2238, the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act.

Johnson explained that recycling is not only essential to help combat climate change, conserve natural resources, and save energy, but for industry, it makes good business sense. “Recycling employs more than 164,000 people in every congressional district in the U.S. and contributes over $117 billion dollars in economic activities a year; these numbers tell the story of a vibrant industry,” he said in a recent article from Scrap News. 

“Recycling [also] requires market demand,” he added. “If there's no end market, then these materials won’t be recycled and used again in manufacturing, regardless of the volumes collected. Collection without market consumption isn’t recycling.”

There is plenty of market demand for industrial waste, according to Mid America Paper Recycling. The Chicago-based recycler works with various industrial markets and networks in paper, metal, and plastics waste as well as several other types of waste materials reused and recovered via industrial sources every day. Mid America handles a growing list of recyclables and scrap, such as corrugated waste from container converters, fiber cores from display manufacturers, an array of paper waste from printers, document shredding services, and direct mail companies, metal from parts manufacturers, plastic from blow molders, and waste materials from freight companies, fulfillment centers, and many others.

Using effective communication and exceptional customer service, Mid America offers more efficient, cost-effective, and revenue-enhancing methods to handle these materials.

Clean material counts

As Johnson pointed out to the House Subcommittee, successful recycling also requires minimal contamination. Sold according to specific grades, recycling materials' value and marketability are directly related to quality. “We fully understand there can be high-quality waste materials that some producers may not be recognizing, and can assist them in getting the best rate for them,” explains Mid America's President Paul Pirkle. “Some material suppliers may have a quality grade of waste they don’t recognize as having value. We can help them find an outlet for that waste that will increase their revenue while reducing their costs. And at the same time, we can recycle it more efficiently."

That’s why as Johnson said, it’s so important for manufacturers to review their product designs with recycling in mind in the first place. “From electronics and consumer packaging to vehicles and other products, it’s imperative to design products and packaging for recycling,” Johnson told the House Subcommittee.

“We help our partners grow the worth of their waste materials by finding the best ways to repurpose it, divert it from landfills and transform it into new products economically and efficiently,” Pirkle explained. “It may not even be a conventionally recyclable material (see our blog post from June 20, 2022), but it may divert several tons of solid waste from landfills if it can be reprocessed and reused.”

Take the first step to get started on an evaluation of your recycling operation with Mid America’s quick, free Waste Audit Survey.   

Mid America Paper Recycling offers a benchmarking waste audit, consultation services, documentation, quantification and presentation of the specific and overall values that can be realized from customer waste streams. To learn more about Mid America’s wide range of capabilities, see our news page, our collection of blogs and visit www.midamericapaper.com.

For more information about the ISRI, visit https://www.isri.org.