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<br /> The end of garbage - March 19, 2007 Page 3 of 4
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<br /> Americans generated an average of 4.5 pounds of garbage per person per day in 2005, the EPA reports. About 1.5
<br /> pounds were recycled. That's a national recycling rate for municipal solid waste of just 32%.
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<br /> What's in our garbage? Paper and cardboard (34%), yard trimmings (13%), and food scraps (12%) are the three
<br /> biggies. All can be easily if not always profitably recycled. Plastics (11.8%) are next, and are harder to recycle. "The
<br /> plastics industry hasn't been as interested as others in working through its problems," says Gary Liss, a California
<br /> zero-waste consultant. "They have fought bottle bills all over the country for 30 years."
<br /> Bottle bills are an example of "extended producer responsibility," a key tenet of zero-waste. It puts the onus for
<br /> safely disposing of products on the companies that make them. Yes, it's a controversial concept. (In this country. In
<br /> the EU, makers of household appliances are obliged to take them back.)
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<br /> The deeper purpose here is to change the way things are made. "From our perspective, waste doesn't need to
<br /> exist," says San Francisco's Blumenfeld. "It's a design flaw." Carpet companies Interface, BASF, and Milliken,
<br /> furniture makers Herman Miller and Steelcase, and clothing firms Nike and Patagonia have all redesigned products
<br /> to make them easier to recycle.
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<br /> Over time the economics of recycling should improve. The costs of virgin commodities are likely to rise as supplies
<br /> dwindle; fees will climb at landfills as they fill up. Landfills also release methane, a greenhouse gas that could be
<br /> taxed because it contributes to global warming. Meanwhile, recycling has become a $238 billion business,
<br /> employing 1.1 million people, according to the EPA.
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<br /> Despite all that, recycling rates have flattened lately. "We have to reengage the consumer," says Kate Krebs,
<br /> executive director of the National Recycling Coalition, a trade group whose board includes executives of Dell
<br /> (Charts), Coca-Cola, and Time Inc. (Fortune's parent company). "If we don't, then all the commitments that Wal-
<br /> Mart and Dell and others have been making will be difficult to keep"
<br /> A Hewlett-Packard (Charts) executive named Rene St. Denis went to China in 1994 to see what happened to
<br /> printers and computers after they were thrown away. In the coastal city of Guanjo, she watched hundreds of people
<br /> smash machines to get at the metals inside. "The disassembly process was basically - and I'm not kidding - hit it
<br /> with a rock," she recalls. "You pay someone $2 a day to strip away $3 worth of copper, and it's a pretty good
<br /> business." It's also a dangerous business because computers may contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury,
<br /> and cadmium.
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<br /> Within a year St. Denis had begun to clean up HP's act. She helped form a partnership with a Canadian metals and
<br /> mining firm called Noranda to build a recycling facility near Sacramento. Here, old printers and PCs come to die:
<br /> After technicians recover reusable parts, the machines are chopped up by powerful shredders, smashed to bits by a
<br /> granulator, and sorted by magnets and air currents. Precious metals go to Noranda; aluminum, glass, and plastic
<br /> are sold to recyclers. Nothing goes to landfills.
<br /> HP provides free recycling to some customers but charges others $13 to $34 per item. Even so, HP's recycling
<br /> operation runs at a small loss, which is viewed as an investment in the firm's reputation and values. "To the degree
<br /> they understand, customers have a better view of HP," says St. Denis, who now runs HP's recycling business.
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<br /> As HP set the pace, Dell became a target. Because Dell used prison labor to recycle PCs, protesters picketed a
<br /> speech by Michael Dell at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2003. The company began offering recycling: first to
<br /> buyers of new equipment, then to anyone willing to pay $30, then $15. Last year it eliminated the fees altogether -
<br /> the only PC maker to do so. In January at CES, Michael Dell said, "I challenge every PC maker to join us in
<br /> providing free recycling for every customer in every country all the time. No exceptions."
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<br /> 1.Mn•//rnmm~nav nrintth;Q nl;eknh;l;ty_ cr,m/nt/cnt?action=cnt&title=The+end+of+garbage+... 3/10/2008
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