The Iowa DNR has released three studies on the environmental and economic impacts of recycling in the state. The DNR’s Laurie Rasmus says the studies are part of its Sustainable Materials Management Initiative as they try to get a better handle on what we are throwing away.
“It’s, you know, a pathway of managing materials that is the most productive way of using material. And it’s, it’s measured, but by environmental impacts, not just strictly economic impacts. One study looked at how the bottle deposit law works. “We don’t have a clear and direct way of measuring recycling or the number of beverage containers that are redeemed or recycled, and so we went through this method and were able to do some sampling at landfills through a waste characterization study at ten different landfills, week-long studies at each one of them,” she says.
Rasmus says the studies where they picked through the waste dumped at the landfills yielded a lot of information on the things thrown away in Iowa. “Food waste is number one, and plastic film is right up there, and textiles and leather goods are right up there as well,” Rasmus says. “And so it gives us an idea of the types of materials and products that need to be targeted, or maybe, you know, the market needs to be more robust.”
The studies also help them tell the true cost of what we throw away. “Certain materials such as aluminum cans have a much higher environmental impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than, you know, something like cardboard. And so it gives us an idea of how to look at materials based on, you know, what is their true environmental impact, not just, you know, measuring it by weight. And same with economic indicators like number of jobs,” she says.
Rasmus says they hope to find more ways to use the waste. We want to work with local solid waste agencies, local recycling programs, you know, let them see this report and work with them on you know, how can we make these programs more robust?,” Rasmus says. She says recycling has to be a multi-step process. “Keeping things out of the landfill and also using materials, reusing materials, recycling materials, you know, as many times a material or product can be reused or recycled to extend the life of that product or material,” she says.
You can see the results of the studies at iowadnr.gov/SMM.