During the 90s when ecological awareness started to emerge in the US public, one of the most burning issues was ‘Do You recycle?’. After people realized that the ozone layer, which was none of their concern only a few years before and of whose presence nobody was aware, was getting thinner, numerous campaigns for environmental protection were organized. Among the newly established means of protecting the environment and nature was recycling. As the number of people who recycled PET, glass and aluminum containers, increased, companies which were specialized for this procedure were also becoming numerous.
The need for more recycling companies can be illustrated with simple facts and figures. Let’s take California into the scope and see what the results are. During the first half of 2006, the overall recycling rate was 77% while in the first half of 2007 that rate went up to 83%. Still, the matter of concern is that the number of plastic containers which are thrown away instead of being recycled has also increased. That is why there are many campaigns carried out by some companies and they are based on the principle of ‘cash-for-recycling’ - Cell for Cash which pays people for their old cell phones or Recycle Bank where people are given gift certificates for food and medications in return for unsorted recyclable items. This is a good way to increase the sense of importance and public awareness, as well as to earn some money.
On the other hand, the government is encouraging establishing small recycling business and it even offers some funding opportunities for those who are willing to take the bull by the horns and stand up against environmental pollution and using raw materials. But an inevitable question for anybody who would like to start writing business plans for the funding is: how lucrative is the recycling business in the US? Some people stuck it rich after establishing companies for recycling old cars. So, scrap-metal business is comparatively profitable. We should also take some criticisms of this praised environmentalist procedure into consideration. Namely, according to some, recycling wastes more energy than it saves and as such cannot be very efficient. There is also a research which reports that about 40% of garbage which has been collected by the citizens of New York and meant for recycling wasn’t used for that purpose. It was buried in landfills.
The point is that there are still controversial opinions about recycling and as it is the case with many environmentalist issues, it won’t be possible to determine where the truth lies for a while. But as recycling is still a widely recognizable and widespread procedure for both saving energy and raw materials, not to mention preserving natural environment, it won’t be abandoned during the years to come and starting recycling business can be a good idea.
