Project Whitepaper

Enhancing Markets for Post-Consumer Materials through Derivatives: Connecting New Jersey Recycling Programs to the Broader Market

White Paper
Summer 2021

Jordan P. Howell1,2,3
Jordan S. Moore4
Daniel Folkinshteyn4

This project was funded by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection “Recycling Enhancement Act (REA) – Institutions of Higher Education 2019 Research Grant”. The opinions and perspectives expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the views or positions of the NJDEP or its staff.

The problem: How can we increase recycling efficiency?

Considerable time, energy, and money has been expended on recycling in New Jersey and many places around the world. Recycling can prevent huge volumes of material from heading to landfills and incinerators. Yet, for decades, the realities of municipal and commercial recycling in the US have not lived up to the promises of finding new value for old materials. Most frustratingly, there are two simultaneous realities facing recycling and post-consumer materials (PCMs) in the US: (1) Excess supply, evidenced by a large volume of recycled material that ultimately goes to the landfill (2) The absence of an efficient process to match supply and demand. Consider the following: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) reported that 48.2% of the 292.4m tons of municipal solid waste generated in the US in 2018 was recyclable: paper (23.05%), plastic (12.20%), metal (8.76%), or glass (4.19%). Yet, only 69m tons of material were actually recycled that same year, 48.9% of the total eligible material. This included 45.95m tons of paper (68.18% of the total amount of paper disposed), 3.02m tons of plastic (8.47% of plastic disposed), 8.71m tons of metals (34.0% of metals disposed), and 3.06m tons of glass (24.98% of glass disposed).5 In other words, about half of the material that could be recycled ends up in a landfill, incinerator, or illegal dump site.

Download the full whitepaper: PDF DOCX.

  1. Dept. of Management & Entrepreneurship, Rohrer College of Business, Rowan University ↩

  2. Dept. of Geography, Planning & Sustainability, School of Earth & Environment, Rowan University ↩

  3. Rowan Center for Responsible Leadership, Rohrer College of Business, Rowan University ↩

  4. Dept. of Accounting & Finance, Rohrer College of Business, Rowan University ↩↩

  5. USEPA. 2020. “National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling”. Facts and Figures about Materials, Waste and Recycling. Available from: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#main-content ↩

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