Editing Recycling (section)

=== Economic costs ===
Journalist [[John Tierney (journalist)|John Tierney]] notes that it is generally more expensive for municipalities to recycle waste from households than to send it to a landfill and that "recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/30/magazine/recycling-is-garbage.html | title=Recycling is Garbage | work=The New York Times | date=June 30, 1996 | last1=Tierney | first1=John | access-date=30 January 2023 | archive-date=30 January 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130161255/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/30/magazine/recycling-is-garbage.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

The amount of money actually saved through recycling depends on the efficiency of the recycling program used to do it. The [[Institute for Local Self-Reliance]] argues that the cost of recycling depends on various factors, such as [[gate fee|landfill fees]] and the amount of disposal that the community recycles. It states that communities begin to save money when they treat recycling as a replacement for their traditional waste system rather than an add-on to it and by "redesigning their collection schedules and/or trucks".<ref>{{Cite web|work=Institute for Local Self-Reliance|date=1996-09-14|title=The Five Most Dangerous Myths About Recycling|url=https://ilsr.org/the-five-most-dangerous-myths-about-recycling/|access-date=2023-02-08|archive-date=29 May 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529062928/http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/wrrs/fivemyths.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In some cases, the cost of recyclable materials also exceeds the cost of raw materials. Virgin plastic resin costs 40 percent less than recycled resin.<ref name="auto"/> Additionally, a [[United States Environmental Protection Agency]] (EPA) study that tracked the price of clear glass from 15 July to 2 August 1991, found that the average cost per ton ranged from $40 to $60<ref>{{Cite web|title=Markets for Recovered Glass | publisher= US Environmental Protection Agency | date = December 1992 | work= National Service Center for Environmental Publications |url=https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/10001B00.txt?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=1986%20Thru%201990&Docs=&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&UseQField=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5CZYFILES%5CINDEX%20DATA%5C86THRU90%5CTXT%5C00000004%5C10001B00.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%7C-&MaximumDocuments=1&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r75g8/r75g8/x150y150g16/i425&Display=hpfr&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=2|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208010157/https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/10001B00.txt?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=1986%2520Thru%25201990&Docs=&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&UseQField=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%255CZYFILES%255CINDEX%2520DATA%255C86THRU90%255CTXT%255C00000004%255C10001B00.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%257C-&MaximumDocuments=1&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r75g8%2Fr75g8%2Fx150y150g16%2Fi425&Display=hpfr&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%2520page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=2|url-status=live}}</ref> while a [[USGS]] report shows that the cost per ton of raw silica sand from years 1993 to 1997 fell between $17.33 and $18.10.<ref>{{Cite book |series=Silica Statistics and Information |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |title=Mineral Commodity Summaries |chapter=Sand and Gravel (Industrial) |pages=146–147 |chapter-url=https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/mineral-pubs/silica/780398.pdf |editor=((National Minerals Information Center)) |archive-date=29 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929031428/http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/silica/780398.pdf |url-status=live |date=January 1998 |first=Wallace P. |last=Bolen |access-date=7 September 2023 }}</ref>

Comparing the market cost of recyclable material with the cost of new raw materials ignores economic [[externalities]]—the costs that are currently not counted by the market. Creating a new piece of plastic, for instance, may cause more pollution and be less sustainable than recycling a similar piece of plastic, but these factors are not counted in market cost. A [[life cycle assessment]] can be used to determine the levels of externalities and decide whether the recycling may be worthwhile despite unfavorable market costs. Alternatively, legal means (such as a [[carbon tax]]) can be used to bring externalities into the market, so that the market cost of the material becomes close to the true cost.