National Industry Trends
Federal Initiatives
Indiana State Initiatives
Association of Indiana Counties
Northwest Indiana
Private and Public Partnerships

National Industry Trends

Efforts to recycle and reuse products also have the consequence of utilizing resources rather than allowing them to contribute to a disposal problem. Industry may be involved in recycling efforts on a national scale. The National Soft Drink Association estimates that a record 48 billion soft drink containers were recycled in 1994. Included in the estimate were aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles. "This accounts for about 61% of all soft drink containers shipped."¹⁵ The Steel Recycling Institute reports that steel is North America's most recycled material, within more than 70 million tons remelted into new products each year.¹⁶


Federal Initiatives

Encouraging or mandating the use of recycled products, or the manufacture of products which can be readily recycled, attracts considerable legislative and public interest. For example, federal agencies and state agencies using federal funds for procurement are encouraged by statute to procure "items composed of the highest percentage of recovered materials practicable consistent with the maintaining of satisfactory level of competition."¹⁷ Included within the definition of "recovered materials" are waste materials and byproducts which have been recovered or diverted from solid waste, but the definition does not include materials and byproducts generated from, and commonly reused within, an original manufacturing process.¹⁸

The Environmental Protection Agency administers a voluntary program for reducing business solid waste which is called "Wastewise." The EPA developed the program to assist businesses in taking cost-effective actions to reduce solid waste. There are three objectives of the program from which a business can choose to focus its recycling efforts. The objectives include waste prevention, recycling collection, and buying or manufacturing recycled products. The EPA provides technical assistance to the participating businesses and issue public recognition for participating businesses through news stories, public service announcements, and special supplements in trade journals, environmental magazines, and business journals.¹⁹


Indiana State Initiatives

The Indiana Department of Commerce, Energy Policy Division, administers grant programs directed to encouraging recycling initiatives. A recent example is the Tire Recycling Market Development Program. This program provides grants to businesses involved in the production of a product that uses scrap tires as a feedstock.²⁰

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management also promotes efforts to recycle. A recent example is the Mercury Thermostat Reduction and Recycling Program. The initiative is directed toward a voluntary reduction in the use of mercury-containing devices in residences. Since beginning the program in September 1997, more than 150 heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration contractors have agreed to participate. Among participants in Northwest Indiana are the Bloomfield Corporation in Portage, Circle ‘R' Mechanical in Portage, Hollaway Meyers, Inc. in Hammond, Meyer's in Griffith, Rearick's, Inc. in Merrillville, and T.R. Bulger, Inc. in Michigan City.²¹


Association of Indiana Counties

The Association of Indiana Counties urged in the "Indiana County Government Platform of 1996" that county government "is closest to the people." Elected county official should have "the authority to operate their offices, fund county programs, and work cooperatively with other governmental units to serve the public as efficiently and effectively as possible." A priority concern is solid waste management. "The economic vitality of our state depends upon our ability to provide safe methods of waste reduction and disposal." Support is expressed for the planning and funding of material recovery facilities, recycling and composting projects, and final disposal facilities. "Assistance from state government is needed to help counties and solid waste management districts implement waste assessments and management plans. Counties and solid waste districts must be given the authority to control waste streams in order to finance solid waste facilities." Support is also expressed for "state financial assistance to local governments to promote recycling projects, and other waste reduction projects."²²


Northwest Indiana

Publicly funded recycling programs exist in many forms at the municipal or county level. These efforts can be more expensive than the proceeds from selling recyclables. A primary difficulty is the lack of a steady market for these commodities, often resulting in wide price swings.²³

Volatility in the price of recyclables has harmed municipal efforts in Northwest Indiana. Prices for corrugated cardboard and newspapers reached record highs of $160 to $200 a ton in 1995, but a year later they fell to $15 to $30 a ton. Prices for recycled plastic soft drink bottles fell in the same period from 45 cents a pound to seven cents a pound. Still, Pat Witka, Assistant Superintendent of the Portage Street and Sanitation Department said the city remained hopeful and that it pursued recycling, not to make a profit but because the concept is environmentally sound. He said Alcoa Corp. in Illinois purchased its collected aluminum about every two months. Glass is also delivered to a site in Illinois. Newsprint, which is the city's largest intake, was delivered to Hammond. Witka said the city reaped a greater financial benefit by reducing the burden of landfill use than the direct financial value of recycling. While the city might receive $10 per ton for newsprint recycling, there is a $24 per ton cost for placement of the newsprint in a landfill. "The tonnage not taken there is a plus."²⁴

In Northwest Indiana, examples of recycling efforts are provided by the Porter County Solid Waste Management District and by the cities of Hammond and Hobart. Porter County has provided seven locations where residents could drop off certain items to be recycled.²⁵ Hammond received $35,000 for a new baler and forklift, and Hobart received $39,000 for new equipement. Both expenditures resulted from the IDEM recycling grant program.²⁶

The solid waste management districts of Lake, LaPorte, and Porter Counties have also jointly operated the Tricounty Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program. The program collects car batteries, motor oil, antifreeze, paint, solvents, pesticides, and other household materials that cannot be buried at regular landfills.

In 1995, 5,000 households contributed more than 200 tons of material, and usage expanded in 1996. That year more than 500 gallons of antifreeze and 7,000 gallons of oil, including 1,400 gallons during a recent stop in Michigan City, have been collected.

The Tricounty Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program emphasizes recycling and reuse whenever possible. More than one-third of all the items collected are recovered, most notably used motor oil and antifreeze. Safety-Kleen Oil Recovery of East Chicago hauls away the oil and antifreeze and reprocesses it. Other materials, such as latex paint, are offered to the public in exchange for other items. Materials that cannot be reused, such as oil-based paint, solvents, varnish and liquid pesticides, are turned over to Pollution Control Industries of America. The East Chicago company blends the material into low-quality fuel for industrial furnaces, such as cement kilns.

Pollution Control Industries has handled car batteries. The program has also received about 700 pounds of household batteries every two or three weeks from plastic drop-off bins at stores and public buildings throughout the three counties. Alkaline, nickel, lithium dioxide, cadmium and mercury are among the compounds extracted from old batteries.

Jeff Langbehn, Executive Director of the Lake County Solid Waste Management District, said the hazardous waste program is based one in Minnesota. IDEM provided a $200,000 grant that was used to purchase the special trailer. The program recently received the Governor's Award for Excellence in Recycling.

Despite the success with use of the mobile trailer in Northwest Indiana, solid waste officials in the three counties hope to set up collection buildings in each county. The buildings could accept hazardous material on weekdays and during the winter months, Langben said, when the temperature is too cold to use the trailer.²⁷


Private and Public Partnerships

Two substances which present important challenges for reuse, globally and particularly in Northwest Indiana, are fly ash and slag. One illustration from Northwest Indiana of recycling slag, dust, and sludge is represented by Inland Steel which turns these materials into concrete and briquettes.²⁸ Efforts are ongoing by the Indiana Department of Commerce, Indiana Department of Transportation and Indiana Department of Natural Resources to use coal combustion by-products in road construction, for the stabiliations of abandoned underground mines, and as a soil amendment in the reclamation of surface coal mines.²⁹