4 per ton without revenues from the sales of materials and $115 per ton including revenues. The study estimated that improved collection, revenue enhancement, administrative refinements, and changes in strategy and program design could reduce overall costs by 41%. Recycling creates jobs and makes manufacturing industries more competitive. Recycling provides manufacturing industries with less expensive sources of raw materials, a long-term economic advantage that translates into value for consumers who spend less on products and packaging. The industrial development effects of recycling are significant. For example, one recent study found that in ten northeastern states alone, recycling adds $7.2 billion in value to recovered materials through processing and manufacturing activities. Approximately 103,000 people were employed in recycling processing and manufacturing jobs in this region in 1991, 2.7% of the region's total employment. By transforming materials that would otherwise be discarded as waste into positively valued commodities that are used in manufacturing, the industrial development effects of recycling can be significant. III. Answer to “Can America Win its Battle with Garbage?”America can win its battle with garbage. It takes an individual effort by every consumer. When you use less and reuse more, you're helping the environment both "upstream" (when products are manufactured) and "downstream" (when they're disposed of). By not creating waste--in the form of unnecessary products or packaging--we don't just avoid having to send it to landfills or incinerators. We also avoid having to expend the energy, consume the natural resources, and create the pollution that comes from manufacturing it in the first place. Waste is reduced when purchases of disposable and over-packaged items are reduced or when there is a reuse of what is already purchased. We can no longer just send our growing garbage pile to new te...
