Recycling in Florida: Why Is It Important?

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Overview of Waste Reduction and Recycling
Disaster Debris
Markets
Commercial Recycling
Disadvantages of Recycling in Florida
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Apart from the fact that finding more intelligent ways to help in waste handling essentially minimizes the amount of litter, numerous other reasons exist for handling waste. In Florida, for instance, due to large amounts of garbage, citizens can help by making intelligent decisions concerning what they buy and how they get the most out of their purchases. In addition, they can work on reusing certain items and, in the process, give these items another life instead of throwing them away (Usmani et al. 15). Finally, when the time comes to get rid of something by throwing it away, recycling should be the best option. Recycling refers to processing and collecting materials meant to be trash and converting them into new news. The nation of Florida should consider recycling because it is of high significance to the environment and community.

As a way of cleaning the environment and helping the community, Florida has reintroduced the current recycling era, which began with the passing of the Florida Legislature. This legislature is referred to as the Solid Waste Management Act (SWMA). Solid Management Act (SWMA) includes a thirty percent recycling goal. Throughout the last thirty years, the methodology and plan used in calculating the rate of recycling in Florida have proved helpful in reflecting changes in technology, waste stream, and legislation. Moreover, in 2008, the Florida Legislature emphasized the significance of recycling and came up with new goals (He & Liu, 110). As a result, the Florida legislature has set various provisional goals concerning recycling. However, suppose the legislature fails to meet these goals. In that case, the state is obligated to submit a report to the Florida Legislature pointing out the additional programs or statutory rectifications needed to attain these goals.

Overview of Waste Reduction and Recycling

The goal of recycling in Florida was linked to the purpose of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Over the last few years, the tourists and residents of Florida have been reported to generate municipal solid waste equivalent to more than two tons each resident per year (He & Liu, 110). This solid waste has surpassed the national average of roughly one ton in each resident per year. The reason for this low national solid waste average is that Florida fails to account for the number of tourists, as indicated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States. In addition, the efforts of Florida in recycling are rarely compared to those of other nations because Florida needs a universal methodology for measuring progress toward recycling goals. This statement means that all waste from agricultural, mining, and industrial activities, as well as sludge from wastewater treatment, is unaccounted for in the calculations. In order to promote renewable energy production from the combustion of solid waste, the Florida Legislature suggests that each megawatt-hour that renewable energy facilities produce counts as one ton of material. These renewable energy facilities use solid waste as fuel and recycled materials to meet their recycling goals.

Statutorily, renewable energy is described as electrical energy produced from methods that use one or more energy or fuel sources. These fuel or energy sources include hydrogen derived from sources other than fossil fuels, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, hydroelectric power, and ocean energy. One way of creating renewable energy is through solid waste utilization, which occurs as waste-to-energy (WTE) (Kumar & Pandey, 8). In Florida, Waste-to-energy (WTE) involves generating heat or electricity from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) treatment. Most of these Waste-to-energy processes assist in producing heat and electricity by combustion. Additionally, some of these WTE processes produce combustible fuel commodities in Florida. Seventeen Florida counties reported having ten WTE facilities that accept Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). In approximation, the percentage of the MSW combusted in WTE facilities in Florida is eight percent. As a result, it is evident that for Florida to raise the rate of recycling, it must consider increasing the number of WTE facilities in each county. For instance, increasing WTE plants in highly populated areas could lead to a potential increment in the rate of recycling in Florida by more than five percent.

Disaster Debris

As a result of the significant number of hurricanes impacting Florida, various discussions concerning the inclusion of disaster debris in the specific numbers that help determine the recycling rate are made. In Florida, hurricanes such as Hurricane Michael are known for creating massive amounts of debris (Usmani et al., 215). In addition, disaster debris is referred to as a waste irregularity and is yet to be included in the Florida state waste management reports. The delay is due to the significant need for extensive calculation on the art recycling released on the data presented in 2004; involving hurricane debris in the methods used to calculate the recycling rate would have resulted in negative impacts. These impacts would significantly affect the recycling rate since most disaster debris requires landfill due to time limitations.

Markets

The future growth of Florida depends on healthy markets for the recovered and collected materials. Additionally, a healthy market creates demand for all material that is recyclable as well as the development of the economy. High-salaried jobs and improvement in the tax base contribute the economic development. The institute of scrap recycling companies states that these scrap recycling industries contribute billion of dollars ute to the economic development of Flolars. On the other hand, the development of the Florida economy generated through the tax is over six hundred million dollars. Therefore, these markets can be attributed as commodity-driven and subject to the flow and ebb of the market demands. However, in the past years, there has been a significant reduction in market demand due to an increase in supply and a decrease in the end markets for collected commodities. Additionally, since India, China, and other Asian countries closed most of the previously active markets, the export markets in Florida have substantially decreased. As a result, the reduction in the prices of these commodities has negatively impacted the growth and profitability of the recycling industries in Florida.

Due to the depression in global markets, a significant number of waste management companies and waste haulers are forced to minimize the contamination amounts. This reduction in the amounts of contamination gives rise to cleaner domestic commodities, and as a result, the value of recovered materials increases. In order to improve recycling in Florida, the state should make use of the Florida Recycling Loan Program (Maskun et al., 012024). This program was introduced in 1995 to provide funds for buying machinery and equipment to expand the recycling capacity in Florida. In addition, the program issues fixed long-term loans and funding of up to two hundred dollars with two percent interest rates below prime. These loans are available to small legal businesses in Florida and out-of-state organizations interested in expanding in Florida (Liu et al., 285). All cycling companies eligible for these loans must have a net worth of below six million dollars and employees below one hundred.

Florida should also use the private sector to enhance recycling by engaging leaders of these recycling industries in discussing the opportunities and issues that concern recyclable materials. In addition, these discussions should involve the challenges encountered in collecting and processing these materials and business growth and development. As a result, many foreign companies are considering relocating to areas that provide access to recycled materials. These companies generally enquire about the ease of permission as well as the availability of incentives. Therefore, assistance should be given to these companies by sharing data concerning the amounts and types of recycled material in that particular location. Apart from sharing data, these foreign companies should be provided with district and local contact information.

Commercial Recycling

The commercial sector in Florida generates sixty-eight percent of MSW, two times the amount of waste generated by the single-family residential sector. Therefore, the commercial sector provides the highest potential for recycling expansion in Florida (Liu et al., 285). Currently, the recycling rate in the commercial sector is forty-nine percent. In addition, the 2018 data reveals that even if the residential sector decided to recycle one hundred percent of MSW, this sector would need to increase recycling from the commercial sector to achieve this goal. Various recycling programs primarily focus on the residential sector, with minimal counties and municipalities authorizing commercial recycling. Overall, recycling programs in the commercial sector are used to encourage institutions, citizens, public organizations, and private businesses to consider recycling. As a result, Individuals and organizations that consider recycling and surpass the seventy percent recycling goal are rewarded for their efforts.

Disadvantages of Recycling in Florida

Single Stream Curbside Recycling

Many municipalities and counties in Florida have introduced single-stream curbside recycling programs. These programs help by allowing all recovered and accepted materials in one curbside recycling cart. Examples of these recovered and accepted materials include; metal cans, glass containers, and plastic bottles (Liu et al., 285). Single-stream recycling programs are marginally effective since they efficiently collect curbside materials. In addition, these programs promote the participation of residents as well as increase the amount of collected material. However, while single stream curbside recycling program proves to have many advantages, the disadvantages outweigh these benefits. Therefore, the Florida government should consider educating citizens on the adverse effects brought about by this program (Liu et al., 285). The major disadvantage associated with single-stream recycling is that it gives rise to the collection of unwanted materials, thus increasing contamination from the curbside recycling cart (Maskun et al., 012024). Therefore, Florida should avoid single-stream recycling as it greatly harms the environment and community.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Florida legislature should enforce laws allowing various methodologies incorporating life-cycle metrics. One example of such methodologies is the incorporation of material management goals into the recycling efforts of Florida. Additionally, while only one goal can be used to measure all the environmental effects of used materials, setting more goals can yield better results. However, setting these goals should be based on Florida’s most significant environmental attributes.

Works Cited

He, S., and Z. Liu. “Efficient process for recovery of waste LiMn2O4 cathode material precipitation thermodynamic analysis and separation experiments.” Waste Management, vol. 113, 2020, pp. 105-117.

Kumar, S., and A. Pandey. “Current developments in biotechnology and bioengineering and waste treatment processes for energy generation.” Current Developments in Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2019, pp. 1-9.

Liu, Y., et al. “Evaluating the employment impact of recycling performance in Florida.” Waste Management, vol. 101, 2020, pp. 283-290.

Maskun, et al. “Preservation of rammang-rammang biodiversity: Questioning legal certainty of local community.” IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, vol. 886, no. 1, 2021, p. 012024.

Usmani, Zeba, et al. “Municipal solid waste to clean energy system.” Current Developments in Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2020, pp. 217-231.

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