(Host) Vermont recycling programs have gotten a boost from high oil prices and from a worldwide demand for their products.
Industries are clamoring for everything from paper to plastic that can be made into new goods.
Demand has been high enough that the Chittenden Solid Waste District has a budget surplus. Tom Moreau is the district’s general manager.
(Moreau) "Everything we take in our recycling programs now are totally recyclable and there’s a market. We sell everything that we take, no problems, in fact they’re always asking for more, whether it’s scrap metal, aluminum, plastic, paper. It’s all got a very, very strong market.”
(Host) Many plastic products are made with petroleum, so packaging manufacturers still make money by paying more for the recycled material.
Moreau says his agency was paid $150 a ton for old milk jugs in 2000. Now, it’s earning $820 a ton.
But advocates say the rate of recycling has not improved much. Only about a third of the nearly 600,000 tons of trash produced in Vermont is recycled.