Implementation of the myriad recommendations of the now-defunct National Commission on Materials Policy is happening but at a slower pace than necessary James Boyd Materials Associates Washington, Q.C. 2003 7
Major policy reports, such as “Material Needs and the Environment: Today and Tomorrow,” frequently languish on book shelves after they are written. However, in the case of the final report of The National Commission on Materials Policy, published in June 1973 and cited above, fate has been kinder. No aspect of that report gained more attention than did materials recovery and reuse. Vital general interest in solid waste disposal still exists, and the need for sound solutions to the problem remains urgent. Thus, periodic re-examination of the Commission’s perspective on resource recovery, its recommendations in that regard, and actions taken to implement those recommendations should continue. The National Commission on Materials Policy (NCMP) considered materials, energy, and the environment to be irrevocably wedded to each other. Resource recovery emerged as one linkage between them. Some Commission recommendations for policy objectives, expressed in its letter of transmittal to the President and Congress, call for providing adequate energy and materials supplies to satisfy not only the basic needs of nutrition, shelter, and health, but a dynamic economy, without indulgence in waste conserving our natural resources and environment by treating waste materials as resources and returning them either to use or, in a harmless condition, to the ecosystem. Clearly, the NCMP considered recycling of municipal waste to be a significant waste disposal and conservation activity. Its total potential magnitude in relation to demand for materials can make only an incremental addition to supply. In defining the need for resource recovery, the report cited a number of environmental problems resulting from improper waste disposal practices. For instance, most collected solid wastes go into open dumps that are breeding grounds for flies and rats, an attractive nuisance for scavengers, and a source of noxious odors and fumes. Sanitary landfills, which reduce these hazards, are handicapped by operating costs and the scarcity of suitable sites. Gases generated by decomposition in landfills form odor nuisances and explosives hazards. Further, if ground water rises into, or surface water passes through solid wastes, such water may carry pollution to wells or reservoirs. Finally, incineration, even when professionally managed, is a source of some air pollution and residue. Conservation and recycling
The principal conservation potential lies in energy savings associated with the production of aluminum, steel, and paper from secondary materials. Savings of 95 YO,60 YO,and 70 YO, respectively, can be achieved for energy required for production from virgin materials. Conservation also involves avoiding pollution. Table 1 illustrates some benefits to be derived from preventing current sources of air and water pollution. 422
Environmental Science & Technology
FIGURE 1
Order in which various types of scrap are recycled
Low-qua Iity resource 4
Disposed
Municipal waste, after segregation, has a lower value than home scrap, prompt industrial scrap (i.e., trimmings), and certain types of obsolete scrap such as derelict automobiles. Figure 1 illustrates this relationship; the double line AB defines the economic cut-off point below which scrap re-use may be uneconomic. The line AB moves, vertically, with the economy. From a qualitative point of view, the report pointed out that production based on recycling remains more expensive than production based on virgin materials because of added costs, such as furnace corrosion in steelmaking.Table 2 presents these data. Finally, the NCMP report addressed the quantitative contribution that municipal recycling can make. It estimated that recycling could provide about 40% of material requirementsfor manufacturing (metals, glass, plastics, fibers, and rubber), while less than 5 % of the Nation’s yearly total materials requirements can be met from post-user scrap. Figure 2 graphically depicts this situation with respect to iron and steel. NCMP recommendations
The NCMP recognized that proper waste management and conservation of resources made municipal recycling an issue of some significance. It pointed out that the success of recycling depends upon the ability to process municipal wastes, and
provide economic viability for the subsequent secondary materials. Thus, it isolated four areas for action: Creation of financial incentives, correction of economic inequities, creation of endproduct markets, and improvement of technologies. The financial incentives recommended include low interest loans and subsidies to producers and users of materials from municipal waste. The NCMP stressed tax credits as an incentive on this front. Freight rate differentials became a focal point of proposed corrective action. The Commission recommended that the Federal Government take the necessary steps to correct the existing freight rate differentials between secondary and primary materials. Markets for products from recycling was another focal point for the NCMP. The final report recommendedchanges in labeling laws, specification writing, and government purchasing to encourage re-use of materials. Lastly, the NCMP addressed technological questions. It recognized mat certain technologies, such as energy recovery. now
Home serap
Recycled
b
High-quality b resource
exist in rudimentary form. It also stated that the long-term success of recycling depends, in large measure, on improving processes of recovering materials and creating products from them. In its own words, ". . . the Federal Government [should] accelerate research and development and technology transfer on resource recovery, especially to encourage recovery of resources in municipal wastes." Those four recommendation areas, when fully implemented, will place resource recovery in its optimum position--an integral part of the materials cycle. They will help establish this significant segment of materials policy. Implementing recommendations The financial recommendationssought active city and regional involvement in recycling programs. Projects now operating, under construction, and under contract, demonstrate that many urban areas are moving in this direction. Akron, Ohio, Bridgeport, Conn., Milwaukee, Wis., New Orleans, La., Rochester, N.Y., St. Louis, Mo., and Saugus, Mass., and many others have either completed or initiated projects to carry out this policy. Loans and subsidies did not seem necessary for the success of this program. Tax incentives, however, have been developed. Specifically, the Internal Revenue Service now permits the use of Industrial Revenue Bonds for the purpose of building recycling
TABLE 1 How conserva Am ="=I I" munlolpal
Dome enwronmenral- ompans that could be avolded
wsae
Material
Paper
(Mllllon
Alr pollution
tons)
(Thousand tons1
34 13
Glass
Ferrous metals Nonferrous metals
930b
water
pOlIYti0"
(Thousand tons1
6Zb
15
50 1560
750
1
NA
NA
NA
Totals Air and water pollution figures are derived from information compiled by the EPA. For paper. the water pollution figure is for SuSoended solids: BOD is not calculated. These figures represent Impacts avoided if low-grade paper is made from repuiped waste paper, instead of unbleached krafl pulp, with the assumption that 1.1 tons of waste paper are needed to make one ton Of pulp. If high-quality finished products are desired, requiring the deinking and bleaching Of the secondary fibers (1.4 tons of wastelton of pulp),suspended solids discharged into waterways are actually increased through recycling. Source: NCMP
provide lower-cost capital because of their tax-free nature; at the same time thev Drovide industrv with such tax advantaaes of ownership through accelerated depreciation and investment tau credit. The emergence of this particular incentive has helped keep recycling in the private sector, as envisioned by the NCMP. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), with its Proceeding Ex Parte No. 270, is attempting to equalize freight rates for 126 specific commodities, including scrap materials. One subnumber proceeding deals with ferrous scrap. From the municipal waste recycling point of view, ferrous scrap is most significant. Nonmetal products, by contrast, will find their way to local markets, so that freight rates play only a marginal role. Aluminum, according to Moshman Associates (Bethesda, Md.) in their report to EPA, faces less freight discrimination. Thus, the present hearings may solve the freight rate problems for municipally centered systems. The issue of market creation, addressed by several recommendations, emerges as an important factor. Here, the General Services Administration (GSA) exhibited powerful leadership. Two-thirds of the paper it purchases must contain 3-100% recycled fiber. GSA also requires substantial recycled glass or mineral fiber in bat, blanket, board, and solid block insulation. Thus, more markets already exist for recycled materials. At the same time GSA removed the "virgin only" specification from most of its material purchases: health reasons mahtained that constraint on such products as PVC water pipe
TABLE 2 Some recycling production costs not plg
cosl components
IbO"
R i s i r .n w L .. .r.n s t d s l -
Melting costs Scrao handlina costs FUImace erosion
qn
12.00
6.00
$40.50
1.a0 __
-
~
~
Total
scrap
q7u Gn
2.50
$43.00
3ource: UnpublishedEPA data
Volume 10, Number 5. May 1976 423
FIGURE 2
Contributions recycling can make Iron in collectable urban waste related to US. iron demand and supply 197&2000 (million short tons contained iron)
260 240 -
Net steel imports
Industrial demand
200
Total demand\
160 120
\
-
ao 40
-
Primary demand Secondary
Net ore imports 20 year trend
-
-
US. mine production
0 1
1960
I
I
1965
1970
I
1975
-
I
1
1
I
1980
1985
1990
1995
I
2000
Estimated iron in collectable urban waste
The final recommendation, that the federal government accelerate research and development, and technology transfer, remains the most significant. This recommendationhas not gone unheeded. For example, while EPA funded several technology demonstrations, the U S . Bureau of Mines has emerged as a leader in the development and adaptation of minerals processing systems for solid waste handling. Moreover, this segment of the Department of the Interior has developed, demonstrated, and tested technologies for turning recycled materials into new and usable products. With such a program, the Bureau of Mines speaks to the issues of processing and marketing products from municipal solid waste. The Bureau of Mines initiated research on four basic technologies: Incinerator residue processing, raw refuse processing, pyrolysis, and hydrogenation. It developed advanced, sophisticated techniques for beneficiating valuable iron, aluminum, heavy non-ferrous metals, glass, and fuels from mixed municipal waste. ERDA adopted hydrogenation, while industry brought pyrolysis to commercial acceptance-in numerous forms. Parts of the raw refuse processingsystems have been adopted by the dry mechanical processors of municipal solid waste. The incinerator residue system was to be demonstrated in Lowell, Mass.; that EPA project has, unfortunately, been shelved. Much of the technology, however, has been adopted by industry. In the use of products from a municipal recycling system, the Bureau of Mines has demonstrated the use of mixed steel scrap, including municipal scrap, to produce iron in a cupola furnace. It has also developed methods for producing bricks, insulation, and other products from waste glass. Numerous other technologies for making products from municipal wastes also emerged from Bureau of Mines research. However, production processes that turn municipal solid waste fractions into products also produce wastes; nevertheless, in the case of aluminum production from scrap, the Bureau of Mines developed a process for recycling the resultant drosses and salts. Technology research and development, as well as technology transfer gained strong impetus from the metallurgy program of the Bureau of Mines. The breadth of that program-covering automotive and stainless steel wastes, making materials more recyclable, and handling a myriad of other problems-remains too extensive for this brief discussion. However, that program, headed by the College Park Metallurgy Research Center at the University of Maryland, leads the government effort in recycling hardware. Remaining initiatives While many of the recommendations have been met, in part or in full, more work remains to be performed. The progress made to date cannot be permitted to mask the efforts that must continue. The NCMP focused its recommendationson financing, correction of inequities, market strengthing, and technology. 424
Environmental Science & Technology
Each area of concern contains segments that must gain continued emphasis in the months and years to come. In the financial arena, for instance, five-year rapid tax amortization for recyclers and users of secondary materials would spur the efforts of the resource recovery community. This program would complement the use of industrial revenue bonds and investment tax credits and it would help provide a return to this industry commensurate with the risk of investing in new technology. In the correction of inequities, the ICC should finish its work on railroad rates. At the same time, the Maritime Commission should move to equalize its rates. Market stimulation from Federal purchases has emerged; these are “normal course of business” purchases. Floor price contracts could also be employed; these would apply to basic products created from secondary materials, particularly those processed from municipal wastes. However, the demand and use pattern of energy sources is such that floor price contracts would not apply to solid, liquid or gaseous fuels made from municipal solid waste. Technology transfer projects and programs remain as a vital concern. Certainly, the Bureau of Mines raw refuse and incinerator residue processes need to be demonstrated on a 500 to 1000 ton per day basis. While specific subsystems which emerged from these processes have become commercialized, these two technologiescall for large-scaledemonstration as total systems. Finally, and most critically, the College Park Research Center, now facing extinction, must instead be maintained and expanded for it is the leading force in technology development for municipal resource recovery. It must move, and relocation is possible; funds and support should be provided for this purpose. To permit abandonment of this center, with a strong “track record” of accomplishments in recycling, would frustrate and negate the recommendations of the NCMP. Achieving recovery goals Resource recovery, more than any other single area covered by the NCMP, gained strong implementation action within government and private industry. The policy point of view, that recycling is a waste disposal and conservation technology that cannot replace primary production, became accepted. The four areas of concern-financing, inequity correction, market enhancement and technology improvement-experienced positive action. The results, the rapidly increasing number of cities committed to this form of waste disposal, demonstrate the success of activity so far. What remains, then, is the need for final program development to ensure the success of resource recovery. Certain broad policy objectives must be carried out in full. They involve striving for an equilibrium between the supply of materials and the demand for their use by increasing primary materials production and by conserving materials through accelerated waste recycling and greater efficiency-of-use of materials. managing materials policy more effectively by recognizing the complex interrelationships of the materials-energyenvironment system so that laws, executive orders, and administration practices reinforce policy and not counteract it. These objectives must be pursued if the goals of the nation, expressed by the National Commission on Materials Policy, are to achieve total implementation.
James Boyd is president of Materials Associates (Washington, D.C.), and is the recipient of the 1975 Hoover Medal, which is awarded to outstanding engineers. He was executive director of the National Committee on Minerals Policy from 1971 to 1973. Coordinated by JJ
