Recycling -- Record Highs Fill Last Year's Bin

All those recycling bins and buckets, curbside collection programs and Scout newspaper drives are having an effect.

Record amounts of glass bottles, aluminum cans and paper were recycled in 1991, industry figures show.

And the recession may have helped.

"The recession has driven down prices, and that has been great for the purchasers of recycled materials," said John Ruston, a recycling economist with the Environmental Defense Fund. "These industries are using more recovered material because it is economically more advantageous."

Normally, weak prices tend to dry up sources. But "the public sector is collecting these things, not to make a profit but to avoid putting them into a landfill," Ruston said. "So the supplies are there."

Last year, the average price for old newspaper plummeted from $20 to $5 a ton, and prices for clear and brown glass dropped 20 percent to about $40 a ton, said Philip Burgert, editor of Recycling Manager, a trade newsletter. "Prices were down across the board," he said.

But last year, Edwards said, a record 31.1 million tons of recycled paper was collected, including newspaper, cardboard and high-grade office paper.

Collection and recycling of old newspapers reached a record high of almost 6.6 million tons in 1991, up 90 percent since 1983. That amounts to 52 percent of all the newsprint used in the United States, according to the American Paper Institute.

A record 57 billion aluminum cans (62 percent of those used) were recycled last year, along with a record 10 million tons of glass (31 percent of the amount used).