A close look at any company that provides a product or service would reveal an economic truth about the waste it generates: Virtually 100 percent of it is recyclable.

Take a look around any office in Anytown, U.S.A., and you would generally find the same things – drywall, computer equipment, glass, metal, Styrofoam, printer ink cartridges, plastic, paper, wood and carpet.

“All of these materials can be recycled, but most of them are overlooked,” says Fred Rosenthal of the Rosenthal Group, a waste consultation business out of St. Charles, IL. that has trademarked the slogan, “Turning Waste Green.”

“The slogan does have a double meaning,” Rosenthal said. “Green can either mean financial or environmental, depending on what our client is trying to accomplish. It normally starts with the environment, but ultimately depends on the cost.”

When a company overlooks the recycling process, it usually comes down to any combination of three key reasons: they were not aware; the volume of material is low; or the cost to dispose was restrictive.
Rosenthal feels there is more awareness of the “green movement” today, but that does not necessarily equate to more participation.

“This will sound political, but I do not believe in global warming and it is that fear that drives a lot of politicians to regulate the recycling industry,” Rosenthal said. “What I do believe is that we should all be good stewards of the world. If we can use materials that were recycled, then we should. “Like most things in life, there is a cost regardless of what is done,” he added. “Most businesses want to do the right thing, but they also have a bottom line they must meet, and that causes many to stay with their old ways rather than recycle.”

The most common items that a waste consultant will help a client deal with are cardboard, paper, plastic and computer equipment. But there is a cost in training employees, installing proper procedures and equipment and the pickup and transfer of waste products.
The poor economy has also put a damper on the recycling industry because rebates for recyclable commodities have fallen.

“Prior to the collapse of our economy, the rebates were at an all-time high,” Rosenthal said. “We saw cardboard at $200 a ton, and then when the bottom fell out and recycling processors were refusing material, the cost to dispose, with no rebates, was $50 a ton, or in effect a $250 drop.“Today, the market has made a turn and rebates for recycling materials have turned to the positive side,” Rosenthal added. “It’s not the $200 a ton of the past, but around $75 to $100 a ton for baled cardboard.”

Rosenthal cautioned that the supply-side of that equation has been low “because companies that used to generate large volumes of cardboard have reduced their inventory and thus do not generate what they did prior to the collapse of the economy.”

While companies start to rebound through an economic recovery and commodities prices edge forward, there is another waste product that Americans have generated for decades without much concern. “It’s food waste,” Rosenthal emphasizes. “For the state of Illinois, there is so much control on regulations for food waste that most is ending up in our landfills.” By comparison, Rosenthal points out, his son worked as a chef with Disney Company at the Flying Fish Restaurant in Florida. “All of Disney’s food waste was either used for feed for the animals, or it was composted.”