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NERC in the News

Recycling = Jobs

Resource Recycling

Resource Recycling, July 2011

According to several reports from around the country, investing in and promoting recycling can help boost a state's bottom line. We look into where recycling can create jobs and how to get it done.

By Jake Thomas

The phrases "joblessness" and "budget cuts" have been in newspaper headlines as well as on the lips of politicians locally and nationally as unemployment remains at a stubbornly-high 9 percent. But if two more words could make their way into policymakers' actions, namely "recycling" and "investment," it could result in another phrase becoming a reality: "jobs created."

As politicians scramble for a way to jump-start the economy, they could be well-advised to adopt policies that direct valuable materials from landfills and towards economic activity. Scores of academic studies, conducted in different parts of the country, all reach a similar conclusion: Investments in recycling create jobs and economic activity. . . .

[The Northeast Recycling Council, Inc. Recycling Economic Information Study Update: Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania is included in a list of five reports and web resources as a sidebar to this story.]