May 8 - Report Touts Organics Recycling As Job Creator
A report just published in the state of Maryland echoes the findings of a report recently issued by CalRecycle: increased recycling, including organics recycling, means more local jobs.
A story in Waste & Recycling News quotes the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance touting composting as a way to benefit the local economy in Maryland:
The report also found that composting sustains twice as many jobs as landfilling and four times as many jobs as incineration.
CalRecycle has stated that as many as 14,000 jobs could be created in the organics recycling sector as California works to reach AB 341’s recycling goal of 75% by 2020. Those jobs would stay in the state, as compost does not get exported overseas. Overall, CalRecycle determined that processing and manufacturing recyclable material leads to the creation of 3 to 11 times more jobs than collection and landfilling, depending on the material type.
In addition to the job creation, organic recycling has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases by more than 4 million tons of CO2 each year in California. For these reasons, CAW supports AB 323 (Chesbro), which calls for producers of large amounts of organic material like food waste and yard debris, to subscribe to a recycling service. The bill passed out of policy committee in April and will head to fiscal committee.
May 6-12 is International Compost Awareness Week. Find out about events near you here.