The Iowa DNR has released three studies on the environmental and economic impacts of recycling in the state. The DNR鈥檚 Laurie Rasmus says the studies are part of its Sustainable Materials Management Initiative as they try to get a better handle on what we are throwing away.
鈥淚t鈥檚, you know, a pathway of managing materials that is the most productive way of using material. And it鈥檚, it鈥檚 measured, but by environmental impacts, not just strictly economic impacts. One study looked at how the bottle deposit law works. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a clear and direct way of measuring recycling or the number of beverage containers that are redeemed or recycled, and so we went through this method and were able to do some sampling at landfills through a waste characterization study at ten different landfills, week-long studies at each one of them,鈥� she says.
Rasmus says the studies where they picked through the waste dumped at the landfills yielded a lot of information on the things thrown away in Iowa. 鈥淔ood waste is number one, and plastic film is right up there, and textiles and leather goods are right up there as well,鈥� Rasmus says. 鈥淎nd so it gives us an idea of the types of materials and products that need to be targeted, or maybe, you know, the market needs to be more robust.鈥�