(The Center Square) – Younger people are drinking less beer and Wisconsin is seeing less aluminum recycling material at facilities that accept materials from local governments, according to a new report from Wisconsin Policy Forum.
Aluminum containers were the largest drop in recycling material, dropping 16.4% or 1,800 tons from 2013 to 2022.
The recycling material changes, as well as decreased state funding, has slowly risen the cost of recycling for local governments as they also have brought in less income from selling those materials due to dropping costs for the recyclables and changes in the makeup of the recycling.
The report cited Gallup polls showing that less younger Americans drink alcohol and less drink beer and stated that the recycling numbers change coincided with the societal change.
Aluminum is the most valuable recycling material, worth more than $1,000 per ton.
The amount of overall materials recycled at the facilities dropped 6,900 tons (1.7%) between 2013 and 2022 and more significantly dropped 5.6% per capita.
Cardboard and paper rose in quantity, making up 60% of the overall material recycled while newsprint, office paper and other types of recyclable paper saw a 35.6% drop.
The online shopping explosion has also had a huge impact as corrugated cardboard recycling went from 53,974 tons annually to 109,651. The largest increase was 59.3% between 2019 and 2021, “likely due to increased online shopping and shipping during COVID lockdowns.”
Local governments depend on property taxes, state funds and proceeds from the sale of the recyclables to fund the programs. With state grants and recyclable proceeds dropping, that puts more of the increased costs on local taxpayers.
“If state leaders want to ensure continued high-quality recycling services and limit the growth of local taxes and fees, they could consider increasing state recycling aids to again cover a larger portion of the costs,” the report said.
