The answer used to be, in large part, the markets — public organizations and for-profit companies both worked to suss out the best way to separate cardboard, plastics, and various metals so that those materials could be sold to other profit-driven companies as raw materials for new products.
The model has helped divert thousands of tons of materials from the region’s landfills and brightened the promise of an earth-friendly future.
But now, for a variety of reasons that aren’t likely to change anytime soon, those markets have dried up — there is less demand and more supply of many recyclable materials than at any time in recent memory.
That makes recycling more costly, particularly in Vermont, where a universal recycling law, parts of which took effect last year, is being put to the test.
