by Richard A. Denison and John F. Ruston

About the authors: Richard A. Denison is a senior scientist at Environmental Defense, an organization working to solve environmental problems. John F. Ruston is an economist with Environmental Defense.

Ever since the inception of recycling, opponents have insisted that ordinary citizens would never take the time to sort recyclable items from their trash. But despite such dour predictions, household recycling has flourished. From 1988 to 1996, the number of municipal curbside recycling collection programs climbed from about 1,000 to 8,817, according to BioCycle magazine. Such programs now serve 51 percent of the population. Facilities for composting yard trimmings grew from about 700 to 3,260 over the same period. These efforts complement more than 9,000 recycling drop-off centers and tens of thousands of workplace collection programs. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA...