For this assignment, I am thinking of doing a localization of recycling in Winston-Salem. There is almost no global market for recycling, and since we primarily have privatized recycling this hits individual companies. I don’t think people generally hear about recycling as a market, just in the context of throwing away trash.

In Winston-Salem, our recycling goes to Waste Management and they have no place to sell it to. WM is barely breaking even right now and I want to write about the issue of recycling as a privatized industry and people’s knowledge.

For sources, I could reach out to WM, speak with people in the Office of Sustainability, and talk to students about their knowledge of the issue.