Recycling costs have slowly climbed for local Wisconsin governments as state aid and the revenue from selling recyclable material have declined.
A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum found that, between 2009 and 2021, the percentage of total local government spending on recycling that was covered by the state dropped from 32.7% to 15.7%.
This included a steep drop of 10% between 2010 and 2011 due to large cuts in the 2011-2013 state budget. Since 2011, state recycling grants have remained flat at $19 million or $20 million annually, the report said.
At the same time, recycling costs for local governments increased between 2013 and 2022 — 0.6% per year for municipalities when adjusted for inflation and nearly 5% per year for counties.
The Policy Forum analyzed state Department of Natural Resources data to see how recycling trends have changed over time.
The report found that, between 2013 and 2022, the total weight of recyclable materials collected by local governments dropped by 6,900 tons ― or about 2%. Local governments recycled around 400,000 tons in 2023.
“The slight drop in recycling tonnage, combined with volatile prices for recycled materials, have also caused a drop in revenue from the sale of recycled materials, further reducing outside resources used to cover” recycling costs for local governments, the report said.
Here’s what to know about recycling in Wisconsin from the report:
Wisconsinites are recycling more cardboard, less paper and aluminum
Cardboard and paper comprise about 60% of the materials collected annually since 2013. As the role of the internet has grown in residents’ lives, paper recycling has plummeted while cardboard recycling has exploded.
Between 2013 and 2022, Wisconsin saw a 35.6% decrease in newsprint, office paper and other paper recycling. The report attributes it to households buying fewer newspapers and more people engaging with billing, correspondence and documents electronically.
In the same period, cardboard recycling more than doubled, with its biggest jump of 59.3% occurring between 2019 and 2021. The report said it’s likely due to increased online shopping during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Still, cardboard and paper recycling combined declined 7% between 2013 and 2022.
Between 2013 and 2022, recycling of aluminum containers fell by 16.4% or 1,800 tons. That’s noteworthy, the report said, because aluminum is “the most valuable recyclable material, typically fetching payments of more than $1,000 per ton.”
Recycling of glass containers increased 10.8% in the same period, while plastic increased 11.5%.
Why is recycling decreasing in Wisconsin?
The report offered multiple hypotheses as to why recycling totals have decreased over the past decade.
“Recycling changes … align with societal changes,” the report said. “For example, younger people tend to consume less alcohol overall and less beer specifically, which could help explain some of the drop in aluminum recycling.”
Potential explanations for the falling volume of recycled materials overall include changes in consumers’ beliefs and manufacturers’ packaging. A DNR survey found that the “rising perception that recyclables all end up in a landfill” and “growing confusion about what can and cannot be recycled” could be factors.
Also, some types of packaging have become thinner and lighter in recent years. The report said a plastic water bottle today weighs nearly 40% less than one from 10 years ago because of the thinner plastic. Some manufacturers have also replaced recyclable plastic or cardboard containers for products like applesauce and drinks with lighter pouches.
While this process, known as “lightweighting,” may “lead to fewer tons of material being recycled, it often represents a reduction in total material consumed and discarded, so it may still provide environmental benefits,” the report said.
A Jewell Trucking and Grading employee loads a recycling container onto the truck Tuesday, May 4, 2021, at the Northside Drop Off Center Location at 6660 N. Industrial Road, Milwaukee.
Local governments have to cover recycling costs somehow
As recycling collection costs continue to grow for Wisconsin municipalities and counties, governments have three main sources to cover service costs: local revenues like property taxes or customer fees, state aid and proceeds from recyclable materials sales.
“If one source weakens, another one must pick up the slack,” the report said.
Sales of recyclable materials can help local governments cover nearly 20% of their recycling services in some years, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. However, between 2013 and 2019, local governments reported a 27.8% drop in revenue per ton of recycled materials collected, as prices paid for these materials ― and the tonnage sold ― declined.
Between 2017 and 2019, the price per ton of most recycled materials decreased especially sharply; some dropped by more than 70%, the report found. DNR officials indicated that a policy change by the Chinese government, which prohibited the import of certain materials for recycling, was a major reason for the drop.
Since 2021, recycling prices have “rebounded somewhat,” the report stated, led by mixed paper prices, which have nearly doubled.
“Higher prices help to defray the cost of providing services, as evidenced by a drop of $4.68 in the city of Madison’s annual recycling fee in 2025,” the report said. “While in the short term, this is a positive trend, it again shows how volatile these prices are and underlines the risk of relying on them heavily to pay for recycling services.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin local governments paying bigger share of recycling costs