RECYCLING & WASTE FACTS
Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, was interviewed on the Dr. Oz show about water safety. Dr. Oz's final question was, "What is the most important message you can send to people?" Ms. Jackson's answer was that if there were an 80% - 90% national recycling rate we could create millions of jobs and recycling would become its own supply chain. She went on to say that people think it's such a simple thing when they see the green bins set out, but recycling can be its own energy program and water savings program.
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Businesses and the general public alike frequently ask us questions about recycling industry statistics, so we have added some interesting facts and figures for you.
- Creating jobs – A frequently unseen benefit of the recycling industry is job creation for this expanding industry. 1.1 million people are directly employed in the recycling industry with another 1.4 million jobs with a $52 billion payroll for businesses that support the industry.
- Saving money – By diverting recyclable materials from landfills, immediate benefits are produced for companies by reducing waste disposal fees and the sale of recycled materials
- Retaining Local Employers – Industries that need recyclable commodities that can be obtained from the surrounding region are more likely to stay and expand with the industry.
- Tax Revenues – Support for a vibrant recycling industry helps produce revenues that help the surrounding communities
- Economic Development Opportunities – Increased collection of materials attracts businesses that are interested in processing or using the materials.
Additional info can be found in Recycling is Working in the United States.
The recycling industry statistics from this EPA article are stunning.
What about the cost-benefit analysis of removing recycled materials from your waste stream?
| Material | Energy Savings | Air Pollution Savings |
| Aluminum | 95% | 95% |
| Cardboard | 24% | - |
| Glass | 5 to 30% | 20% |
| Paper | 40% | 73% |
| Plastics | 70% | - |
| Steel | 60% | - |
Paper Recycling Facts
Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper saves:
- 17 trees (which can absorb 250 lbs of carbon dioxide from the air annually)
380 gallons of oil - 3 cubic yards of landfill (enough to fill a small dump truck)
- 4,000 kilowatts of energy
- 7,000 gallons of water
- 60 pounds less of air pollution
If all newspapers were recycled, it would save 250,000,000 trees a year. If we just recycled 10 percent of them, it would mean 25,000,000 trees per year.
Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away annually.
Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper per year, about 680 pounds per person.
Plastic Recycling Facts
- Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most are thrown away
- Plastic bags and other plastic garbage that reach the worlds oceans kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures annually
- Recycling plastic saved twice the energy it takes to burn it in an incinerator
- Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam coffee cups each year
Aluminum Recycling Facts
- Aluminum cans are recycled and back on grocery shelves as a new can in as little as 60 days.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours – about the equivalent a half gallon of gasoline.
- An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be an aluminum can 500 years from now
- There is no limit to the number of times an aluminum can is recycled
- We use over 80 billion soda cans per year
Glass Recycling Facts
- Every month we throw away enough glass jars to fill a giant skyscraper. All of them can be recycled.
- The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100 watt light bulb for 4 hours or a compact fluorescent for 20 hours.
- It causes 20% less air pollution and 30% less water pollution when a new bottle is made from recycled materials
- A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose – and longer if it is in a landfill
Solid Waste in Landfills
- About 1/3 of each dump is made of "packaging" material
- Every year, each American throws about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that could be composted
- The U.S. is the #1 garbage producer in the world with 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world's population produces 40% of its waste.
- The U.S. Population discards each year 16,000,000,000 diapers, 1,600,000,000 pens, 2,000,000,000 razor blades, 220,000,000 car tires, and enough aluminum to rebuild the US commercial air fleet four times over
- Packaging represents 65% of household trash
On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 per ton to send it to a landfill, and between $65 and $75 per ton to incinerate it.
These recycling facts have been compiled from various sources including the National Recycling Coalition, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Earth911.org, and recycling-revolution.com. We make no warranty or guarantee that the facts presented here are exact. We welcome all polite corrections to our information.
