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KNOW YOUR TRASH FACTS

About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 33%. (Environmental Protection Agency)

More than ½ million trees are saved each year by recycling paper in Boulder County. (Eco-Cycle)

By recycling more than 57,000 tons of steel cans, we reduce greenhouse gasses equivalent to taking more than 21,000 cars off the road each year. (WM)

Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, and air pollution by 20%. (Environmental Defense Fund)

If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees—or about 26 million trees per year. (California Department of Conservation)

The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used by 18 million homes each year—or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for eight years. (Steel Recycling Institute)

The total volume of solid waste produced in the U.S. each year is equal to the weight of more than 5,600 Nimitz Class air craft carriers, 247,000 space shuttles, or 2.3 million Boeing 747 jumbo jets. (Beck)

An average kitchen-size bag of trash contains enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for more than 24 hours. (Covanta)

The solid waste industry currently produces more than half of America's renewable energy, more than combined energy outputs of the solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and wind power industries. (U.S. DOE, Energy Information Administration)

Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollution. (Trash to Cash)

Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours. (Eco-Cycle)

Glass can be recycled an indefinite number of times and never wears out. (National Recycling Coalition)

Making glass from recycled material cuts related water pollution by 50%. (National Recycling Coalition)

If we put all of the solid waste collected in the U.S. in a line of average garbage trucks, that line of trucks could cross the country, extending from New York City to Los Angeles, more than 100 times. (Beck)

Five PET bottles (plastic soda bottles) yield enough fiber for one extra large T-shirt, one square food of carpet or enough fiber fill to fill one ski jacket. (National Recycling Coalition)

The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime. (National Recycling Coalition)

Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12-foot-high wall of paper from New York to Seattle. (National Recycling Coalition)

The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. (National Recycling Coalition)

Once an aluminum can is recycled, it's back on the grocery shelf as another aluminum can in 60 days. (www.aluminum.org)

Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet. (www.aluminum.org)

Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can's volume of gasoline. (www.aluminum.org)

Enough aluminum cans were recycled last year to fill a hollow Empire State Building 24 times. (www.aluminum.org)

The 62.6 billion cans recycled last year alone would make 171 circles around the earth at its equator. (www.aluminum.org)

Some 119,482 cans are recycled every minute nationwide. (www.aluminum.org)

Over the past 10 years, the number of aluminum cans recycled has doubled. (www.aluminum.org)

More than one million tons of aluminum containers and packaging are thrown away each year. (www.aluminum.org)

Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves the equivalent in energy of 2,350 gallons of gasoline. This is equivalent to the amount of electricity used by the average home over a period of 10 years. (www.aluminum.org)

By using recycled aluminum instead of virgin ore, aluminum manufactures save enough energy needed to supply electricity to a city the size of Pittsburgh for about six years. (www.aluminum.org)

In 2006, the amount of paper recovered for recycling averaged 357 pounds for each man, woman, and child in the United States. (http://earth911.org)

Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. (http://earth911.org)

By 2012, the paper industry’s goal is to recover 55 percent of all the paper Americans consume for recycling, which is approximately 55 million tons of paper. (http://earth911.org)

More than 37 percent of the fiber used to make new paper products in the United States comes from recycled sources. (http://earth911.org)

86 percent (approximately 254 million) of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs. (http://earth911.org)

Every month, we throw out enough recyclable glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. (www.recycling-revolution.com)

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials. (www.recycling-revolution.com)

Every year, Americans throw away enough office and writing paper to build a wall 12 feet high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

Recycling one ton of paper saves one acre of trees. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

If all the glass bottles and jars collected through recycling in the U.S. in one year were laid end-to-end, they would reach the Moon and half way back to the Earth. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

The volume of glass recycled by Americans in one year would fill New Jersey's Giants Stadium more than three times. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

Glass can be recycled an infinite number of times. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will light a 100-watt bulb for four hours. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

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Zero Waste

Why take a position?

The National Solid Wastes Industry Association (NSWMA) is stepping forward to facilitate a discussion among the public, waste collection service providers, customers, manufactures, government, and consumers on how we can collectively work toward zero waste.  The NSWMA firmly believes that the responsibility for cooperative action rest with each of us and that it is time to move ahead in that direction.

Recycling ImageBackground

In the last two decades, Americans have witnessed a revolution in how we manage our trash.  Almost 20 years ago, EPA launched this revolution with new municipal solid waste landfill criteria designed to ensure that our waste was managed in the most environmentally responsible manner possible.  Those guidelines have worked well.  Americans can be proud that the days of open burning dumps and unlined landfills are behind us.  We have won the public health battle with waste disposal. 

At the same time, Americans grasped the tremendous resource and energy conservation advantages of recycling.  Two decades ago, multi-material residential curbside programs were still relatively uncommon.  Today, they are the norm.  Recycling and composting tonnages increased by 150 percent since 1990.  In 2008 we recycled or composted 83 million tons, up from 33 million tons in 1990.  While protecting the public health will always be a priority for American waste and recycling companies, we are now a resource management industry. 

Land stewardshipNonetheless, our society still generates a significant amount of waste that must be managed every single day.  Americans produced almost 250 million tons in 2008.  And we still dispose of a good deal of that trash at landfills or waste to energy facilities, almost 167 million tons in 2008.  Yet even though the waste stream increased at the same rate as did population, we sent more than 7 million tons less waste to disposal than we did in 1990, due to increased recycling, composting and waste reduction efforts. 

As a result of our success in taming the size of the waste stream, more and more attention is being turned to the concept of "zero waste."

What is zero waste?

Zero waste means many things to different people.  To consumers, zero waste means maximizing recycling efforts and putting less into the trash.  To waste collection and recycling service providers, zero waste means finding and using the most cost effective and environmentally sound methods for collecting, processing, marketing and disposal of society's wastes. To product manufacturers, zero waste can mean a complete review of their manufacturing process to identify ways to reduce waste and to make their products more recyclable.  And, for government, zero waste is a goal for the future which requires realistic planning and investment.

Aerial photograph of a composting facilityOver the past 5 years, manufacturers and retailers have lead the way in adopting programs to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost as much of their waste stream as possible.  They are converting a waste into a resource because they see sustainable bottom line benefits.   

We see America transitioning slowly but surely to a zero waste society.  This does not mean that no waste will be produced in the future.  Instead, it means that the amount going to disposal will continue to progressively decline.  We support this transition.  The objective of zero waste is to reduce the waste stream to the point at which no commercially achievable economic value exists for the remaining residue of the waste reduction process. Experienced, knowledgeable environmental services companies with proven and permitted collection, processing and disposal activities will lead the way in this transformation.

Transition to zero waste

Our industry has been the leader in developing sophisticated technology to increase both the amount and commercial value of recyclable materials from our waste stream through properly permitted and operated materials recycling facilities (MRFs).  For the material currently sent to disposal, we are extracting methane gas from landfills and converting it into clean, renewable energy to generate electricity or for beneficial reuse in heating and cooling local manufacturing plants, schools, government buildings, as well as producing alternate fuels to power our vehicle fleets.   Our industry is developing new technologies to further utilize the largely organic waste stream that presently has no commercially achievable economic value.

Aluminum recyclingWe recognize that the transition to zero waste will not be easy or swift.  It took 18 years for America's recycling and composting rate to double from 16.2 percent in 1990 to 33.2 percent in 2008.  Increasing that rate further poses unique challenges.  Manufacturers, government, service providers and consumers must work together to progress towards this goal.

Waste stream reduction must occur at properly licensed and permitted facilities to ensure full compliance with all appropriate laws and regulations in order to protect the public health and the environment. Shortcuts in recycling and composting can inadvertently lead to an increased carbon footprint, fail to reduce the waste stream and potentially cause environmental damage that will be difficult to monitor and correct.  Zero waste must be approached as a series of steps, all of which must be thoroughly understood to fully optimize system efficiencies.  Additionally, the economics of zero waste must be understood and taken into account when deciding how and what to eliminate from the waste stream.  And, finally the infrastructure needs to be developed to assist in the achievement of zero waste.   

The NSWMA is proud of its environmental credentials, as "Environmentalists. Every Day." we look forward to working with state and local governments, manufacturers and our customers in reducing the size of the waste stream and increasing the size of the recovery stream.  Only by working together and sharing in the responsibilities for zero waste will we be able to celebrate its success.