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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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Recycling

What is recycling?

Recycling is the collection of used products and their processing into raw materials that can be used to manufacture new products. Making newsprint from old newspapers, new glass bottles from used glass bottles and new cans from used beverage cans are examples of recycling.

How are recyclables collected?

Recyclables are collected in a variety of ways. In curbside collection residents place their recyclables are the curb for collection. The majority of Americans who live in urban or suburban single-family housing have curbside collection of their recyclables. Drop-off centers or buy-back centers are centralized locations where people take their recyclables to donate (drop-off center) or sell (buy-back center). In eleven states, beverage containers are returned through deposit programs in which a deposit paid on the container when it is bought is redeemed when the empty container is returned.

How many curbside collection programs and drop-off centers are in America?

In 2008, 8,659 curbside recyclables collection programs operated in the United States. These programs served almost 146,000,000 people, or nearly half of the United States population. Curbside collection was most prevalent in the Northeast where 84 percent of the population had access to this method, followed by the West where 76 percent of the population was served by curbside programs. Data for drop-off centers is not as recent, but in 1997, 12,694 drop-off centers operated in the United States. In some areas with sparse populations, drop-off centers may be the only option for the collection of recyclable materials.

Which states have deposit laws?

Eleven states have beverage container deposit laws. Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Vermont have nickel or dime deposits. Michigan has a dime deposit. In California, the consumer does not pay a deposit, as such, but the price of the beverage includes a “redemption value” which can be redeemed by the purchaser or by a recycling program operator. These states vary as to which beverage containers require deposits. In some states, deposits are paid only on beer and soft drink containers and in some states, water and fruit juice bottles also require a deposit.

What is a materials recovery facility (MRF)?

Collected recyclables are usually sent to a materials recovery facility (MRF) where they are sorted and processed into marketable commodities for manufacturing.

How many material recovery facilities are in operation?

In 2008, 545 MRFs were operating in the United States. These facilities had an estimated total daily throughput of 82,684 tons per day.

How much of our trash is recycled?

According to EPA, we recycled or composted 82.9 million tons of our trash in 2008 for a 33.2 percent recycling rate. Recycling has steadily increased since 1960 when only 5.6 million tons, or 6.4 percent, of our garbage was recycled.

Measuring the recycling rate at the state or local level can be very challenging. EPA has developed a methodology to help improve the accuracy of this data.

What is recycled?

Almost every component of the waste stream is being recycled. According to EPA data, lead acid batteries have the highest recycling rate (99.2%) while corrugated boxes are the most recycled by weight (25.08 million tons). Paper and paperboard products were the most recycled component of the waste stream by weight (42.94 million tons) followed by yard trimmings (21.3 million tons). The recycling rates for commonly recycled consumer goods in 2008 are provided below.

United States Recycling Rates in 2008

Categories	Percent Recycling of Each Material
Paper and paperboard in packaging	65.5
Paper and paperboard in nondurable goods	45.7
Glass in packaging	28.0
Steel in packaging	63.1
Steel in durable goods	28.0
Plastics in durable goods	3.7
Plastics in packaging	13.2
Rubber and leather	negligible
Textiles in durable goods	13.1
Textiles in nondurable goods	16.5
Wood in packaging	14.8
Food waste	2.5
Yard waste	64.7

What is being done to increase the recycling rate?

For recycling rates to increase, participation in every phase of the recycling loop (collection, sorting and processing, remanufacturing) must occur. Residents and businesses need to put all of their properly prepared recyclables out for collection. All of us need to buy products made with recycled content. Businesses need to manufacture more recycled-content products and become involved in local and state recycling organizations. Local governments need to improve the efficiency of collection programs, practice full cost accounting, and identify opportunities to increase recycling rates. EPA provides information on how to increase recycling rates.

What costs more – recycling or disposal?

Just like garbage collection and disposal, recycling costs money. Recyclables must be collected and processed. And not all markets pay for recyclables. Some charge a fee to take them. Disposal also costs money. Garbage must be collected, transported to a disposal site and a “tipping fee” must be paid to the landfill or incinerator. Moreover, costs vary across the country. Disposal prices, for instance, are higher in the northeast than in other areas. Collection costs can vary from city to city, depending on population density, geography, frequency of collection, number of crew members on a truck, etc. As a result, the question of which costs more depends heavily on local circumstances. Assessing how recycling will impact your community requires a full appraisal of the environmental and economic benefits of recycling and waste disposal.

Markets for most recyclables, especially paper, were strong and relatively steady for a four year period that ended in November, 2008. Those healthy markets helped the economics of many curbside recycling programs. With the sudden, precipitous slide that paper, metal and plastic recycling markets took in 2009, many local recycling programs were forced to work harder to find operational efficiencies and to shore up political support for their continuation. Since then, while a few small programs have closed down, more programs have expanded. Nonetheless, local governments continue to face challenging budget decisions in 2010.

Generally a new recycling program adds an "incremental", or additional, cost to the overall cost of solid waste management. The challenge for recycling programs is to find ways to lower costs and do away with that incremental cost increase.

Can all trash be recycled?

Theoretically, yes, but the cost to recycle some materials will far exceed any benefit derived from recycling. At one time, EPA thought that 25 percent was a good national recycling goal. Then they raised the goal to 30 percent and now support a 35 percent goal.

EIA is the trade association that represents the private sector solid waste and recycling industry through its two sub-associations, the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) and the Waste Equipment Technology Association (WASTEC).