We provide an essential service in local communities across the country by protecting the environment and public health.

The efficient and dependable removal of waste is an essential service for keeping our communities clean and society healthy. Imagine if your trash was not picked up!

• America’s waste industry successfully manages 250 million tons of household and other municipal solid waste annually (U.S. EPA, “Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2008” [EPA Facts and Figures]).
• The average American discards four and a half pounds of garbage every day (EPA Facts and Figures).
• However, when construction and demolition waste and non-hazardous industrial waste is included, the industry manages nearly 545 million tons of solid waste each year (“Size of the United States Solid Waste Industry,” R.W. Beck, Inc. 2001).
• 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).
• 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).

We are a leader in recycling and composting.

We have introduced increasingly consumer friendly and efficient methods of collecting and sorting recyclables to increase consumer participation in recycling, and have spent millions educating consumers on the benefits of recycling.

• America’s solid waste industry collected and processed more than 61 million tons of recyclables in 2008, and more than 22 million tons of yard and food waste that was composted (EPA Facts and Figures).
• We have helped America reach a national recycling rate of almost 33 percent [EPA Facts and Figures].
• Some 119,482 cans are recycled every minute nationwide (Aluminum Association).
• The 62.6 billion cans recycled last year alone would make 171 circles around the earth at its equator (Aluminum Association).
• Glass can be recycled an indefinite number of times and never wears out (National Recycling Coalition).
• Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70 percent, water use by 50 percent, and air pollution by 20 percent (Environmental Defense Fund).
• 86 percent (approximately 254 million) of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs (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).
• Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space (http://earth911.org).
• 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).
• 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).