EcoFacts

• Well-run recycling programs cost less to operate than waste collection, landfilling, and incineration.
• The more people recycle, the cheaper it gets.
• Two years after calling recycling a $40 million drain on the city, New York City leaders realized that a redesigned, efficient recycling system could actually save the city $20 million and they have now signed a 20-year recycling contract.
• Recycling creates 1.1 million U.S. jobs, $236 billion in gross annual sales and $37 billion in annual payrolls.
• Recycling creates four jobs for every one job created in the waste management and disposal industries.
• Recycling and composting diverted nearly 70 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2000, up from 34 million tons in 1990—doubling in just 10 years.
• Recycling results in a net reduction in ten major categories of air pollutants and eight major categories of water pollutants.
• It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials. Making recycled steel saves 60%, recycled newspaper 40%, recycled plastics 70%, and recycled glass 40%. These saving far outweigh the energy created as by-products of incineration and landfilling.
• In 2000, recycling resulted in an annual energy savings equal to the amount of energy used in 6 million homes (over 660 trillion BTUs). In 2005, recycling is conservatively projected to save the amount of energy used in 9 million homes (900 trillion BTUs).
• A national recycling rate of 30% reduces greenhouse gas emissions as much as removing nearly 25 million cars from the road.
• Every bit of recycling makes a difference. For example, one year of recycling on just one college campus, Stanford University, saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.
• Every ton of newsprint or mixed paper recycled is the equivalent of 12 trees. Every ton of office paper recycled is the equivalent of 24 trees.