Recycling Facts

Paper is one of the most versatile and important materials used in homes, schools, offices, and businesses throughout the world. Each day we enjoy the benefits of paper products - from the newspaper we read in the morning, to the box that holds our cereal, to the paper we use for homework and business purposes, to the documents that mark the significant achievements of our lives.

An impressive 53.4 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling in 2006. In fact, if measured by weight, more paper is recovered for recycling than all glass, plastic, and aluminum combined.

Did you know?

• According to the Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), approximately 35 percent of the municipal solid waste stream is made up of paper and paperboard products. Paper makes up the largest portion of the municipal waste stream, and also one of the most recovered materials.
• Each time paper is recycled, the fiber length decreases, which impacts its strength. It is estimated that paper has approximately seven generations, meaning it can be recycled up to seven times.
• The U.S. forest products industry plants an average of 1.7 million trees every day - five new trees for every tree harvested. Thanks to the responsible forestry practices of U.S. companies, the amount of standing timber in U.S. forests has increased by nearly 40 percent over the past half-century, and by 10 million acres since 1990.

Tips / Best Practices

• Though they are paper, soiled items like used facial tissues and dirty napkins and paper towels are not recyclable.

Fun Facts About Paper and Paper Recycling

• Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
• 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.
• More than 37 percent of the fiber used to make new paper products in the United States comes from recycled sources.
• Today, wood and recovered fiber are the primary feedstocks for paper production in the United States. In much more limited examples, paper can also be made from a variety of other natural materials including cotton, hemp, linen, and bamboo.
• Buying recycled paper is an equally important step in the recycling process - it closes the recycling loop. When buying recycled content paper, remember to look for the highest percentage of post-consumer waste content (the largest percentage of waste paper used to make the new, recycled-content paper).

Make sure to look for the Recycled symbol. It means that the product is made out materials used before. There may be a statement next to this symbol mentioning the percentage of recycled content in the product.

Confused by this symbol? Don't be. This one means a product can be recycled - not that it necessarily contains recycled content.

Glass is a material recycled by many curbside collection programs, and it is also taken in at most municipal recycling centers. Glass is one of the most popular materials to be recycled today, both because of the purity of the ingredients and the quick turnaround of recycling. Your glass containers actually begin their life as readily-available domestic materials, such as sand, soda ash, or limestone. Similar to paper, glass comes in a variety of colors, and this does come into play in the recycling process.

Did you know?

Glass is a material recycled by many curbside collection programs, and it is also taken in at most municipal recycling centers. Here are some of the important reasons to recycle glass containers:

• The typical glass container is made up of as much as 70 percent recycled glass.
• Unlike other substances such as paper, glass can be recycled indefinitely without any loss of purity or quality.
• Recycled glass first becomes cullet, or crushed glass, which uses 40 percent less energy than making glass from new products, because it melts at a lower temperature than do raw ingredients.
• Because glass is made from naturally-occurring materials like sand, it has a low rate of chemical interaction with the contents of the container, which makes it a safe packaging material to be used for generations.

Fun Facts About Glass Recycling

• Glass containers are 100 percent recyclable, and recovered glass is used as the majority ingredient in new glass containers.
• A recycled glass container can go from recycling bin to store shelf in as little as 30 days.
• Glass containers produced today are 40 percent lighter than those produced 20 years ago, making them much easier to recycle.
• Every ton of glass that is recycled results in a ton of raw materials saved to process new glass, including 1,300 pounds of sand, 410 pounds of soda ash, and 380 pounds of limestone.
• A glass bottle can take up to one million years to break down, which is how long it will sit in a landfill and take up space if it is not recycled.
• Americans recycle nearly 13 million glass jars and bottles every day.

Tips/best practices

• Most recycling programs will only accept glass containers, because products such as drinking glasses, lightbulbs, mirrors, and Pyrex have been treated with contaminants when manufactured.
• You will find that some curbside programs and recycling centers only take certain colors of glass, mainly because the recycling plants need to maintain color schemes when producing new glass containers.
• Check with your municipality to see what colors of glass are accepted for recycling.

Products Created From Recycled Glass

The primary end product of recycling glass are new glass bottles and jars, as glass can be recycled indefinitely without losing its purity or strength. However, there are some other uses for recycled glass, including:

• Fiberglass production (second most popular use of post-consumer glass after beverage containers).
• Frictionator for matches and ammunition.
• Abrasives in sand-blasting.
• Ingredient in concrete and highway reflective paint.
• Ceramic tiles and picture frames around the house.
• Providing additional sand to beaches that have been depleted by erosion.

Steel is an extremely valuable metal that is present in many of the containers and appliances we use on a daily basis. While steel is the dominant material in the cars we drive and beams of the buildings we work in, for the average person recycling steel will involve the proper disposal of steel cans and scrap metal. Steel is the most recycled material in North America, and it can be recycled infinitely and turned into new steel products. Steel is a part of many curbside collection programs. Steel cans are used for anything from coffee to soup to pet food.

Did you know?

• Americans use 100 million steel cans every day; they are so abundant in our daily life that you probably go through every day.
• Because steel is a metal it can be easily separated from other recyclables (e.g., paper, glass) using magnets.
• Steel recycling saves landfill space as well as providing a scrap resource to the steel industry.
• Recycling steel saves 75 percent of the energy that would be used to create steel from raw materials, enough to power 18 million homes.
• Over 65 percent of the steel produced in the U.S. is recycled into new steel every year.
• Recycling steel prevents the need to mine for additional iron and coal, the primary ingredients in making new steel.
• Steel is a key component of car parts and household appliances, and recycled steel has the same strength as new steel when used in these devices.

Tips / Best Practices

• Steel containers have the versatility to hold a variety of products, from food to paint to shoe polish, and they simply need to be rinsed before they are ready to recycle.
• Steel containers are usually comprised entirely of steel, meaning that the entire container can be put in with your steel recycling (including caps and lids).
• Unlike other materials (paper, glass), steel does not have to be separated by color or size before it is recycled; it can all be melted down at once.

Plastic recycling affects a range of products, from drink containers to shopping bags to pipes. Plastic is almost always the product of petroleum, a non-renewable resource. This makes recycling plastic even more important.

Did you know?

• Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60-watt light bulb for up to six hours.
• Recycled bottles provide an environmentally-friendly source for making new products and substitute recycled materials for new plastic. Recycled plastic bottles make hundreds of everyday products, including, but not limited to, fleece jackets, carpeting, and lumber for outdoor decking.
• Recycling a ton of plastic bottles saves approximately 3.8 barrels of oil.
• According to the Container Recycling Institute, "More than 60 million plastic bottles end up in landfills and incinerators every day." What's more, plastic bottles take hundreds of years to decompose.
• It is estimated that the production of plastics accounts for four percent of the U.S.'s energy consumption.

Tips / Best Practices

• Plastic Bottles - Remember to remove bottle caps. Unless the caps are marked with a code, most of them are made with a different type of plastic, which may not be recyclable.
• Plastic Bags - When you recycle plastic bags, make sure you are recycling appropriate plastics, so no contaminants are introduced. Typically, plastic bags will be made of either #2 plastic or #4 plastic.
• According to plasticbagrecycling.org, the following normally CAN be recycled:
  • Grocery bags
  • Retail bags (hard plastic and string handles removed)
  • Paper towel and toilet paper plastic wrap
  • Newspaper bags
  • Dry-cleaning bags
• What CANNOT be recycled:
  • Used food or cling wrap
  • Prepackaged food bags, including frozen wrappers
  • Bio-based or compostable bags
• PET and HDPE are the most common forms of plastic, so it is easiest to find recycling locations for them.
• The types of plastic you can recycle largely depends on where you live. If you have a curbside recycling program, you can contact your local sanitation department or public works office to find out what plastics are allowed. The seven types of plastics, and some common items that are made from them, are:
  • PET (Polyethylene terephthalate): soda bottles, oven-ready meal trays and water bottles.
  • HDPE* (High-density polyethylene): milk bottles, detergent bottles, and grocery/trash/retail bags.
  • PVC (Polyvinyl chloride): plastic food wrap, loose-leaf binders, and plastic pipes.
  • LDPE (Low-density polyethylene): dry cleaning bags, produce bags, and squeezable bottles.
  • PP (Polypropylene): medicine bottles, aerosol caps, and drinking straws.
  • PS (Polystyrene): compact disc jackets, packaging Styrofoam peanuts, and plastic tableware.
  • Other: reusable water bottles, certain kinds of food containers, and Tupperware.

Fun Facts About Plastic and Plastic Recycling

• It takes more than three liters of water to create one liter of bottled water.
• The amount of oil used to produce plastic water bottles in America is enough to fuel about 100,000 cars for a year.
• About 380 billion plastic bags, sacks, and wraps are used each year, but only 5.2 percent of the plastic bags and sacks in the municipal waste stream were recycled in 2005.
• Plastic litter is estimated to take up to 1,000 years to decompose. This estimate is based on the decomposition rates of plastics buried in landfills for up to 100 years.
• When recycled material is substituted for virgin material, which requires more processing, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
• Americans buy an estimated 28 billion plastic water bottles every year. Nearly eight out of every 10 bottles will end up in a landfill.