Sustainability

When manufacturers source raw materials for a product, the recycled materials industry provides a more sustainable alternative to cutting trees, mining, drilling, or harvesting natural resources.

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Recycling’s Role In Sustainability

The recycled materials industry has a positive environmental impact because it protects natural resources and reduces carbon emissions. When manufacturers source raw materials for a product, the recycled materials industry provides a more sustainable alternative to cutting trees, mining, drilling, or harvesting natural resources.

The industry is continuously innovating to recycle more material, more efficiently. We are working with individuals and communities to help them sort and recycle more. We are also partnering with brands and big companies to help them recycle more, use more recycled materials in their products, and design their products to be recycled more easily.

The recycled materials industry reduces emissions. Compared to the processing and transportation needed for mining, drilling, harvesting, or other methods of extracting natural resources for manufacturing, the use of recycled materials typically produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

  • Using recycled materials as renewable sources in manufacturing reduces energy consumption by 27-90%.
  • Greenhouse gas emissions can be lowered by 35-96% by using renewable resources provided by the recycled materials industry.

Recycling one ton of material is equivalent to*:

  • The amount of gas you would use to drive across the United States 2.5 times in your car.
  • Saving 3,300 pounds of coal from being mined.
  • Restoring 3.8 acres of U.S. forests each year to capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

*Calculation based on the average figure for all recycled materials.

The recycled materials industry works with the manufacturing sector to prioritize recyclability during a product’s design phase along with cost, safety, and other factors.

Products designed with recyclability in mind:

  • Are easily recycled through current or newly designed recycling processes and procedures;
  • Are cost effective to recycle, whereby the cost to recycle does not exceed the value of their recycled materials;
  • Are free of hazardous materials that impede the recycling process;
  • Maximize the use of recycled materials and/or components within product manufacturing; and
  • Have a net gain in the overall recyclability of the products while reducing their overall negative impact on the environment.

The recycled materials industry is continuously innovating and discovering ways to recycle more materials. In metals sorting, sensors and machines can replace hands and magnets. X-ray fluorescence analyzers are giving way, in some applications, to laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technology. Plastics, electronics, and more benefit from near infrared (NIR) and visible spectroscopy (VIS) technologies that sort streams by color and material composite.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a large role in the recycled materials industry. AI-guided robots are used in materials recovery facilities (MRFs) to pull recyclables from material streams. In the future, AI machines are expected to be able to recognize materials, trucks, and even drivers with optical technology.

Other technologies are used to detect and separate materials based on qualities such as magnetism, density, shape, size, elemental composition, color, and other characteristics. This allows the recycled materials industry to separate and sort many tons of material much more efficiently.

Recycling is a sophisticated, “green” industry that is at the forefront of finding new ways to recycle more materials and expand recycling’s infrastructure to match today’s diverse product streams, develop new markets for recycled materials, and improve methodologies to measure recycling system performance.

The industry is investing in sorting equipment, collection, processing technologies, continuous safety improvement, tracking apps, and more. Recyclers continue to develop solutions for new materials that increasingly end up in recycling streams, like those used in 3D printing materials, composites, and the latest electronic gadgets.

The recycled materials industry also works closely with individuals and communities to help them sort and recycle more. Such partnerships also are taking place with brands and large companies. The industry works with these brands and companies to help them recycle more and use more recycled materials in their products.

There are far-reaching economic benefits generated by the recycled materials industry. Not only are recycling facilities located in every state throughout the country, and in both urban and rural communities, but also the firms that supply materials as well as goods and services to processors and brokers are also located in every part of the country.

The recycled materials industry directly supports over 171,000 jobs while another 424,690 jobs throughout the U.S. economy are indirectly supported by the industry through suppliers and the indirect impact of the industry’s expenditures. Indirect jobs include everything from manufacturing and farming to retail and food industry.

Estimated Maximum Energy and GHG Benefits of Recycling

Calculation based on the average figure for all commodities

Material/Product

GHG Emissions from Production (MTCO2E)

GHG Emissions from Recycling (MTCO2E)

GHG Emissions Benefit from Recycling (MTCO2E)

GHG Emissions Benefit from Recycling (%)

Energy Use from Production (BTU)

Energy Use from Recycling (BTU)

Energy Use Benefit with Recycling (BTU)

Energy Use Benefit with Recycling (%)

Corrugated Containers

8.09

4.95

3.14

39%

27.18

12.07

15.1

56%

Magazines/third-class mail

8.86

5.79

3.07

35%

33.27

32.58

0.69

2%

Newspaper

5.74

3.03

2.71

47%

40.7

24.21

16.49

41%

Office Paper

8.23

5.37

2.86

35%

37.29

27.21

10.08

27%

Mixed Paper (general)

7.61

4.07

3.55

47%

32.93

12.37

20.56

62%

HDPE

1.52

0.76

0.76

50%

66.99

22.21

44.78

67%

PET

2.21

1.18

1.04

47%

51.13

22.55

28.59

56%

PP

1.54

0.74

0.79

52%

66.49

21.99

44.5

67%

Mixed Plastics

1.94

1.01

0.93

48%

57.43

22.41

35.02

61%

Aluminum Cans

10.99

1.86

9.13

83%

200.57

47.8

152.76

76%

Aluminum Ingot

7.48

0.27

7.2

96%

126.95

13.1

113.85

90%

Steel Cans

3.64

1.81

1.83

50%

36.54

16.58

19.97

55%

Copper Wire

6.78

2.3

4.49

66%

123.35

40.76

82.59

67%

Mixed Metals

6.22

1.83

4.39

71%

94.08

27.53

66.55

71%

Glass

0.6

0.33

0.28

46%

7.46

5.34

2.13

28%

Structural Steel

3.42

1.49

1.93

56%

25.15

15.89

9.25

37%

These results are based on EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM), Version 16, using default values as a first approximation and assuming 100% virgin material use for primary production. Some values are rounded.

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