There is good news and bad news concerning United States recycling statistics.

First, the good news:

The recovery rate of municipal solid waste (a fancy way of saying city garbage) through recycling and composting programs was up to 32% as of 2005 (the US General Accounting Office only reports every two years).

That is a significant increase from 1980, when less than 10% was recycled.
Now, the bad news:

Since 1980, the generation of municipal solid waste has grown by 60% – nearly 246 million tons per year in 2005!

Organic materials make up the bulk of wastes that go into land fills. Around 35% are paper and cardboard, while yard trimmings and food scraps total about 25%.

Some Encouraging Recycling Facts

With paper products, we’re doing pretty well; almost half of the paper used in the USA is now being recycled into new paper products. That’s more than glass, metal, plastic, and “miscellaneous” combined.

The largest category of recycled paper goods was newspaper at 89%, followed closely by corrugated cardboard, at 72%.

Some paper can’t be reprocessed because of being soiled by food, etc.

Many municipalities will pick up tree trimmings and Christmas trees and turn them into mulch for parks and landscaped street medians. This has an added benefit of saving irrigation water.

Residential grass clippings and food waste can be easily composted and shouldn’t ordinarily be sent to the landfill.

Particularly good news is that lead acid batteries – a landfill disaster – are the recycling winners, with a whopping rate of 99% recovery!

Other high recovery rates include major appliances – 67%, steel cans – 63%, and aluminum cans – 45%, although the rate of aluminum recycling has dropped from a high of 68% in 1992.

Some credit for increases in the United States recycling statistics must go to the Keep America Beautiful organization’s Great American Clean-Up program. This annual event boasts 2 million volunteers and diverts thousands of tons of litter and garbage to recycling projects rather than landfills (or landscapes.

Aluminum should be recycled whenever possible; recycling saves 95% of the energy needed to produce new aluminum from raw materials.

For more United States recycling statistics, please visit the National Recycling Coalition website.

United States Recycling Statistics is a post from: Green Headquarters

Technorati Tags: Added Benefit, Aluminum Cans, Aluminum Recycling, cardboard, Christmas Trees, City Garbage, Corrugated Cardboard, Food Scraps, Food Waste, General Accounting Office, Grass Clippings, Irrigation Water, landfill, Lead Acid Batteries, Major Appliances, Municipal Solid Waste, paper, Paper Goods, Recycling Facts, Recycling Statistics, Steel Cans, Tree Trimmings, united states recycling statistics, Yard Trimmings

Related posts:

1. Recycling Paper Facts Gathering facts on recycling paper can be fun. Here is...
2. Electronics and Computer Recycling Becoming More Available Across the US Image via Wikipedia Sony and Waste Management have come...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Here is some paper recycling trivia:

For every ton of paper that is recycled, about 3 cubic yards of landfill space is saved.

In 2005, nearly fifty percent of the paper used in the United States was recycled into new paper products instead of being sent to the landfill. Today, recovered paper supplies over 40 percent of the total fiber needed to produce U.S. paper products.

Almost all the paper manufactured in Europe and the U.S. through the mid-1800s was recycled paper. Old rags and worn-out clothing were the main source of fiber supplying the paper mills (the process for making paper from wood pulp had not yet been developed).

Even though some papers claim 100% recycled fiber, paper makers will often combine various amounts of post-consumer recycled fiber with new, pre-consumer fiber to produce paper of higher quality.

Pre-consumer recovered paper is a mixture of trimmings and scraps from printing, carton manufacturing, and other converting processes that are gathered and reprocessed in the mill into a product.

Post-consumer recovered paper is what consumers bring to the recycling center – corrugated boxes, newspapers, magazines, and office paper that has already has been used. It is then returned to the paper mill for reprocessing.

Wood fibers can be recycled up to seven times before they become too short and worn out to be made into paper again. New wood fiber is needed to replace the unusable recycled fiber that washes out of the pulp during the recycling paper process.

Recycling Paper Facts is a post from: Green Headquarters

Technorati Tags: landfill, post-consumer, pre-consumer, recycling paper

Related posts:

1. United States Recycling Statistics Recycling helps to prevent Global Warming There is good news...
2. Electronics and Computer Recycling Becoming More Available Across the US Image via Wikipedia Sony and Waste Management have come...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.