Why Recycling is Important
Recycling and using recycled material is good for manufacturers, consumers, and the planet. It not only protects the environment, but also strengthens the economy. When we recycle, we use less of the Earth's finite resources, less energy to extract and process virgin materials, and create jobs in a growing industry.
Recycling reduces waste and the need to extract Earth’s resources for new products. It keeps billions of pounds of plastic out of landfills as well as the environment every year. According to APR’s 2018 life cycle analysis, when virgin plastic is replaced by recycled content, the energy saved can be as much as 70%. This massive reduction in energy demand correlates to fewer fossil fuels burned, and lower emissions of greenhouse gases.
The benefits of recycling extend across other materials as well. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling aluminum saves about 95%, recycling paper saves about 60%, and recycling glass saves about 30% of the energy that would be needed to produce new materials. These energy savings from recycling result in lower emissions of CO2 and other pollutants that contribute to climate change. The EPA developed a tool to estimate how much energy can be saved by recycling certain products. Learn how much energy you can conserve by recycling aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles, magazines, or plastic grocery bags.
Beyond the environmental benefits, recycling also creates a positive economic impact though job creation across the value chain. According to the EPA’s Recycling Economic Information (REI) Report, recycling and reuse are responsible for over 680,000 jobs in the US. That accounts for jobs related to collection, sortation, cleaning, and processing of recyclables required to create a marketable material source that can be sold to manufactures to make new products, as well as distribution, storage, and transportation in between each of these steps in the recycling process. Beyond these jobs directly related to the core recycling process, thousands of other jobs are indirectly related to recycling, including those connected to the design and manufacturing of recycled and recyclable products, solid waste and recycling government officials, organizations and non-profits focused on improving recycling, and many more.
According to the EPA, 1.17 jobs are created for every 1,000 tons of material recycled. As we improve recycling and increase the volume of recycled materials, we will create more jobs and a cleaner planet.
