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What is recycling?

Recycling is the process of transforming waste items into new products that can be resold. It involves a complicated workflow of collection, sorting, processing, and remanufacturing, and many people don’t understand what can and cannot be recycled. With the looming threat of climate change, the need for a clear understanding of how recycling works and its energy-saving benefits has never been greater.

Why is recycling important?

Recycling is a critical component of environmental conservation. When done properly, it brings many environmental and economic benefits, including:

• Reduced pollution: By devoting less time and space to manufacturing new products, recycling can help decrease water and air pollution.
• Less waste: Besides environmental pollution, manufacturing new products results in excess waste. Proper recycling can help reduce the amount of extra trash in landfills and incinerators.
• Energy conservation: New products require more raw materials, such as lumber, water, and minerals. By relying on existing materials, recycling saves energy and conserves these important resources.
• Economic benefits: Recycling creates domestic jobs and reduces reliance on trade for goods. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), every 1,000 tons of recycled materials results in 1.57 jobs, $76,000 in wages, and $14,101 in tax revenues.

What can be recycled?

Eligible items for recycling vary by municipality, as local ordinances and budgets dictate the size and scope of recycling programs. The following table shows recyclable items, according to the EPA. Always check with your local recycling program to determine what you can recycle.

Recycling symbol

Plastic products typically include a recycling symbol with a number inside it. Contrary to popular belief, this symbol doesn’t automatically mean the material is recyclable. Rather, the number indicates the type of material used to make the plastic. To determine if it can be recycled, you need to verify that your local recycling center accepts products with that number. 

For instance, some styrofoam-like products may have a recycling symbol, but these aren’t actually styrofoam. Rather, they’re expanded polystyrene (EPS), which is recyclable in some places. True styrofoam cannot be recycled, but many plastics can if your local recycling program supports it.

How does recycling save energy?

Recycling saves energy by eliminating the need to make materials from scratch. Regardless of the product, it’s extremely labor-intensive and energy-intensive to extract, transport, and refine the natural resources in aluminum, plastic, paper, and glass. Using recycled materials rather than new resources provides a jumpstart on manufacturing and allows the same products to be made with less energy.

But there’s more to recycling than saving energy. Choosing to recycle materials that would’ve otherwise been sent to the dump substantially shrinks landfills, and using recyclables in manufacturing helps us conserve the natural resources on our planet. There’s no need to plunder for new timber, oil, or ore when we can reuse what we’ve already removed.

How much energy does recycling save?

According to the EPA, recycling keeps about 69 million tons of solid waste from hitting U.S. landfills each year — just less than a quarter of the total trash we create annually.

Recycling saves energy, time, and money, so the more you recycle, the more energy you save. To understand exactly how energy-efficient recycling can be,  consider each material individually. Here’s a by-the-numbers breakdown of four primary recyclables:

1. Aluminum

Aluminum is the most efficient recyclable around. With the amount of energy it takes to make one new aluminum can, you could make 20 recycled cansusing up to 95% less energy. It’s also a quick process — the aluminum in your recycling bin can go from the curb to the grocery store shelf in just 60 days. These astounding recycling energy savings are possible because aluminum can be reused indefinitely without bringing new materials into the production cycle.

2. Plastics

There are seven different types of plastic — each with different polymers and different purposes. Traditionally, most plastics have been downcycled into low-grade materials like lumber, fleece, or carpet fiber. Since the production of new plastic accounts for more than 3%of the country’s total annual energy consumption, downcycling helps cut energy costs in the short term. 

However, since the material quality degrades each time plastics are downcycled, it’s only a matter of time before your soda bottle heads to the trash heap. Fortunately, many manufacturers are now able to recreatehigh-quality plastic products from these once-restricted recyclables.

3. Paper

Manufacturing recycled paper uses less energy than producing paper from fresh pulp — and saves trees in the process. Paper is consistently one of the most recycled materials in the U.S., but ink residue can create problems for manufacturers that make high-quality, bright white paper. Emerging research on biodegradable inks and even erasable paper suggests paper recycling improvements are on the rise.

4. Glass

Producing recycled glass bottles uses less energy than it takes to create them from raw materials. When you toss glass in recycling bins instead of trashcans, you’re helping to keep waste out of our landfills, where it can take 4,000 years for one glass bottle to fully break down. It can also help preserve natural resources like sand, limestone, and soda ash, and eliminate the transportation costs involved with moving these heavy materials.

How does recycling help the environment?

Recycling saves energy and helps the environment in countless ways. Here are just a few more stats to show how recycling can make a difference:

• Recycling keeps more than 193 million metric tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. 
• Recycling one ton of paper could save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kWh of energy, and 7,000 gallons of water.
• Recycling steel reduces energy production by 60%, while recycling plastic reduces energy production by 70%.
• Recycling a single car can conserve 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal, and 120 pounds of limestone.

Recycling is one crucial step toward becoming more conscious of what happens to the waste we create. When you trade in your used bottles and cans, you’re trading up for a more eco-conscious household and a greener planet.