RECYCLING SAVES OUR ENVIRONMENT

Recycling Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions

By reducing the amount of energy used by industry, recycling also reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps prevent global climate change. This is because much of the energy used in industrial processes and in transportation involves burning fossil fuels like gasoline, diesel and coal, the most important sources of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. Additional benefits are derived from reduced emissions from incinerators and landfills and by slowing the harvest of trees, which are carbon sinks. In 2004, recycling reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2 million metric tons of carbon equivalent.

Recycling Reduces Emissions of Air and Water Pollutants

In addition to greenhouse gases, recycling can reduce a range of pollutants from entering the air and water. By decreasing the need to extract and process new raw materials from the earth, recycling can eliminate the pollution associated with the initial stages of a product's development: material extraction, refining and processing. These activities pollute the air, land and water with toxic materials, such as ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, and sulfur dioxides. Further reductions are achieved as a result of energy saving, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants. In addition to the greenhouse gas reductions mentioned previously, additional reductions of air emissions due to recycling total 587,000 tons . Reduced water emissions total nearly 9,000 tons

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Environmental problems have become so complex that many individuals feel they can have no effect on them. Problems like global warming, hazardous waste, loss of rain forests, endangered species, acid rain, the ozone layer, the municipal waste crisis can feel out of our control. At the very least, these problems require group and corporate action or government intervention.

But there are some things the individual can control. Our waste reduction and recycling activities can make a difference. That's why nearly 1,600 Pennsylvania communities recycle, over three times the number required to recycle by Act 101.

RECYCLING SAVES NATURAL RESOURCES

Our finite reserves of natural resources are being depleted rapidly, particularly with the increasing use of disposable products and packaging. Pennsylvanians recycled 4.7 million tons in 2004. This rate of use and disposal takes a particularly heavy toll on irreplaceable natural resources from our forests and mines.

Reprocessing used materials to make new products and packaging reduces the consumption of natural resources. By recycling over 1 million tons of steel in 2004, Pennsylvanians saved 1.3 million tons of iron ore, 718,000 tons of coal, and 62,000 tons of limestone. Through recycling newsprint, office paper and mixed paper, we saved nearly over 8.2 million trees. Recycling often produces better products than those made of virgin materials; for instance, the tin in "tin" cans is more refined (thus more valuable) after being processed for recycling.

Source reduction, preventing waste before it is generated, can further reduce the need for disposal and save more resources.

RECYCLING SAVES ENERGY

Energy savings are a very important environmental benefit of recycling, because using energy requires the consumption of scarce fossil fuels and involves emissions of numerous air and water pollutants. The steps in supplying recycled materials to industry (including collection, processing and transportation) typically use less energy than the steps in supplying virgin materials to industry (including extraction, refining, transportation and processing).

Additional energy savings associated with recycling accrue in the manufacturing process itself, since the materials have already undergone processing. Recycling in Pennsylvania in 2004 saved over 66 trillion BTUs of energy, enough to power 643,000 houses.

Recycling paper cuts energy usage in half. Every pound of steel recycled saves 5,450 BTUs of energy, enough to light a 60-watt bulb for over 26 hours. Recycling a ton of glass saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil. Recycling used aluminum cans requires only about five percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite. Recycling just one can saves enough electricity to light a 100-watt bulb for 3½ hours.

RECYCLING PROVIDES ECONOMIC BENEFITS

By converting waste into valuable products, recycling creates jobs, contributes feedstock to manufacturing, and adds significant value to the entire U.S. economy.

Recycling Means Business in Pennsylvania

Recycling and Reuse Establishments - 3,247
Recycling and Reuse Employment - 81,322 jobs
Annual Sales Receipts - $18.4 billion
Annual Payroll - $2.9 billion

Recycling Adds Value to Pennsylvania's Economy

Collection and processing, the first step in the recycling process, involves sorting and aggregating recyclable materials. It includes municipal and private collectors, material recovery and composting facilities, and recyclable material wholesalers. These activities employ nearly 10,000 people in Pennsylvania, with a payroll of $284 million and annual sales of $2.3 billion.

Recycling manufacturing involves the actual conversion of recyclables into products. The primary recycling manufacturers in Pennsylvania in order of magnitude are steel mills, plastic converters, paper and paperboard mills, and nonferrous metal manufacturers. Recycling manufacturing employs over 64,000 people with a payroll of almost $2.5 billion and annual sales of over $15.5 billion.

Reuse and remanufacturing focuses on the refurbishing and repair of products to be reused in their original form. The largest activities are retail sales of used merchandise and reuse of used motor vehicle parts. The amount of value that can be added via this process is limited because of competition from new products. Nevertheless, reuse and manufacturing contributes over 7,000 jobs, a payroll of $115 million and sales of over a half billion dollars.

Downstream Economic Benefits

In addition to the direct benefits, support businesses that provide goods and services to the recycling and reuse establishments also contribute to the Commonwealth's economy. These supporting activities include recycling and reuse equipment manufacturers, consulting/ engineering services, brokers, and transporters. These contribute an additional 13,297 jobs and $1.8 billion in receipts.

RECYCLING IS GOOD BUSINESS

Most people know that recycling plays an important role in managing the garbage generated in homes and businesses, and that it reduces the need for landfills and incinerators.

But recycling is far more than a local waste management strategy; it is also an important strategy for reducing the environmental impacts of industrial production. Supplying industry with recycled materials, rather than virgin resources extracted from forests and mines, is environmentally preferable because it saves energy, reduces emissions of greenhouse gases and other dangerous air and water pollutants, and because it conserves scarce natural resources. In 2004, Pennsylvania recycling programs supplies industry with over 4.7 million tons of scrap commodities like metals, paper, glass, plastics, wood, organics, and other materials.

Recycling is a growth industry with many kinds of business opportunities, from collection and processing to manufacturing to inventing new technologies. New businesses in Pennsylvania will create jobs for more Pennsylvanians and improve our economy.

Source :http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/FACTS