• Each year, more solid waste is being generated and the cost of solid waste disposal is increasing. By removing recyclables from the waste stream the amount of waste is reduced with a corresponding reduction in costs.
• Recycling saves millions of dollars by extending the lives of existing landfills and reducing the need to construct additional, costly, incinerators and landfills.
• Our natural resources would diminish more rapidly without the use of recycled materials to replenish the supply of goods.
• Products made from virgin material require more energy to produce.
• Recycling reduces pollution and greenhouse emissions that lead to global warming.
• The recycling industry supports more than 19,000 jobs in Massachusetts.
• In 2000, the United States generated 232 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), an increase of 13 percent over 1990 levels, and 53 percent more than in 1980. Management of this waste presents many opportunities for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.  
• MSW is growing throughout the nation and throughout Massachusetts. Massachusetts residents and businesses now produce 31% more waste than 10 years ago. Currently, Massachusetts incinerates 38% of its waste, landfills 13%, exports 15% and recycles the remaining 34%. Much of the waste which is disposed of could be diverted. Yard waste, leaves, wood, food, paper, and paperboard, all of which are compostable, make up 70% of MSW. Yet only 5%-10% of organic waste is composted.
• Massachusetts has a Waste Ban Law in place which bans the disposal of recoverable materials. This law bans the disposal of recyclable paper; all paper, cardboard, and paperboard products; glass containers, metal beverage and food containers, plastic bottles, leaves & yard waste, lead-acid batteries, white goods, whole tires and cathode ray tubes (televisions and computer monitors) from the trash.
• The recycling efforts of Massachusetts’ communities and residents over the past decade have led to numerous environmental, social and economic benefits. These benefits include:
• Recycling in Massachusetts pumps over $600 million into the state’s economy each year and employs over 19,000 people.
• Massachusetts recycles over 6 million tons of waste each year, waste which would otherwise require the construction of 16 new incinerators or landfills.
• The amount of paper, glass, metal and plastic recycled by state residents saves enough energy to power 140,000 homes each year or just under 10% of all the energy used by industry in the state.
• Massachusetts’ recycling efforts reduce greenhouse gas emissions by almost 900,000 tons of carbon equivalent per year, or about 15% of all industrial carbon dioxide emissions in the state.
• Recycling has reduced annual emissions of nitrous oxides and sulfur oxides, important contributors to acid rain formation, by an amount equal to seven percent of all such emissions from electric utilities in the state. It also avoids the release of as much as 9,000 metric tons of water pollutants.

General Recycling Facts

• Recycling 1 glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for 4 hours.
• In the coming decade, Americans are projected to throw away over 11 million tons of
  glass bottles and jars.
• Recycling saves 25-30% of the energy used to make glass from virgin materials.

• Americans throw away enough plastic bottles each year to circle the earth four times.
• Every hour, we throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles. (22 billion plastic bottles per year).
• Five recycled plastic bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a sky jacket.

• Every ton of steel recycled saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal, and
  120 pounds of limestone.
• Enough energy is saved each year by recycling steel to supply Los Angeles with electricity for almost 10 years.
• The steel industry recycles nearly 19 billion steel cans into new products each year - about 600 cans recycled every second!
• We throw away enough iron and steel to continuously supply all of our nations' auto makers.

• A 12-foot high wall could be built from NYC to Los Angeles with all of the office and writing
  paper thrown out in the U.S. each year.
• Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees.
• One tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year.
• Americans use more than 67 million tons of paper per year or 580 pounds per person.
• More than 1/3 of all paper fiber used to make paper comes from recycled paper.
• Every Sunday more than 500,000 trees are used to produce 88% of the newspapers that are never recycled

• Almost one third of the waste stream by weight is organic waste like food, leaves, and grass.
• In Massachusetts, leaves and yard waste make up approximately 17% of our waste stream.
• Each person in Massachusetts creates about 530 pounds of food and yard waste each year. If all that material was piled onto a football field, the pile would be 2,067 feet high, higher than Mt. Wachusett.
• A 1000-square-foot area of lawn can generate up to 500 pounds of grass clippings in
  a single growing season.
• Use of compost can reduce the need and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

• Americans receive almost 4.5 million tons of junk mail per year.
• About 44% of junk mail is never opened.
• Every person in the US receives the equivalent of one and a half trees per year or
  approximately 560 pieces of junk mail per year.
• The average person gets 1.5 personal letter per week compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail.
• Approximately 40% of the solid waste mass that makes up our landfills is paper and cardboard.
• 100 million trees are ground up each year to produce junk mail.
• Your name is typically worth 3 to 20 cents each time it is sold
• How to Reduce Junk Mail

 

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