How Recycling Protects Our Health

Recycling is more than just sorting materials into different bins—it’s a simple way to support healthier communities and a cleaner environment for everyone.

When we recycle, we help reduce pollution in our air, water, and soil while keeping harmful materials out of our neighborhoods. Many states are making this easier through Extended Producer Responsibility programs for packaging and paper, which create comprehensive recycling systems that serve communities of all sizes.

So how does recycling contribute to cleaner, safer, and healthier places to live? Let’s explore the connections.

Recycling Helps Improve Air Quality

Creating new products from raw materials like oil, metal, or trees requires significant amounts of energy. This energy typically comes from burning fossil fuels, which contributes to air pollution.

Recycling uses considerably less energy than manufacturing products from scratch. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that recycling just one ton of paper saves the energy equivalent of 323 gallons of gasoline—that’s enough to power the average American home for nearly a year!

When we use less energy, we burn fewer fossil fuels, which means cleaner air for our communities. Better air quality supports respiratory health and may help reduce risks associated with asthma, heart disease, and other health concerns.

Recycling Supports Water Protection

Materials that aren’t recycled often end up in landfills or are incinerated, which can release compounds that may settle on water sources or soil.

Recycling helps keep materials like batteries, certain plastics, and chemical containers out of the general waste stream. This supports the protection of rivers, lakes, oceans, and drinking water sources that we all depend on.

Recycling Helps Manage Potentially Harmful Materials

Some everyday items—like electronics, paint, and certain plastics—contain materials that need special handling. When these items are disposed of improperly, they may release heavy metals like lead or mercury, or create other environmental concerns including microplastics.

Proper recycling programs help collect and safely process these materials. This approach benefits community health while protecting the natural environment for plants, animals, and future generations.

Recycling Reduces Plastic Pollution

Plastic is everywhere. Each year, millions of tons of plastic blow out of landfills, get dumped in rivers or break into tiny pieces called microplastics. Microplastics have been found in drinking water, seafood, rain that falls on some of the country’s most precious landscapes, and even human blood and lungs (yes, really!).

Recycling plastic helps keep it out of nature and in the system, where it can be turned into new bottles, a cozy fleece or a colorful carpet for your living room.

Recycling Helps Keep Neighborhoods Clean and Safe

Plastic items and other materials that aren’t properly recycled can easily become litter in our communities. Wind carries lightweight containers from trash areas, and improperly disposed items can scatter in parks, along roadsides and in waterways.

This litter can attract pests, create unsanitary conditions in public spaces and pose risks to children and pets. When waste reaches local waterways, it affects recreational areas where families swim and play. Accumulated litter can also cause drainage problems during storms.

Effective recycling programs help reduce the amount of waste that might otherwise end up as litter in public spaces. Instead of cluttering our communities, recycled materials get transformed into new bottles, clothing, and other useful products, creating cleaner, more pleasant environments for everyone to enjoy.

What You Can Do

Getting started with recycling is easier than you might think. Check your local recycling guidelines to learn what materials are accepted in your area. Simple practices like rinsing containers, removing food waste and sorting materials properly help ensure recyclables can be processed effectively.

Consider sharing information about recycling with friends and neighbors—when more people participate, the benefits multiply throughout the community.

Recycling is one way we can all contribute to healthier communities, both today and for the future. To learn more about how states are expanding recycling access through producer responsibility programs, visit RecycleOn.org.