Recycling 101
Saving Resources,
Reducing Pollution,
and Creating Jobs
Recycling works! When we recycle, we save natural resources like trees, water, and energy because we can use old materials to make new things.
Plus, recycling creates jobs for people who collect, sort, and turn recycled items into something new. When we all do our part to recycle, we help take care of the Earth for ourselves and future generations.
According to the EPA, recycling just 10 plastic bottles saves enough energy to power a laptop for more than 25 hours. In one year, recycling supports 681,000 jobs, $37.8 billion in wages, and $5.5 billion in tax revenue.
Recycling you Can Trust
Turning Yesterday’s Waste
Into Tomorrow’s Products
In many communities, recyclable materials such as paper, cardboard, metal, and plastic are all placed in one recycling bin. This makes it easier for everyone to recycle, resulting in more materials being collected for recycling.
However, it also requires the recyclables to be sorted so that paper can be sent to paper mills, metal to metal recycling facilities, and so on.
Sorting takes place in large facilities known as Material Recovery Facilities or MRFs, where machines and workers identify and remove non-recyclable items and sort the remaining materials by type. Once sorted, the recyclables go to companies that turn them into raw materials to make new products.