Metro's waste reduction educators have gathered and organized short, persuasive facts that can be used in outreach and education work.
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EcoFacts: environmental and economic benefits of recycling
Garbage and recycling › Metro Recycling Information hotline › benefits of recycling
Recycling saves resources and creates more jobs than disposal. Discover how recycling benefits our environment and economy with these fact sheets.
- What are the benefits of recycling?
- Where do recyclables go after they are picked up at the curb?
- What do the numbers mean on plastic bottles?
- What kind of products are made from recycled plastic, glass and paper?
The PDFs below have the answers to these questions and more.
Glass
Glass containers are 100% recyclable and can be made into new containers again and again. Using recycled glass to make new uses 30% less energy.than producing glass from raw materials.Plastic
The U.S. plastics industry has the capacity to process more plastic containers than we currently recycle. Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials.Paper
By recycling paper, residents in the Metro region saved 8.2 million trees from being harvested - which is equivalent to the number of trees in eight Forest Parks. Recycling 437,000 tons of paper reduces air emissions equivalent to that produced by 200,238 cars driving one year.Energy
By recycling materials such as paper or glass bottles, you capture the energy and resources already used to make that product. Because recycled materials have been refined and processed once, manufacturing the second time around is much cleaner and more energy efficient.Economy
In general, recycling creates six times as many jobs as landfilling waste.To view PDF files, download free Adobe Reader. To translate PDF files into text to assist visually-impaired users, visit Access.Adobe.com.