Recycling is one of the easiest and most forceful ways to decrease your individual impact on the environment. In 2006, 82 million tons of municipal solid waste (or MSW—the technical term for trash) was recycled, saving the energy equivalent of more than 10 billion gallons of gasoline. The largest portion of municipal solid waste is made up of paper products. These products include every day things like food packaging, newspapers, tissues, cardboard boxes and paper plates. While the amount of paper waste, and waste in general, generated in the U.S. increases every year, Americans have started taking responsibility for the waste they produce by reusing and recycling in great numbers. In 2006, 50% of paper waste in the U.S. was recycled. This number shows an improvement over the year before and recycling rates all over the country continue to go up. Local communities also have many resources for recycling paper and other products, such as curbside pickup programs.
Find out exactly what you can and cannot recycle in your community. Also, think about ways you can reuse your paper, like saving it for scratch or printing unimportant documents. Every effort counts.
Take Action / Next Steps
Ready to start recycling paper products? Sign up for the goal on ecomii Action and track your progress.
Did you know that every ton of mixed paper recycled can save the energy equivalent of 185 gallons of gas?
Did you know that in 2006, paper waste accounted for 34% of the total municipal solid waste production in the U.S.?
That weighed in at 85.3 million tons of paper and paperboard waste.
Did you know that 88% of newspapers in 2006 were recycled?
You can help that number reach 100%.
SOURCES :
1. US EPA. [2007] Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2006. Available from: http://www.epa.gov/garbage/pubs/msw06.pdf . [18 July 2008]
