How does recycling affect climate change? 
The act of recycling materials from our waste streams simply creates fewer greenhouse gas emissions when compared to using virgin materials to make products and then disposing of the discards into a landfill or waste combustor. EPA estimates that current US recycling of municipal solid waste avoid the emissions equivalent to 180 million tons of carbon dioxide, or about 2.5% of our total US emissions.
Where do those reductions come from?
From up and down the life cycle of the products we use in our daily lives. Extracting raw materials from the ground creates greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing products by using recycled materials instead of virgin materials saves energy, which means lower greenhouse gas emissions. And materials that end up in recycling means avoiding GHG emissions from that material if disposed in landfills or waste combustors.
Are those reductions in greenhouse gases significant?
Materials from all those household recycling bins add up in a hurry. Today, for example, recycling in the US saves the energy required to fuel 11 million cars. Greenhouse gas savings are equivalent to the emissions from half the landfills in the U.S. And that’s with a national recycling rate of only 32%. Moving that recycling rate higher means a big jump in energy and greenhouse gas savings. Those benefits are on top of the many other environmental benefits of recycling, to include conservation of our precious natural resources. For example, recycling a plastic bottle means lowering the demand for the petroleum needed to make that bottle.
But doesn’t recycling cost a lot? Is it worth it?
Actually, the global demand for commodities, including many that are part of community recycling programs, has increased prices for recycled materials to the point where many recycling programs are or can be self-sufficient while continuing to save communities the ever-rising cost of disposal.
So everybody should just recycle more, right?
Absolutely, but the challenge is how do we make sure the infrastructure is in place to economically capture more recycled materials, and how do we get the general public re-energized about the value of recycling. That requires capital investment. NRC believes that the national and international attention to global warming provides a unique opportunity to upgrade and modernize our infrastructure while re-engaging the public.
And how does that happen?
Incentives and education! NRC wants federal and state legislation on climate change to include real financial incentives for communities and industries to generate and use more recycled materials. We believe that Americans will resonate to the notion that the simple act of placing that can, bottle, or newspaper in the recycling bin truly is contributing to the solution to climate change.