Fast Facts

1.8 Annual economic impact, in billions of dollars, of the recycling industry.

8,174 Jobs created by the recycling industry in Kentucky

447.7 Annual wages, in millions of dollars, paid by the recycling industry.

23% The United States provides 23% of the world supply of recovered copper.

1.4% Copper represents about 1.4% of materials recycled in the United States.

5thOf the nine major categories of scrap materials recycled in the U.S., copper ranks fifth behind iron and steel, paper, aluminum, and electronics.

130130 million metric tons of scrap materials are processed annually in the United States.

AIAt one time, aluminum was more valuable than gold!

75%Over 75% of waste is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.

25mAmericans throw away 25,000,000 plastic bottles every hour.

x24In 2009, Americans produced enough trash to circle the Earth 24 times.

26kThe United States annually recycles enough copper to provide the copper content of more than 26,000 Statues of Liberty.

Scrap Recycling Provides Jobs and Resources for American Manufacturing

Source: The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) . As a critical link in the manufacturing supply chain, scrap recycling has been integral to the U.S. economy, job creation, resource sustainability, energy savings and global trade for more than 200 years.

Jobs

Scrap recycling has evolved as the major industry dedicated to transforming materials to create new products and driving economies. Today, the U.S. scrap recycling industry employs more than 137,000 people.

Environmental

The scrap recycling industry annually transforms more than 130 million metric tons of obsolete materials from consumers, businesses and manufacturers into useful raw materials. Without scrap recycling, more mining and use of virgin natural resources would be required. Recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions by significantly saving the amount of energy needed to manufacture the products that we buy, build and use. The energy saved by recycling can then be used for other purposes like heating our homes and powering our automobiles.

Ferrous Scrap Recycling

Steel is the most recycled material both in the United States and worldwide. In the United States alone, 74 million metric tons of ferrous scrap was processed by the scrap recycling industry last year, more than 55% of the volume of all domestically processed material. Obsolete ferrous scrap is recovered from automobiles, steel structures, household appliances, railroad tracks, ships, farm equipment and other sources. In addition, scrap generated from industrial and manufacturing sources accounts for approximately half of the ferrous scrap supply.

Nonferrous Scrap Recycling

Nonferrous metals, including aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, tin, zinc and others, are among the few materials that do not degrade or lose their chemical or physical properties in the recycling process. As a result, nonferrous metals have the capacity to be recycled an infinite number of times.

More than eight million metric tons of nonferrous scrap was processed in the United States last year from a wide array of consumer, commercial and industrial sources: everything from copper and precious metal circuitry in electronic devices, to soft-drink containers, automobile batteries and radiators, aluminum siding, airplane parts and more.

Interesting Facts

• If all aluminum scrap processed in the United States were used solely to produce standard soda cans, the lined up cans would stretch more than 25 million miles — the distance from Earth to the planet Venus!
• The United States annually processes more than 250 billion pounds of scrap material — the weight of more than 70 million cars.
• The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash every day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year.
• We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If we composted that food, it would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas as taking 2 million cars off the road.
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to listen to a full album on your iPod. Recycling 100 cans could light your bedroom for two whole weeks.
• Recycling aluminum cans saves 95% of the energy used to make aluminum cans from new material.
• Over 87% of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs.
• In 2009, Americans threw away almost 9 million tons of glass. That could fill enough tractor-trailers to stretch from NYC to LA (and back!).
• In 2010, paper recycling had increased over 89% since 1990.
• If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees each year.
• A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days.
• Used aluminum beverage cans are the most recycled item in the U.S., but other types of aluminum, such as siding, gutters, car components, storm window frames, and lawn furniture can also be recycled.
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours -- or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
• More aluminum goes into beverage cans than any other product.
• Because so many of them are recycled, aluminum cans account for less than 1% of the total U.S. waste stream, according to EPA estimates.
• An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now!
• There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminum can be recycled.
• A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel. In one year in the United States, the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18,000,000 homes!