America Recycles Day

The recycling industry in the US last year transformed more than 130 million metric tons of scrap metal, paper, plastic, glass, textiles, rubber and electronics into commodities for use in new products, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a recycling industry trade group. Recycling conserves limited natural resources and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by saving the amount of energy needed to manufacture every-day products. It also contributes to the nation’s economy.

On America Recycles Day, we’re taking a look back over the last 40 years since the passage of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and how we’ve worked to protect the health of our country’s communities through resource conservation. Here at EPA, recycling is a key element of Sustainable Materials Management (SMM), a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles.