The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has issued a 2016 Recycling Economic Information Report (“2016 Report”).
EPA states that the objective of the Report is to increase the understanding of the economic implications of material reuse and recycling.
The 2016 Report is one of a series. The first Report was issued in 2001. The agency utilizes the Reports to encourage the development of an economic market for recycling.
The 2016 Report includes updated information about the number of recycling jobs, wages, and tax revenue. EPA concludes that recycling and reuse of materials creates jobs, while also generating local and tax revenues.
The 2016 Report utilizes an updated analytical framework that EPA characterizes as a new Waste Input-Output methodology. This methodology focuses on the life cycle of materials. Such refinements are stated to offer significant improvements over the Report prepared in 2001 in terms of a better definition of recycling and a reduction in double counting.
The 2016 Report utilized a base year of 2007. Recycling and reuse activities utilized in this base year are stated to have accounted for:
- 757,000 jobs
- $36.6 billion in wages
- $6.7 billion in tax revenues
These figures are stated to equate to 1.57 jobs for every 1,000 tons of materials recycled.
Construction and demolition waste provided the largest contribution to all three categories (job, wage and tax revenue), followed by ferrous metals, and non-ferrous metals such as aluminum.
The data sources for the Report included the following organizations:
Material
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Organization
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Ferrous Metals
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- Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc.
- Steel Recycling Institute
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Nonferrous Metals
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Plastic
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- American Chemistry Council
- The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers Society of the Plastics Industry
- KW Plastics
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Rubber
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- Rubber Manufacturers Association
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Glass
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- Glass Packaging Institute
- Container Recycling Institute
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Paper
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- American Forest and Paper Association
- American Wood Council
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
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Construction & Demolition
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- Construction & Demolition Recycling
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Electronics
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- EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery
- Electronics TakeBack Coalition
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Organics
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A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.
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