The recycling industry has made a vital contribution to job creation and economic development in the United States. For every 10,000 tons of waste that is recycled, 36 new jobs are created.
Recycling helps prevent global climate changes by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Manufacturing paper, plastics, glass and metal from recycled materials requires less energy than manufacturing these products from original materials because the recycled materials have already been processed.
Recycling keeps materials out of landfills. This is important because materials in landfills can decompose and release methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that is thirty times more dangerous to the environment than carbon dioxide.
Waste combustion from incinerators can release greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Recycling can reduce these emissions by keeping materials out of incinerators.
Trees help combat the global climate changes by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it in wood in a process called carbon sequestration. Continued efforts to recycle paper would allow more trees to continue to absorb carbon dioxide. Recycling one ton of office paper saves 24 trees.