Why Recycle?

The new year offers a new chance to build good habits. An important habit for us to build is recycling. Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash. Recycling turns these items into new products and can benefit your community and the environment. Join the Edgewater Sustainability Board in its recycling efforts today! 

Benefits of Recycling:

• Reduces waste sent to landfills and incinerators.

• Conserves natural resources such as timber, water and minerals.

• Increases economic security by tapping a domestic source of materials.

• Prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect new raw materials.

• Saves energy.

• Supports American manufacturing and creates U.S. jobs. 

Some of the common products made with recycled content are aluminum cans, carpeting, cereal boxes, egg cartons, glass containers, laundry detergent bottles, motor oil, newspapers, paper towels, steel products and trash bags.

Recycling Creates Jobs:

The following are EPA findings on the economic benefits of the recycling industry. In a single year, recycling and reuse activities in the U.S. accounted for:

• 681,000 jobs

• $37.8 billion in wages

• $5.5 billion in tax revenues

This equates to 1.17 jobs per 1,000 tons of materials recycled and $65.23 in wages and $9.42 in tax revenue for every ton of materials recycled.

Green Jobs and Resilient Local Economies:

• Recycling and composting produce substantial economic benefits for Colorado.

• Recycling, reusing, and remanufacturing create more than 86,000 jobs and generate over $8.7 billion in economic benefits in Colorado annually.

• Recycling creates nine times more jobs than landfills per ton of material.

• Increased recycling also means more money returned to our economy. Every year, $100 million in commodity value of recyclable materials go to Colorado landfills. These materials are valuable assets that could be sold for profit instead of buried in the ground.

• Expanding recycling access would dramatically increase the amount of quality of recycled materials available to local businesses, creating a more reliable, sustainable local supply chain.

As you can see, there are great reasons to begin or expand your recycling habits in 2022! Already recycling like a champ? Join our composting program to make an even bigger impact. Edgewater is happy to work with our recycling and composting partners Republic Services and Scraps.

For more information on recycling in Edgewater, contact Jeannette Jpapp@EdgewaterCO.com. To get more involved in creating sustainable communities and programs, check out Edgewater’s Sustainability Board website: www.EdgewaterCO.com/Sustainability 

Sources: EPA, https://epa.gov/smm/recycling-economic-information-rei-report and Eco-Cycle.

Jeanette Papp is a member of the Edgewater Sustainability Board.

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