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KNOW YOUR TRASH FACTS

About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 34%. (Environmental Protection Agency)

More than ½ million trees are saved each year by recycling paper in Boulder County. (Eco-Cycle)

By recycling more than 57,000 tons of steel cans, we reduce greenhouse gasses equivalent to taking more than 21,000 cars off the road each year. (WM)

Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, and air pollution by 20%. (Environmental Defense Fund)

If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees—or about 26 million trees per year. (California Department of Conservation)

The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used by 18 million homes each year—or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for eight years. (Steel Recycling Institute)

The total volume of solid waste produced in the U.S. each year is equal to the weight of more than 5,600 Nimitz Class air craft carriers, 247,000 space shuttles, or 2.3 million Boeing 747 jumbo jets. (Beck)

An average kitchen-size bag of trash contains enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for 24 hours. (Covanta)

The solid waste industry currently produces more than half of America's renewable energy, more than combined energy outputs of the solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and wind power industries. (U.S. DOE, Energy Information Administration)

Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollution. (Trash to Cash)

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours. (Environmental Protection Agency)

Glass can be recycled an indefinite number of times and never wears out. (National Recycling Coalition)

Making glass from recycled material cuts related air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%. (National Recycling Coalition)

If we put all of the solid waste collected in the U.S. in a line of average garbage trucks, that line of trucks could cross the country, extending from New York City to Los Angeles, more than 100 times. (Beck)

Five PET bottles (plastic soda bottles) yield enough fiber for one extra large T-shirt, one square food of carpet or enough fiber fill to fill one ski jacket. (National Recycling Coalition)

The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime. (National Recycling Coalition)

Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12-foot-high wall of paper from New York to Seattle. (National Recycling Coalition)

The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. (National Recycling Coalition)

Once an aluminum can is recycled, it's back on the grocery shelf as another aluminum can in 60 days. (www.aluminum.org)

Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet. (www.aluminum.org)

Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can's volume of gasoline. (www.aluminum.org)

Enough aluminum cans were recycled last year to fill a hollow Empire State Building 24 times. (www.aluminum.org)

The 62.6 billion cans recycled last year alone would make 171 circles around the earth at its equator. (www.aluminum.org)

Nearly 120,000 cans are recycled every minute nationwide. (www.aluminum.org)

Over the past 10 years, the number of aluminum cans recycled has doubled. (www.aluminum.org)

More than one million tons of aluminum containers and packaging are thrown away each year. (www.aluminum.org)

Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves the equivalent in energy of 2,350 gallons of gasoline. This is equivalent to the amount of electricity used by the average home over a period of 10 years. (www.aluminum.org)

By using recycled aluminum instead of virgin ore, aluminum manufactures save enough energy needed to supply electricity to a city the size of Pittsburgh for about six years. (www.aluminum.org)

In 2010, the amount of paper recovered for recycling averaged 334 pounds for each man, woman, and child in the United States. (www.paperrecycles.org)

Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. (http://earth911.org)

Recycling a four-foot stack of newspapers saves the equivalent of one 40-foot fir tree, that tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year. (www.ohiobaler.com)

More than 37 percent of the fiber used to make new paper products in the United States comes from recycled sources. (http://earth911.org)

86 percent (approximately 254 million) of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs. (http://earth911.org)

Every month, we throw out enough recyclable glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. (www.recycling-revolution.com)

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials. (www.recycling-revolution.com)

Every year, Americans throw away enough office and writing paper to build a wall 12 feet high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

Recycling 1 ton of paper uses 7,000 fewer gallons of water, saves 35% of the water pollution and 70% of the air pollution produced in making new paper, uses 4100 KWH less energy, and saves 390 gallons of oil. (www.ohiobaler.com)

If all the glass bottles and jars collected through recycling in the U.S. in one year were laid end-to-end, they would reach the Moon and half way back to the Earth. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

The volume of glass recycled by Americans in one year would fill New Jersey's Giants Stadium more than three times. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

Used plastic soda and juice bottles are used to make carpets, insulating materials in clothes and sleeping bags, strapping, scouring, pads, auto parts, paint brushes, bottles, and other things such as tennis balls! (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

We can recycle plastic milk, water and detergent bottles to make new detergent and engine oil bottles, trash cans, flower pots, recycling bins, drainage pipes, park benches, playground equipment, traffic barrier cones, kitchen drain boards and combs! (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

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Size of the U.S. Solid Waste Industry

Study published by the Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF) , performed by R.W. Beck, Orlando, FL and Chartwell Information Publishers, San Diego, CA, April 2001. (EREF, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is dedicated to developing environmental solutions for the future.)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The solid waste management industry provides a vital public service that ensures the health and safety of citizens across the United States. To date, the availability of independent, authoritative, comprehensive, and statistically defensible U.S. solid waste industry data has been limited, due in part to the significant number of public and private sector players in the solid waste industry and the wide range of services they provide.

Recognizing the need for such comprehensive industry information, the Environmental Research and Education Foundation1 ("Foundation") retained R. W Beck, Inc. and Chartwell Information Publishers ("Chartwell") to conduct an independent survey to measure the U.S. solid waste industry, in terms of total revenue, employment, quantities of solid waste managed, and other meaningful industry statistics ("National Survey").

This comprehensive study targeted publicly traded, privately held, and public sector organizations in the industry. Specifically, the study sought to capture data on solid waste and recyclables collection and hauling operations, as well as operation of the following solid waste industry facility types: municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, construction and demolition (C&D) landfills, transfer stations, waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities, material recovery facilities (MRF), compost facilities, and other solid waste management facilities.

The study sought to measure the industry based on generally accepted financial and operating data, such as revenues, employment, and waste disposal and collection quantities (as well as others). Many of the results in this report were derived from primary source data provided by companies and organizations in the industry. However, due to the size and variety of the industry, some of the results shown in the report were derived from statistical sampling and extrapolation methods. Note that all data collection was performed from late 1999 through early 2000, and study results reflect annual estimates for calendar year 1999.

The following bullet points summarize the major findings of the study. (Results shown in the Executive Summary represent mean estimates only. Data collection methods used to develop these mean results, as well as upper and lower confidence intervals, are described in the body of the report.)

      • Number of Organizations: An estimated 27,000 organizations (private sector companies and public sector governmental and quasi-governmental organizations) were operating in the industry. More than 55 percent of these entities were in the public sector. Of the remainder, 45 percent were privately held, while only 0.1 percent were publicly traded. Solid waste organizations were further segmented as follows:
        • Hauling Operations: Approximately 15,500 solid waste industry organizations (57 percent) solely conducted hauling operations and did not own a solid waste facility.
        • Solid Waste Facilities: Approximately 11,500 organizations owned an estimated 15,700 facilities that dispose, recycle, incinerate, or otherwise process solid waste in the United States. About 53 percent of these facilities were owned by the private sector. The vast majority of these facilities handled very small quantities of solid waste or recyclable material, and have likely been undercounted in prior studies estimating the size of the solid waste industry.
      • Revenues: The solid waste industry generated an estimated total revenue, net of intra-industry payments, of $43.3 billion. Approximately 76 percent of this amount was generated by the private sector. Excluding the segment of the industry that is primarily engaged in the operation of scrap metal yards and recycling operations, total industry revenue was equal to $39.8 billion.
      • Relative Size of the Industry: The solid waste industry directly accounted for roughly one-half of one percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). However, the industry's industrial output and employment were larger than the individual economics of several states, including North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
      • Economic Impacts: The solid waste industry contributed over $96 billion, 948,000 jobs, and just over one percent of U.S. GDP to the nation's economy. This included all direct, indirect and induced effects resulting from solid waste industry activities. For every dollar of revenues generated by the industry, a total of $1.23 in additional revenues were generated in the economy through the multiplier effect. Similarly, for every job in the solid waste industry, the multiplier effect created an additional 1.58 jobs outside the industry.
      • Tax Impacts: The solid waste industry contributed a total of $14.1 billion in direct, indirect, and induced taxes to federal, state, and local governments.
      • Employment and Compensation: The solid waste industry employed approximately 367,800 people. Total industry compensation, including benefits, was estimated at $10.0 billion. Based on these figures, employees in the solid waste industry were paid an average of $27,200 per year, including benefits.
      • Waste Quantities: An estimated 544 million tons of solid waste were processed in the U.S. Approximately 370 million (68 percent) tons were landfilled, 29 million tons (5 percent) were incinerated, and 146 million tons (27 percent) were recycled.
      • Equipment: The solid waste industry used approximately 206,000 pieces of motorized equipment in the U.S. This included approximately 148,000 vehicles dedicated to the collection and transfer of solid waste. The remainder of the vehicles included other mobile equipment, stationary and mobile compaction equipment, and other processing equipment.

To summarize, Table ES-1 presents selected data for each of the business sectors targeted in the study, as well as for the industry as a whole.

Table ES-1: U.S. Solid Waste Industry Summary Data, Real Values

Business Sector

Revenues (billions)

Employees

Facilities Owned

Equipment Owned

Tons Managed (millions)

Publicly Traded Companies

$20.6 119,500 1,840 66,100 218,700

Privately Held Companies

$12.4 151,700 6,430 101,400 158,200

Public Sector

$10.3 96,600 7,470 38,800 167,800

Total

 $43.3 367,800 15,740 206,300 544,700

 

Table ES-2 shows the percentage breakdown across business sectors, for the same data as summarized in Table ES-1.

Table ES-1: U.S. Solid Waste Industry Summary Data, Percentage Comparison

Business Sector

Revenues

Employees

Facilities Owned

Equipment Owned

Tons Managed

Publicly Traded Companies

47.6 32.5 11.7 32.0 40.2

Privately Held Companies

28.6 41.2 40.9 49.2 29.0

Public Sector

23.8 26.3 47.5 18.8 30.8

Total

 100 100 100 100 100

 

Complete details of the study methodology and statistical analysis are shown in the body and appendices of this report.

Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF)
120 S. Fayette Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
703.299.5139 Fax: 703.299.5145