Solid Waste & Recycling
We can accomplish a lot when we recycle. Recycling reduces landfill gas generated by decaying matter such as newsprint and cuts down the industrial energy needed to manufacture new products. Recycling aluminum cans, for example, cuts the energy needed to make new cans by 95%. A four–person household that recycles all its newsprint, aluminum, steel, plastic, and glass could cut its greenhouse-gas emissions from solid waste by 41%, to 2,384 pounds from 4,072 pounds, according to the EPA calculator. For comparison, that means saving nearly 10% of an average household’s carbon-dioxide emissions each year, excluding transportation.