Recycling

Recycling, including composting, diverted 72 million tons of material away from disposal in 2003 (up from 15 million tons in 1980, when the recycle rate was just 10 %), and 90 % of MSW was being recycled. Typical materials that are recycled include batteries, recycled at a rate of 93%, paper and paperboard at 48%, and yard trimmings at 56%. These materials and others may be recycled through curbside programs, drop-off centers, buy-back programs, and deposit systems.

Recycling also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions that affect global climate. In 1996, recycling of solid waste in the United States prevented the release of 33 million tons of carbon into the air-roughly the amount emitted annually by 25 million cars.

Combustion/Incineration

Burning MSW can generate energy while reducing the amount of waste by up to 90 percent in volume and 75 percent in weight. EPA‘‘s Office of Air and Radiation is primarily responsible for regulating combustors because air emissions from combustion pose the greatest environmental concern. In 2001, in the United States, there were 97 combustors with energy recovery with the capacity to burn up to 95,000 tons of MSW per day.

Landfills

Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), landfills that accept MSW are primarily regulated by state, tribal, and local governments. EPA, however, has established national standards these landfills must meet in order to stay open. Municipal landfills can, however, accept household hazardous waste. The number of landfills in the United States is steadily decreasing-from 8,000 in 1988 to 1,767 in 2002. The capacity, however, has remained relatively constant. New landfills are much larger than in the past.

Household Hazardous Waste

Households often discard many common items such as paint, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides, that contain hazardous components. Leftover portions of these products are called household hazardous waste (HHW). These products, if mishandled, can be dangerous to your health and the environment.

The US EPA fact sheet is the latest publication in a series of publications describing the national waste stream based on data collected from 1960 through 2003. The historical perspective provided by the data is useful for establishing trends in types of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated and in the ways that MSW is managed. This year only the fact sheet summary is published. Additional data tables are provided separately. This report, as well as other publications in the series, includes information on:


MSW generation, recovery, and disposal from 1960 to 2003
Per capita generation and discard rates
Source reduction (waste prevention)
Materials (e.g., paper, glass, metals, plastic) that comprise MSW, as well as products (e.g., durable and nondurable goods, containers, packaging) found in the waste stream
Aggregate data on the infrastructure for MSW management, including estimates of the number of curbside recycling programs, composting programs, and landfills in the U.S.; and 6. Trends in MSW management from 1960 to 2003, including source reduction, recovery for recycling (including composting), and disposal via combustion and landfilling