Product and packaging waste is increasing at a larger rate than Americans can reduce at home and in the office. Some key points from the report are listed below.
Recycling makes environmental as well as economic sense.
Reduction of greenhouse gases. Reaching a recycling rate of 35 percent and reducing waste to 1990 levels would be the equivalent of removing nearly 7 million cars off the road. Reducing virgin resource reliance. This eliminates pollution from extracting resources, processing and manufacturing. The recovery of more than 45 billion aluminum cans wasted in 1998 in the United States alone would be enough energy to supply the city of Atlanta with electricity for two years.