The U.S. EPA shared up to date recycling infrastructure knowledge earlier this month throughout the waning days of the Biden administration. This included a report with monetary estimates for modernizing materials restoration infrastructure, in addition to insights from states in a recycling wants survey and evaluation.
The 2 studies stem from an appropriations invoice, handed in late 2019, that known as on the EPA to develop estimates for what it might take “to offer all residents with entry to recycling companies on par with entry to disposal.”
These have been a few of the key packaging-related knowledge factors in EPA’s publications:
96 million tons
The quantity of packaging materials waste generated in the USA per 12 months.
39%
The estimated recycling fee for packaging supplies. EPA initiatives that increasing recycling entry and infrastructure may end in recycling an extra 38 million to 45 million tons of packaging materials.
EPA additionally shared recycling knowledge by packaging or materials kind, primarily based on making use of estimates from Ball’s 2021 “50 States of Recycling” report back to 2019 state-level inhabitants knowledge.
| Packaging materials | Era (tons) | Recycling (tons) | Doubtlessly recyclable materials (tons) | Recycling fee |
| PET bottles | 3.3 million | 764,000 | 2.5 million | 23% |
| PET rigids | 766,000 | 45,000 | 721,000 | 6% |
| HDPE bottles | 2.2 million | 499,000 | 1.7 million | 23% |
| Aluminum | 1.5 million | 553,000 | 950,000 | 37% |
| Metal | 1.8 million | 562,000 | 1.2 million | 31% |
| Cardboard | 34.2 million | 18.3 million | 15.9 million | 54% |
| Paper | 42.3 million | 12.5 million | 29.8 million | 30% |
| Glass | 9.9 million | 4.1 million | 5.8 million | 41% |
$22 billion to $28 billion
The funding into assortment, drop-off and processing infrastructure that EPA initiatives could be wanted to recycle the 38 million to 45 million tons of at the moment probably recyclable packaging materials, together with glass bottles, metallic cans, paper and cardboard, and plastics Nos. 1 and a couple of.
45-47%
The nationwide recycling fee that the U.S. may probably obtain with the above funding. The EPA has a nationwide purpose to succeed in 50%.
5,863
Whole variety of services within the U.S. that get better packaging materials waste. Amongst this listing are 421 MRFs that course of a number of sorts of packaging materials, 83 glass recycling and beneficiation services, 5,099 services that course of both aluminum or metal, 57 that recycle paper and 203 that recycle plastics.
~40%
The portion of households that lack entry to recycling companies for packaging supplies which are equal in high quality to trash disposal companies.
$3 billion
The fee to implement a glass separation program for city single-family and multifamily households throughout the U.S., EPA estimates. EPA famous that rural areas are inclined to have already got glass separation applications at drop-off websites.
80%
The portion of U.S. states and territories that should not have deposit applications. Of people who do have such applications, two-thirds collect knowledge on the quantity of residential packaging supplies collected via the applications.
12%
The portion of states and territories that accumulate knowledge on the kind of single-use plastics “at the moment in commerce.”