10 Facts And Stats About Waste And Recycling Industry

by admin · Published August 18, 2019 · Updated April 1, 2021

Our world’s population is constantly growing, life expectancy is also rising and people nowadays usually have much more stuff than they used to have in previous decades. That consequently drives a huge growth of the manufacturing industry.

All that is very good as long as we take care of how we handle the waste.

“recycling near me” searches on Google

This graph shows how interest for **“recycling near me”** is constantly rising since 2004. The source for this data is Google Trends

Here are some of the most interesting facts and statistics about waste and recycling industry that may make you rethink how you dispose your garbage.

If we change our habits a little bit and if we become aware of some ways we can re-purpose and reuse our old stuff, we will definitely contribute a lot to preservation of natural resources.

#10 Average person generates over 1,500 kg (3,307 lbs) of waste per year, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

#9 The same agency estimates that US citizens recycle only 30% of their trash, although they could recycle 75% of it

#8 It takes only 30 days for glass to be recycled and returned to a store shelf as a new product if it is recycled. However, if we throw glass on a landfill it will never decompose.

#7 Americans use approximately 60 million plastic bottles per day. It takes over 450 years on average for a plastic bottle to completely degrade in nature.

#6 Almost all our textiles and clothing can be 100% recycled. That is why many clothing companies offer us to give them our old clothes in order to get a discount on new collection.

#5 New cars are produced with recycling in mind, so in 2019 about 80% of discarded cars can be recycled. That makes cars the most recycled product on the planet.

#4 Recycling on festivals: Only two plastic bottles need to be recycled in order to save enough energy to power a DJ’s mixing console for more than one hour!

Thanks to companies like Eco-Dumpster who rent dumpsters it is possible to recycle anywhere, anytime, even on festivals and events that are organized on places where there are no Eco-friendly trash cans.

#3 Although there are still many people in this world who don’t have enough food, over 21.5 million tons of food waste is generated each year. If you come up with an idea on how to decrease food waste, you may earn huge amounts of money while saving many people from hunger.

#2 Over 250 million trees could be saved per year only if we recycled all newspapers. By reading online we also save trees and money, but there are many people who just can’t resist the smell of newspapers and coffee in the morning.

#1 US recycling industry is worth over $100 billion per year according to International Business Times (source)