The Environmental Benefits of Recycling¹ in Maine: An Overview for 2003²

© December 2004

Introduction

Most people are aware that recycling reduces reliance on landfills, incinerators and waste-to-energy facilities. But recycling is far more than a local waste management strategy. They are also critical to protecting the global environment. By reducing the need for "virgin" resources extracted from forests, oil reserves and mines, we use less energy, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other air and water pollutants, and conserve natural resources.

Reducing energy use reduces greenhouse gas emissions because almost all of the energy consumed in the United States burns fossil fuels; such as gasoline, diesel, natural gas and coal -- the most significant sources of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. In other countries, particularly in Asia and Europe, nuclear power is a significant source of electricity; producing a different but equally significant set of environmental impacts and concerns.

Saving energy also minimizes the need for energy development and production; which activities are responsible for significant environmental impacts.

In addition, the use of recycled content has been demonstrated to produce less of 28 different air and water pollutants as compared to using virgin feedstock.

And of course, recycling keep materials out of landfills, incinerators and waste-to-energy facilities, where water and air contamination can result from leachate, air emissions, and ash residue.

By contrast, the steps required to supply recycled materials to industry (including collection, processing and transportation) uses less energy than the steps in supplying virgin materials (including extraction, refining, processing, and transportation). The majority of the energy savings associated with the use of recycled content in manufacturing is the result of avoided processing, because recycled materials have already been processed at least once.

Maine 2003

• Maine recycling provided industry with an environmentally preferable source of materials.

Maine municipal and commercial recycling programs supplied 717,583 tons of scrap commodities such as paper, glass, metals, plastics, and construction & demolition (C&D) materials for use in the making of new products.

• Greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by Maine recycling.

Maine recycling reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 501,930 metric tons of carbon equivalents³ per year, which is equivalent to approximately 55% of all industrial carbon equivalent emissions from fossil fuel combustion in Maine and 11% of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆).

• Maine recycling saved energy.

Maine's recycling efforts saved a total of 20.7 trillion BTUs of energy, equal to nearly 7.2% of all energy used by industry in Maine. This is equivalent to 167,031,906 gallons of gasoline. It represents the amount of energy that would be required to power 202,385 homes for one year in Maine.

• Maine recycling reduced air and water pollution.

The recycling of paper, plastic, glass, aluminum cans, and steel cans in Maine resulted in reductions of 1,599 metric tons of water pollutants and 20,065 metric tons of air pollutants (not including the greenhouse gas reductions already discussed). Recycling reduced emissions of sulfur oxides (SO_x), an important ingredient in acid rain formation, by 1,281 metric tons; an amount equal to more than 12.8% of all such emissions from electrical utilities in the state.

• Maine's recycling conserved natural resources.

By recycling nearly 161,219 tons of scrap metal in 2003, Maine's recycling efforts reduced the need for virgin materials by twice that amount, including 201,524 tons of iron ore, 112,853 tons of coal and 9,673 tons of limestone. By recycling 277,000 tons of mixed paper, newsprint, and phone books in 2003, Maine reduced the need to cut 3,324,000 trees. On average, a live tree removes 60 pounds per year of air pollution from the environment.

All data reported in this Fact Sheet was calculated from the NERC Environmental Benefits Calculator, 2004.  For more detail about the specific environmental benefits attributable to source reduction, reuse, and recycling in New Hampshire and for NERC’s free downloadable Calculator, see www.nerc.org.

¹Recycling is defined as when a material is used in place of virgin inputs in the manufacturing process, rather than being disposed of and managed as waste. When a user indicates that they are "recycling" they are referring to the act of setting the material aside for use in the manufacturing process. So, when users indicate that they are "recycling" materials like yard trimmings, food scraps, mixed organics, etc, U.S. EPA calculates the benefit of composting.
² The most recent data available.
³ Metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE) are a unit of measurement that expresses the heat-trapping effects of various greenhouse gas emissions in carbon equivalent. Another unit sometimes used is metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO₂). Source: U.S. EPA (2004) User's Guide for WARM: Calculating Greenhouse Gas Emissions with the WAste Reduction Model. Available at:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/
ActionsWasteWARMUsersGuide.html.