NERC | Northeast Recycling Council
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Environmental Benefits Fact Sheet on Recycling1 in New Hampshire: An Overview for 20032© December 2004 IntroductionMost 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. It is 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 decreases 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 minimizes the need for energy development and production, which are responsible for significant environmental impacts. In addition, the use of recycled content has been demonstrated to reduce the production of 28 different air and water pollutants as compared to using virgin feedstock. And, of course, recycling keeps 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) use 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. New Hampshire 2003
New Hampshire municipal and commercial recycling programs supplied 331,458 tons of scrap commodities such as paper, glass, metals, plastics, and computers materials for use in the making of new products.
New Hampshire recycling reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 60,314 metric tons of carbon equivalents3 per year, which is equivalent to approximately 19% of all industrial carbon equivalent emissions from fossil fuel combustion in New Hampshire and 2% of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
New Hampshire's recycling efforts saved a total of 1.7 trillion BTUs of energy, equal to nearly 2% of all energy used by industry in New Hampshire. This is equivalent to 14,301,634 gallons of gasoline. It represents the amount of energy that would be required to power 17,329 homes for one year in New Hampshire.
The recycling of paper, plastic, glass, aluminum cans, and steel cans in New Hampshire resulted in reductions of 300 metric tons of water pollutants and 4,334 metric tons of air pollutants (not including the greenhouse gas reductions already discussed). Recycling reduced emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx), an important ingredient in acid rain formation, by 264 metric tons; an amount equal to more than 0.5% of all such emissions from electrical utilities in the state. Nitrous oxides (NOx) were reduced by 281 metric tons; an amount equal to 2.8% of emissions from New Hampshire electrical utilities.
By recycling nearly 27,741 tons of scrap metal in 2003, New Hampshire's recycling efforts reduced the need for virgin materials by twice that amount, including 34,677 tons of iron ore, 19,419 tons of coal and 1,664 tons of limestone. By recycling 32,926 tons of mixed paper, newsprint, phone books and office paper in 2003, New Hampshire reduced the need to cut 404,889 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. 1 Recycling is defined as the use of scrap or waste material used in place of virgin inputs in the manufacturing process. When a Calculator user indicates that they are “recycling” they are referring to the act of setting the scrap or waste material aside for use in the manufacturing process. Furthermore, when Calculator 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 provided by the state environmental agency. 3 Metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE) is a unit of measurement that expresses the heat-trapping effects of various greenhouse gas emissions. Another unit of measure 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/ |
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