People who strive to be environmentally conscious might ask themselves if there is anything that one person or one business can do to lessen the impact of climate change. It’s such an overwhelming problem that it can be hard to believe that small-scale actions could make a difference. Using recycling services really can make a difference. That’s one of the Institute of Scrap Recycling’s key messages.
ISRI works to pro
mote recycling, provide recycling education and advocate for policies that support the recycling industry. (Miller Recycling recently celebrated its 30th year of ISRI membership.) To encourage the new administration to prioritize recycling legislation, ISRI sent a letter to then President-Elect Biden in December 2020. ISRI touted the relationship between recycling and sustainability, emphasized the role of recycling in the U.S. economy and stressed the importance of recycling in order to prevent further climate damage. To quote directly from the letter: “More recycling provides more climate benefits.”
Recycling and Climate Change: Numbers from ISRI
It’s one thing to hear that recycling helps prevent climate change, and another thing to actually be able to visualize the environmental benefits of recycling. Through its publications, ISRI provides compelling statistics that illustrate just how much of an impact recycling has on preventing climate change. Keep them in mind the next time you wonder whether your commitment to recycling is worthwhile.
- Recycling of scrap commodities reduces carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 400 million tons each year, roughly equaling the amount of energy used by 48 million homes in a year.
- The recycling industry supplies more than 40 percent of the raw materials (on average, across all commodities) in manufacturers’ supply chains.
- 70 percent of steel produced in the U.S. is made from steel scrap, using 60 percent less energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 58 percent compared to producing steel from virgin material. Globally, 82 percent of steel comes from scrap metal.
- 80 percent of paper produced by U.S. mills is made from recovered paper, using 68 percent less energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 47 percent compared to making paper from virgin material. Globally, 50 percent of paper is produced from recovered fiber.
- More than 50 percent of aluminum produced in the U.S is made from scrap, using 95 percent less energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 96 percent compared to making aluminum from virgin material. Globally, 76 percent of aluminum is produced from scrap.
- Recycling one car saves the energy equivalent of 450 gallons of gasoline and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of more than 8,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Electric Vehicles and Recycling Car Batteries
Expect electric vehicle batteries to become a big topic in the national conversation around recycling and climate change over the next few years. Nearly 2.5 million electric vehicles were sold in 2020, and IHS Markit projects that 12.5 million EVs will be sold globally in 2025. In the U.S., proposed bills would incentivize drivers to buy EVs and get more of these vehicles on the roads. But we don’t yet have an efficient approach to recycling the lithium-ion batteries used in most electric vehicles. In order to meet increased demand, manufacturers will have to mine for virgin battery metals. (A plan to source EV battery metals from polymetallic nodules found on the ocean floor may fill some of that demand.)
Minimizing the need to mine virgin materials is one of the key ways recycling helps prevent climate change. Mining generates a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases, in addition to the damaging effects mining has on local environments (such as water pollution and land degradation). Recycling existing materials allows manufacturers to significantly reduce climate-damaging emissions. Recycling also keeps material out of landfills—important because methane gases produced by landfilled waste also contribute to climate change.
As a proud Legacy Member of ISRI, Miller Recycling will keep you updated on developments around recycling policy and climate change as they happen. In the meantime, we’re here to provide a full range of recycling services to help all businesses meet their environmental goals in a cost-efficient way. Miller Recycling pays competitively for many grades of recyclable material, and we can even help your business create or refine its processes to make recycling as easy as possible.
I’m happy to answer any questions you have about recycling and sustainability. Contact me today!