Business Benefits
Most people know that recycling plays an important role in reducing the waste generated at homes and businesses. Valuable materials that were headed for landfills and incinerators become useful to the community once again.
But recycling is far more than a local waste management strategy – it also plays an important part in reducing the environmental impacts of industrial production. Supplying industries with recycled materials, rather than virgin resources extracted from forests and mines, saves energy, reduces air emissions and water discharges and conserves natural resources. In 2005, municipal recycling programs in the United States diverted 58 million tons of materials away from incinerators and landfills. What could have been waste became metal, paper, glass, plastics and wood commodities used by industry in the manufacture of new recycled-content products.
Recycling is a growth industry with many kinds of business opportunities, from collection and processing to manufacturing and new technologies. In Indiana, new recycling businesses create jobs for Hoosiers and help improve our economy.
WasteWise
WasteWise is a free, voluntary, U.S. EPA program flexible program that allows partners to design a waste reduction program tailored to their needs. The program eliminates costly municipal solid waste and some industrial wastes, benefiting the company’s bottom line and the environment.
