Recycling facts and figures

Participation

Ninety-four percent of Wisconsin households recycle and feel it is worthwhile.
Fifty-eight percent of Wisconsin households recycle at least as much as they did two years ago, and 32 percent are recycling more now.
Over 50 percent of Wisconsin households compost yard waste and 73 percent leave grass clippings on their lawns.

Rigorous recycling efforts keep almost 1.7 million tons of material out of Wisconsin landfills and incinerators each year.
Wisconsin citizens have saved landfill space equivalent to the size of five average landfills since 1990.
Recycling one ton of aluminum saves the energy equivalent of 2,350 gallons of gasoline or the total amount of electricity used by a typical Wisconsin home over 10 years.
Recycling paper produces 73 percent less air pollution than using virgin materials.
Recycling glass reduces mining waste by 80 percent.

Recycling 1 ton of glass saves the equivalent of 10 gallons of oil.
Recycling 1 ton of plastic saves the equivalent of 1-2,000 gallons of gasoline.
Recycling 1 ton of newspaper saves the equivalent of 100 gallons of gasoline.
Recycling one ton of aluminum saves the energy equivalent of 2,350 gallons of gasoline or the total amount of electricity used by a typical Wisconsin home over ten years.
Recycling 1 ton of iron saves 1 ton of coal.

In Wisconsin, we generate 4.6 million tons of trash and recyclables each year. That's enough to fill a typical city street over 4 feet deep with trash (curb to curb) for 575 miles! If you remove the recyclables, only 357 miles would be filled with trash.
In the United States, we generate enough trash and recyclables each day to fill 72,450 garbage trucks that hold 9 tons of trash each. If you remove the recyclables, only 44,919 garbage trucks would be needed.

There are 39 municipal landfills and 37 industrial landfills in Wisconsin (2002).
There are 1,967 municipal landfills (2000) in the United States.

In Wisconsin, we use enough office paper each year to build a 10-foot high wall, 145 miles long. We recycle 56 miles of that wall.
In the United States, we use enough office paper each year to build a 10-foot high wall, 6,815 miles long or two and a half times the distance from New York to Los Angeles.

The average person in Wisconsin generates 4.7 pounds of trash (residential and their share of commercial trash) each day and recycles 1.9 pounds of that trash per day.
The average person in the United States generates 4.7 pounds of trash each day and recycles 1.4 pounds of that trash per day.