Frequent Questions about the National Recycling Strategy

On this page:

Questions about Recycling
Questions about the 2021 National Recycling Strategy

Questions about Recycling

What are the benefits of recycling?

Recycling is a key driver of the U.S. economy and a good way to save resources and protect the environment. When we recycle, we reduce the amount of trash sent to landfills and reduce pollution from extracting and processing natural resources, such as fossil fuels and metals. The United Nations Environment Programme International Resource Panel reported that global natural resource extraction and processing make up over half of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. So, when we recycle, we reduce our impact on climate change. We help our economy by using materials from the United States, supporting American manufacturing, and creating jobs in the recycling and manufacturing industries.

What can I do as a consumer to support recycling?

At the individual level, learn what materials are accepted in your area to reduce contamination and advance the U.S. recycling system. Contact your local recycling collection service for more information about what materials are recyclable in your area. For general information about recyclable materials, visit: How Do I Recycle?: Common Recyclables.

Some important tips include:

Check with your local recycling program to know what goes in your recycling bin.
Keep recyclables clean and dry (“spatula-clean” is fine).
Keep food and liquids out of the recycling bins.
Place your recycling bin and trash bin together, so it’s easy to recycle.
Consider composting your food waste.
Keep plastic bags and wraps out of your recycling bin. Take them to special collection bins at your local supermarket.
Empty and flatten cardboard boxes before you recycle them.
Pizza boxes are recyclable; pizza is not!
Spread the word about the benefits of recycling and recycling right.
When in doubt, throw it out. “Wishcycling” can cause an entire batch of recyclables to get tossed.

What can organizations and businesses do to support recycling?

The 2021 National Recycling Strategy includes many specific actions that you can sign up to lead or support. Click here if you would like to help implement the actions in the strategy.

Questions about the 2021 National Recycling Strategy

What is the EPA’s National Recycling Strategy?

EPA is announcing the release of a 2021 National Recycling Strategy to address major recycling challenges facing the nation and create a stronger, more resilient, and cost-effective U.S. municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling system. This strategy is a step in tackling the climate impacts of materials management as well as addressing the negative impacts of improperly managed waste in overburdened communities.

Why do we need a national strategy?

The U.S. recycling system is facing several challenges, including reduced markets for recycled materials, recycling infrastructure that has not kept pace with today’s diverse and changing waste stream, confusion about what materials can be recycled, and varying methodologies to measure recycling system performance.

What is EPA doing to address these challenges?

The National Recycling Strategy identifies five main objectives with actions to address these challenges, while building on the collaboration with stakeholders from across the recycling system that began under the 2019 National Framework for Advancing the U.S. Recycling System. The strategy’s objectives are:

Improve markets for recycled commodities through market development, analysis, manufacturing, and research.
Increase collection of recyclable materials and improve recycling infrastructure through analysis, funding, product design, and processing efficiencies.
Reduce contamination in the recycled materials stream through outreach and education to the public on the value of proper recycling.
Enhance policies and programs to support recyclability and recycling through strengthened federal and international coordination, analysis, research on product pricing, and sharing of best practices.
Standardize measurement and increase data collection through coordinated recycling definitions, measures, targets, and performance indicators.

How does the strategy address climate change?

Recycling is an important tool in reducing resource extraction, which impacts climate change. According to the United Nations Environment Programme International Resource Panel, natural resource extraction and processing make up approximately 50 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The National Recycling Strategy identifies actions needed across the supply chain to achieve a more resilient and cost-effective recycling system. EPA plans to issue other strategies to reflect additional actions needed to achieve a circular economy and reduce the impact of materials on climate change. Additionally, EPA plans to create a new national goal to reduce the climate impacts from the production, consumption, use, and disposal of materials.

How does the strategy address environmental justice issues?

EPA recognizes the burden that living near waste and waste-related facilities has on communities when waste is not properly managed, which can lead to higher levels of chronic health issues. The 2021 Strategy will increase equitable access to recycling services, reduce environmental impacts in communities, stimulate economic development, and ensure overburdened communities meaningfully participate during the strategy’s implementation.

What are EPA’s next steps after releasing the National Recycling Strategy?

During the next several months, EPA will work collaboratively with stakeholders to develop a plan for implementing the 2021 Strategy. EPA will collaborate with communities and across all levels of government, including Tribal Nations, and with public and private stakeholders to achieve these ambitious goals.

What is a circular economy and why is it important?

While this initial strategy focuses on the recycling of MSW, EPA recognizes that there is additional work needed in many other areas to create a “circular economy.” During the next several years, EPA will work to address these issues as well as other key aspects of moving the country forward in creating a circular economy.

A circular economy, as defined in the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, means an economy uses a systems-focused approach and involves industrial processes and economic activities that are restorative or regenerative by design, enable resources used in such processes and activities to maintain their highest value for as long as possible, and aim for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, and systems (including business models). It is a change to the model in which resources are mined, made into products, and then become waste. A circular economy approach reduces material use, redesigns materials and products to be less resource intensive, and recaptures “waste” as a resource to manufacture new materials and products.

Circularity is embraced within the sustainable materials management (SMM) approach that EPA and other federal agencies have pursued since 2009. A circular economy approach under the SMM umbrella demonstrates continuity in our emphasis on reducing lifecycle impacts of materials, including climate impacts, reducing the use of harmful materials, and decoupling materials use from economic growth. The 2021 Strategy recognizes the need to implement a circular economy approach for all – reducing the creation of waste with local communities in mind and implementing materials management strategies that are inclusive of communities with environmental justice concerns.

Does the strategy help address the issues associated with recycling plastics?

Yes, EPA anticipates that many of the actions taken under the strategy will help address the issues associated with recycling plastics. For example, actions taken to reduce consumer confusion about whether certain products are recyclable and how to recycle plastics should help address some of the issues associated with recycling plastics. Other actions under the strategy are also important, such as manufacturers designing their products to be recycled and national efforts to improve markets.

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) recycling is only one component of a circular economy approach. Why does the strategy focus only on MSW? What about other materials? What about reduction and reuse?

The United States recognizes that MSW recycling is one contribution to a circular economy approach, but it is a critical first step since it serves as a key mechanism for returning materials to the supply chain. Other materials (including construction and demolition waste) as well as other circular economy mechanisms (reduction, reuse, etc.) may receive greater attention in future strategies.

What are the major differences between the draft version of the strategy (released in October 2020) compared to this version?

The final National Recycling Strategy reflects that advancing the municipal solid waste system is a critical component to achieving a circular economy. While improving MSW recycling is important, actions related to other materials (food waste, electronics, construction, and demolition) are also needed to achieve a circular economy. Consequently, EPA will collaborate with stakeholders to develop additional strategies. The National Recycling Strategy commits to develop a new goal to reduce the climate impacts from materials production, consumption, use, and disposal.
The National Recycling Strategy discusses waste issues for communities with environmental justice concerns, while the draft version did not.
The draft strategy had three objectives whereas the updated version has five objectives:
- Improve Markets for Recycling Commodities.
- Increase Collection and Improve Materials Management Infrastructure.
- Reduce Contamination in the Recycled Materials Stream.
- Enhance Policies and Programs to Support Circularity.
- Standardize Measurement and Increase Data Collection.

Is food waste reduction through composting and digestion reflected in this strategy? Why is food waste reduction important?

Reducing food waste is one of the most important things we can do because it is the single largest material in our everyday trash. When we waste food, we also waste all the resources that went into producing, distributing, storing, and cooking that food. And then if we throw it away, it rots in landfills and releases methane into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that warms the planet far more, per molecule, than carbon dioxide. Scientists have found that keeping food waste out of landfills is an important strategy for reducing global warming. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, wasted food is responsible for eight percent of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The National Recycling Strategy does not identify what steps are needed to reduce food waste. However, the strategy acknowledges that a future strategy will focus on other materials and actions to achieve a circular economy including food waste reduction.

How is the recycling of electronics, including renewable energy products like solar panels and wind turbines, being addressed in this strategy?

Responsible recycling of electronics is critical to achieving a circular economy and reducing the impact on communities with environmental justice concerns. Electronics are key components of the MSW stream that must be responsibly recycled by companies suited to receive those materials, and they should not be placed in the curbside recycling bin. We believe that actions taken under the National Recycling Strategy to educate the public on how to recycle electronics, including lithium-ion batteries, will be important to address electronics recycling.

Who provided input for the strategy?

During the public comment period, we received comments from over 156 organizations, including 46 members of the America Recycles network. Commenters included private citizens, non-governmental organizations, government agencies (e.g., local, county, Tribal, and state agencies), Congress, recycling service providers and consultants, recycling and waste management trade associations, academia, and other industry trade associations and groups (including those for raw material and packaging manufacturers).