Call ‘em facts, stats, quibs, or little ditties, but here are the ins and outs of recycling in North Carolina.
If one-third of North Carolina's households sent junk mail reduction cards to the Mail Preference Association, it would save North Carolina local governments almost $1.3 million in disposal fees per year.

Making products from recovered materials instead of virgin materials saves energy. For aluminum cans, the energy saved is more than 90 percent, for newspaper 40 percent and for steel 60 percent.

North Carolinians recycle 68 pounds of materials a second. That’s impressive! But we throw away 679 pounds of trash a second. That’s almost 10 times what we recycle.

Nearly all the steel made in the United States and in the world is made from scrap.

Recycling in North Carolina is a job creator and a growing part of our state’s economy. Recycling employs more than 13,000 North Carolinians and recycling jobs have increased about 48 percent in the last 10 years.

With the amount of trash North Carolinians throw away, we would fill enough Dumpsters to line the length of N.C.’s Interstate 40 more than six times in one year. That’s 2,555 miles of Dumpsters each year.

Steel is one of the most recycled materials with a 64 percent national recycling rate. Many steel products are recycled at a high rate in North Carolina, though less than 20 percent of steel cans were recovered in 2001.

Each month, North Carolinians throw out glass that would fill up more than 13 miles worth of tractor-trailers lined up end-to-end. That’s a half marathon of tractor-trailers each month!

Glass bottles can be used hundreds of times over to make new bottles. North Carolina has three glass plants capable of consuming thousands of tons of “cullet” or recovered glass.

Newspaper and corrugated cardboard are the highest recycled types of paper - in North Carolina, we recycle 57 percent of all newspaper and 50 percent of all cardboard.

Only half of aluminum cans are recycled despite a statewide disposal ban on the material. Other items banned from disposal in North Carolina landfills include whole tires, appliances (white goods), yard waste, lead acid batteries, used oil and antifreeze.

Aluminum and glass companies rely heavily on secondary materials for their product, and many plastics manufacturers also depend on recovered material.

North Carolinians throw away more than $20 million in aluminum cans each year.

Every 43 days, North Carolinians throw away enough trash to fill Dumpsters lining the entire North Carolina coastline.

The amount of trash North Carolinians throw away in just five and a half days would fill Dumpsters that reach as high as Mount Mitchell. That’s 6,684 feet!

Each week, N.C. workplaces throw away enough potentially recyclable office paper to fill two soccer fields three feet deep.

Almost 80 percent of U.S. paper mills rely on recovered recycled paper. In fact it supplies 37 percent of their material.

The amount of waste disposed in North Carolina has increased from 6.8 million tons in 1991 to 10.23 million tons in 2003.

The state picked up more than one pound of litter for each of the state’s 8.4 million citizens in 2003, according to figures released by the state Department of Transportation. You can help report litterbugs by reporting the license plate of a car and the date and location of an incident to the DOT. Forms can be obtained by calling (800) 331-5864 or reports can be made here.

Ultimately, the major industrial sectors would suffer severe difficulties if the supply of recycled materials suddenly disappeared.

In 1994, our state had 306 recycling companies. In 2004, we had 532 recycling businesses in North Carolina, a 74 percent rise in only 10 years. That means more materials are being recovered, more jobs are being created, and more money is flowing through our economy - all because of recycling!

A 20 percent increase in recycling would create as many as 500 new jobs, according to information from the 1994 study.

North Carolina recycles 26 percent of its waste stream, composts 6 percent, sends 67 percent to landfills and incinerates 1 percent.

North Carolinians throw away enough trash to fill Dumpsters from Boone to Bald Head every 47 days.

*Unless stated, all facts are from DPPEA or DENR 2003 data.