Recycling Industry

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects, an alternative to disposal that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and recovers value from resources that would otherwise be discarded. The industry operates as a distinct economic sector from general waste management, organized around recovering specific material streams including glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastics, electronics, textiles, and batteries, each requiring its own collection and processing infrastructure. As of 2014, the European Union alone held about half of the world's waste and recycling industry, with more than 60,000 companies employing 500,000 people and generating 24 billion euros in turnover. In the United States, more than 300 dedicated materials recovery facilities operate at industrial scale, using automated sorting to process commingled recyclable material.