Philadelphia - Once a year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets aside November 15 to remind everyone that recycling plays a dramatic role in reducing pollution. The average American discards about 4.5 pounds of trash, also known as solid waste, every day. This trash goes mostly to landfills, where it is compacted and buried. Thirty-three percent of solid waste, or 83 million tons, is recovered and recycled or composted; and 54 percent, or 135 million tons, is disposed of in landfills.

There is nothing new under the sun, according to the National Recycling Coalition: “Before the 1920s, 70 percent of U.S. cities ran programs to recycle certain materials. During World War II, industry recycled and reused about 25 percent of the waste stream.”

America Recycles Day helps to raise awareness of the importance of recycling today. The nation's composting and recycling rate rose from 7.7 percent of the waste stream in 1960 to 17 percent in 1990 and is currently hovering around 33 percent.

And in 2008 - the latest recycling statistics available - recycling and composting 83 million tons of waste saved the equivalent of more than 10.2 billion gallons of gasoline.

Quelle: United States Environmental Protection Agency

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