2019 Recycling Industry Yearbook

Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. 4 One of ISRI’s mantras is that “scrap is not waste.” In other words, scrap materials have value, both before and after recyclers process them into specification-grade commodities. Manufacturers value scrap commodities as raw materials because they can provide cost, energy, and environmental savings when they are used instead of virgin materials. Scrap commodities’ value changes every day based on supply, demand, and other market factors, just as it does for other types of commodities, such as corn or soybeans. The recycling industry is a major contributor to the U.S. economy, generating $109.78 billion in economic activity last year and directly employing 164,154 people with average wages and benefits of $73,000. Recycling companies and workers pay $12.9 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, supporting the communities in which they operate in all 50 states. Recyclers generated those revenues last year by processing 138 million mt of material. More than two-thirds of material recycled in the United States in 2018 remained in the United States, where manufacturers used it for new products. WHERE DOES SCRAP COME FROM? Many people think about recycling in terms of what they put in their recycling bin at home. Residential recycling provides only about one-third of the entire U.S. supply of recycled materials, however. Most scrap comes from industrial and commercial sources. Obsolete scrap consists of used and end-of-life materials and products. These include vehicles, appliances, electronics, cardboard boxes and other paper goods, bottles and cans, and clothing. Demolition sites are another common source of obsolete scrap. Prompt, prime , or new scrap comes out of the manufacturing process. These materials include metal clippings, stampings, and turnings as well as paper overruns and cuttings. Introduction to Recycling WHAT IS RECYCLING? Recycling is the series of activities in which obsolete, previously used, off-specification, surplus, or incidentally produced materials get processed into specification-grade com- modities and consumed as feedstock in the manufacturing of new products. Recycling may include collection, processing, and/or brokering such materials to result in their consumption by a manufacturer. Recycled materials also are called scrap.