2019 Recycling Industry Yearbook

ISRI.ORG 5 THE RECYCLING PROCESS Recycling is a series of actions that can include collecting material; processing it, which can involve multiple steps; brokering it; and selling it to a consuming facility such as a steel mill, paper mill, foundry, or plastic compounder. The goal is to transform unprocessed, mixed materials into uniform streams of single commodities that can be used as raw materials in manufacturing. When materials arrive at a scrap recycling facility, an employee weighs them and conducts a visual assessment, sampling, analysis, or other testing to determine their composition. In most cases, recyclers pay for incoming material based on its weight and composition. These employees also inspect incoming scrap for anything they will not accept: hazardous materials, those that contain radiation, or items that appear to have been stolen, for example. The industry has a theft-alert notification system that operates across the United States and Canada to minimize the chance of receiving stolen material in a load of scrap. Recyclers categorize metal scrap as ferrous —made from iron and steel—or nonferrous , which includes aluminum, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, and tin. Precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum also are commonly recycled nonferrous metals. A wide range of paper and fiber, electronic, plastic, rubber and tire, glass, and textile items also are recycled. Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, American Forest & Paper Association, NAPCOR, Scrap Tire News, and ISRI estimates Iron and Steel 72,400,000 Paper 47,800,000 Aluminum 5,462,000 Copper 1,783,000 Lead 1,349,000 Zinc 72,000 Plastics (PET bottles) 782,900 (2017) Electronics +5.5 million (est.) Tire (# of tires) 116,000,000 (2017) 2018 VOLUME OF SCRAP PROCESSED IN THE UNITED STATES (metric tons, unless noted otherwise)