The Energy & Climate Benefits of the 3 R’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

1. The Energy & ClimateBenefits of the 3 R’sReduce, Reuse, Recycle Sara Hartwell U.S. EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery October 6, 2009

2. All materials and products have climate and energy impacts at every stage of the lifecycle • Raw Material Extraction • Processing • Manufacturing • Product Use • Management at End-of-Life

3. Material Life Cycle http://epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/waste/SWMGHGreport.html

4. How do we minimize the climate and energy impacts of the materials and products that we use? • Choose Materials Wisely • Use Less (reduce) • Reuse Products (reuse) • Manage Materials at end-of-life (recycle) • Use Recycled Content

5. Reuse is one way to Reduce • I need a pallet for 3 one-way trips • I can make 3 pallets ….or I can Reuse the same pallet 3 times • I have Reduced the number of pallets that are made by 2/3

6. One More Important Thing • When you are making decisions based on life-cycle analysis (LCA) – be sure to consider the ENTIRE life-cycle • For example, if reusable packaging is used to transport case-ready meat, the energy (and climate!) implications of heating the water to clean the crates between shipments may outweigh the benefits of reuse.

7. Energy Benefits of the 3 R’s • Energy demand is reduced through source reduction & recycling • Replacement of discarded materials requires energy to extract, transport, and process raw virgin materials. • Manufacturing products from recycled materials typically requires less energy than manufacturing from virgin materials.

8. Energy Benefits of the 3 R’s • For most materials, the manufacturing process energy for recycled materials uses a fraction of the energy used to produce virgin materials.  For example: • producing aluminum with recycled cans requires 92% less energy than using virgin aluminum; • recycling newspaper requires 45% less energy for production than using virgin fibers.

9. What’s the impact of recycling on energy conservation? • In 2007, the U.S. recycled 33 % (85 million tons) of MSW1 • Energy benefit of 1.3 quadrillion BTUs • Residential site energy consumption is stable at about 10 quadrillion BTUs/year2 • Recycling emissions benefits = 1.3 quadrillion BTUs 3 1 http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/msw99.htm 2http://www.eia.doe.gov/ 3http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/msw99.htm

10. Use less energy – produce fewer GHGs • Process energy GHGs comprise the majority of upstream emissions for the manufacture of both virgin and recycled materials – on average, approximately 80 percent* *for materials considered in EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM)

11. Use less energy – produce fewer GHGs • The transportation energy associated with manufacturing accounts for a small share of upstream emissions – on average less than 20%* *for materials considered in EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM)

12. More Climate Benefits of the 3 R’s • Production of some raw materials produces GHGs not associated with process energy (aluminum is a good example) • Recycling those materials avoids emission of those non-process energy GHGs, too.

13. More Climate Benefits of the 3 R’s • Forest carbon sequestration increases when wood products are source reduced & recycled • trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, converting CO2 in the atmosphere to carbon in their biomass. • Carbon storage increases when organics are composted and added to soil

14. More Climate Benefits of the 3 R’s • Source Reduction and Recycling Avoids: • CH4 emissions from landfills • CO2 emissions from waste combustion

15. What’s the impact of recycling on GHG emissions? • In 2007, the U.S. recycled 33 % (85 million tons) of MSW1 • Avoided emissions of 193 million MTCO2e • Equivalent to the annual GHG emissions of 35 million passenger vehicles (about 14 percent of passenger vehicles registered in the U.S.) http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/msw99.htm