WASHINGTON, DC, DC—
WASHINGTON DC — The Recycling Partnership has published its 2022 Impact Report: Complex problems require integrated and bold solutions – highlighting solutions The Partnership has mobilized over the past eight years to collectively transform US residential recycling and accelerate the circular packaging system of the future. Since 2014, the partnership has reached over 100 million homes, diverted over 770 million additional pounds of recyclables from landfills, inspected over 1.6 million carts, placed over 1.3 million carts in communities , supported more than a third of U.S. community recycling programs, and avoided 670,000 tons of CO2e.
The Partnership’s most recent impacts since 2019 include:
Through the solutions outlined in the report, the partnership has the ability to build a system where all households can recycle, people know what and how to recycle, MRFs are fully modernized, stakeholders work together to overcome barriers to recycling material-specific, packaging is designed for or on the path to recyclability, and recycling benefits from a sustainable public-private funding stream based on smart policy.
“With these solutions working in concert, we are building the system of the future. But we won’t get there with piecemeal efforts that only mitigate the problem; we need bold systemic change,” said Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership.
The Partnership is committed to supporting systemic change in its three-year plan calling for a transformation of the U.S. recycling system and acceleration of the circular packaging system of the future. The Partnership will measure its future impact by recovering and collecting more than 1 billion pounds of new recyclable materials each year; improving consumer participation and confidence in recycling and improving recyclability claims and labelling; creating new, scalable and systemic approaches to recyclability for items that are currently difficult to recycle; implementation of an effective and efficient policy that improves the performance of the recycling system; and turning thousands of packaging items into recycling and reducing tens of millions of pounds of packaging through improved designs.
“We have a clear vision of what it will take to transform American recycling and accelerate the circular packaging system of the future. We also have the people, data and proven solutions to drive bold, measurable impact. All we need now is commitment from all stakeholders to bring about large-scale system change,” said Jeff Meyers, Chief Strategy Officer of the Recycling Partnership.
To see the full 2022 Impact Report, visit recyclingpartnership.org/impact.
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At The Recycling Partnership, we strive for circularity. We mobilize people, data and solutions across the value chain to unlock the environmental and economic benefits of recycling and a circular economy. We work on the ground with thousands of communities to transform underperforming recycling programs; we partner with companies to achieve packaging circularity, increase access to recycled materials and meet sustainability commitments; and we work with the government to develop policy solutions to address the systemic needs of our residential recycling system and advance a circular economy. We encourage public-private partnerships and drive positive change at every step of the recycling and circularity process. Since 2014, we’ve diverted 770 million pounds of new recyclable material from landfills, saved 968 million gallons of water, avoided more than 670,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases, and resulted in significant reductions in targeted contamination rates. Learn more about recyclingpartnership.org.