Michigan’s 2012 recycling effort produced economic, environmental benefit

“Earth Day marks a perfect opportunity for us to showcase our commitment to forward-thinking communities in Michigan”

“Earth Day marks a perfect opportunity for us to showcase our commitment to forward-thinking communities in Michigan,” says James Devlin, ReCommunity CEO, “and to celebrate our partner communities’ recycling efforts, which helped create more jobs and a better future throughout Michigan.”

Michigan Sustainability Report Highlights

Michigan residents helped produced 236,674 tons of recyclable materials in 2012. Within all those tons, we found the following facts.

What’s contained in 236,674 tons of recyclable material in Michigan?

• 62,361,124 aluminum cans or enough aluminum to build 13 jumbo jet airliners
• 536,025,019 plastic bottles or the equivalent of saving 13,399,628 gallons of oil
• 35,848,462,365 sheets of paper or the equivalent of 3,022,989 trees
• 137,248,865 glass bottles or enough energy to power 32,902 computers for a week

What’s the economic impact of recovering 236,674 tons of recyclable materials?

Additional environmental impacts of recovering 236,674 tons of recycled materials:

• 686,843 metric tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases prevented, which equates to removing 125,795 cars from the road annually
• 304,295 cubic yards of landfill space saved, which equates to 22,154 Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with garbage

“By definition, sustainability is all-encompassing, including environmental, economic and social benefits to Michigan,” says Kerrin O’Brien, Michigan Recycling Coalition executive director. “Our recycling efforts have enabled us to generate additional revenue, create new jobs and reduce our carbon footprint.”

Editor’s Note: Download fully-designed report for online/print media use at https://www.recommunity.com/asr

About ReCommunity

ReCommunity, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is a leading recycling and recovery company that is focused on dramatically reducing the volume of landfilled waste. The company aims to lead a Recovery Revolution^TM by repositioning waste as a strategic community resource instead of a growing liability. With 36 facilities in 13 states, ReCommunity enables community partners to create additional revenue, create new jobs, and create a better future.

For more information, visit www.ReCommunity.com.