Jobs and Economic Development

EPR is a form of industry-led recycling.  A large body of research conclusively demonstrates that recycling creates jobs and economic development.  Similarly, studies show that jobs are created in direct proportion to the amount of material recycled.  Many jobs are created from collecting and processing the products and packaging that were formerly discarded in landfills and incinerators.  But even more economic development occurs from turning recovered materials into new products – transforming what was formerly “waste” into “food” for industry and the next generation of products. For more information, read our jobs and economic development fact sheet.

Recycling 75% of our waste would create 1.5 million new American jobs

• A 2011 report by the Telus Institute estimates that 1.5 million new American jobs can be created by increasing the US recycling rate from 33% to 75%.[1] 
• Recycling industries currently provide more than 1.1 million jobs in the U.S., which is comparable in size to the U.S. auto manufacturing and machinery manufacturing industries.[2]   Recycling industries generate an annual payroll of nearly $37 billion and gross over $236 billion in annual revenue.[3]
• Recycling industries include activities such as collecting discarded products and packaging at curbside or in depots, deconstructing buildings and products, processing recycled materials, composting, repair and reuse businesses, and manufacturing new products using recycled content.

Increasing recycling through EPR initiatives can revive US manufacturing

• In 2008, manufacturing new products from recycled materials accounted for approximately 290,000 jobs.[4]  Increasing the US recycling rate to 75%, in part through EPR initiatives, could boost that number to 840,000 jobs - an increase of 550,000 net new jobs - an almost 200% increase in American manufacturing jobs.[5]  This is accomplished because the use of recycled materials as manufacturing inputs creates many more jobs throughout the materials supply chain than the provision and use of virgin natural resources.[6] 

Recycling creates many more jobs than waste disposal

• Recycling produces far more jobs than waste disposal by burning or burying.[7]  Disposal barely generates any jobs at all – 0.1 jobs per 1,000 tons disposed.  Paper, steel and iron manufacturing create 4 new jobs for every 1,000 tons recycled, while plastics manufacturing generates 10 jobs per 1,000 tons recycled.[8] 
• Americans currently burn or bury 165 million tons of product and packaging waste each year, the vast majority of which can be recycled or composted.[9]  Increasing the national recycling rate is a direct way to quickly create significant numbers of new US jobs.

EPR policies that boost recycling create local jobs and stimulate regional economic development

• EPR has repeatedly been identified as one of the top policy options to increase recycling.[10]
• Container-deposit EPR programs (bottle bills) produce 8 jobs per 1,000 tons recycled.[11]
• Washington State and Oregon’s electronic-waste EPR recycling programs have resulted in 140 new processing jobs to the region. Approximately 360 ongoing jobs at these facilities were reported attributable to the Washington and/or Oregon E-Cycle programs.[12] 
• British Columbia, a Canadian province of 4.4 million people, reports that eight of their EPR programs have created more than 2,100 new jobs.[13]
• Germany’s packaging EPR law has generated more than 17,000 jobs.[14] 

EPR policies save taxpayers money

• Financial benefits to local governments and taxpayers take two forms: direct cost savings and no-cost expanded service.[15] Communities that offer recycling or take-back services enjoy direct cost savings when product manufacturers take on the costs local governments are paying now to collect, transport, and recycle or appropriately dispose of used products. Communities without take-back programs enjoy no-cost expanded service—convenient product recycling or appropriate disposal without additional costs.
• Waste disposal costs are estimated at over $100 billion dollars in the United States.  EPR has the potential to significantly reduce these costs while providing economic benefit through designing products for recycling, and diverting materials into recycling supply chains where they can become feedstock for the next generation of products and packaging.