Recycling In Pennsylvania Tops 4.4 Million Tons

The state of Pennsylvania’s Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty announced that Pennsylvanians recycled a record 4.45 million tons of municipal waste in 2003, according to reports filed by Pennsylvania counties.

Aside from the environmental gains of diverting waste from landfills, the economic benefits of recycling are estimated at more than $68 million.

As an example of the effectiveness of the recycling industry in Pennsylvania, McGinty toured the Blue Mountain Recycling plant. During the tour, she noted, that the company was founded in 1999 as a material recycling facility in Philadelphia. It has grown to include three operating centers with more than 80 employees, and, she added, is the only company in the area to have invested millions of dollars to provide the technology required to execute a single-stream recycling program.

Pennsylvania’s recycling and reuse industry includes more than 3,200 establishments with total annual sales of $18.4 billion. The industry employs more than 81,000 people and has an annual payroll of $2.9 billion. The employment, payroll and sales numbers are more than any other state in the Northeast and are the second highest in the nation.

In addition, Pennsylvania’s recycling and reuse industry has an indirect effect on the economy estimated at $1.8 billion, and a direct impact on the tax base, contributing $305 million each year.