The U.S. recycling industry plays a prominent role as an economic leader, job creator, and major exporter. The people and firms that purchase, process, and broker old materials to be manufactured into new products in America provide 506,000 adults with good jobs in the United States and generate approximately $116 billion annually in economic activity.
These are real people with real jobs -- not only in firms that process scrap materials into new, usable commodity inputs, but in firms that supply the industry with recycled materials, like auto yards and independent peddlers, as well as firms that supply machinery, trucks, and services to processors. In addition, thousands of people in industries seemingly unrelated to recycling, from servers in restaurants, to construction workers, to teachers in local schools, depend on the re-spending of the wages and taxes paid by the recycling industry to workers and suppliers.
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