Recycling Initiative Yields Big Results

They say everything is bigger in Texas. Well, they weren’t kidding! We’re proud to announce that the Texas Recycling Data Initiative (TRDI) results are in and it was a BIG success. TRDI is a voluntary, collaborative, and confidential study that, with the help of Re-TRAC Connect, quantifies the amount of recycling that occurred in Texas in 2013 and establishes a baseline recycling rate to measure future progress.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Over 6 million tons of material from municipal solid waste (MSW) sources was recycled (sold to market as feedstock to create new products) in 2013.
• Based on the tons of MSW recycled, the baseline MSW recycling rate calculated by TRDI for 2013 is 18.9 percent.
• Estimates of 12,500+ Texas jobs are supported by processing materials recovered from the MSW stream to prepare them for use by recycling manufacturers! This does not include collection, transportation, and manufacturing.
• TRDI found that nearly 555,000 tons of curbside collected recyclable material was processed in 2013, equating to an annual average of around 500 pounds per household.

Download the full report: A Collaborative Effort to Measure Recycling: Biennial Report (January 2015)