Recycling in Pennsylvania
Statewide recycling in Pennsylvania began in 1988 with the Municipal Waste Planning Recycling and Waste Reduction Act (Act 101) that requires larger municipalities to recycle.
Today, more than 11.6 million residents at least 94 percent of the state's population have access to recycling. About 79 percent have convenient access to recycling through about 1,050 curb-side pickup programs. Since Pennsylvania is largely rural, 870 drop-off programs extend recycling to the greatest number of communities.
The Act established a $2-per-ton fee on all waste disposed at municipal waste landfills and waste-to-energy facilities established grants for local collection programs, public education, materials processing and composting facilities, equipment and technical training.
Act 101 also requires each county to develop county plans to manage its own wastes and assure a minimum of ten years disposal capacity. Each year, the counties report countywide municipal waste generation and recycling data to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for use in compiling a statewide analysis of recycling and its benefits. Counties are required to submit plan revisions to DEP by the time their remaining disposal capacity is reduced to three years. All plans are submitted to DEP for approval.
In 2009, Pennsylvania recycled over 5.7 million tons of resources. The materials Pennsylvanians recycled in 2005 saved almost 98 trillion British thermal units of energy and cut more than 2.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the air. Respectively, that's the equivalent of eliminating the output from three large coal-fired power plants and taking 1.7 million cars and light trucks off the road.
Pennsylvania's recycling and reuse industry leads northeastern states in employment, payroll and sales numbers. More than 3,800 recycling and reuse businesses and organizations made more than $20.6 billion in gross annual sales and provided jobs for more than 52,000 employees at an annual payroll of approximately $2.2 billion.
