Help Dr. Recycle Keep MUSC's Recycling Program Healthy

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Recycling at MUSC is Preserving Our Environment for the Future

The recycling efforts here at MUSC are improving our environment every day. With your help, MUSC has recycled, composted, or otherwise source reduced 26% of its waste in FY 2003. The results are clear: cleaner air and water, less pollution, more forested land and open space, and reduced greenhouse gases.

Everyone knows recycling means less trash going to our landfills. But the greatest environmental benefits of recycling are related not to landfills, but to the conservation of energy and natural resources and the prevention of pollution when a recycled material, rather than a raw material, is used to make a new product.

Why use a valuable material or product once, and then place it in your trash to be buried in a landfill or incinerated? Instead, divert that material for recycling, and capture the energy and resources already used to make that product. Since recycled materials have been refined and processed once, manufacturing the second time around is much cleaner and less energy-intensive than the first.

Recycling at MUSC Conserves Energy

The 1269 tons of paper, metals, organics, and other materials MUSC recycled in 2003 saved a total of about 13,756 BTUs of energy, enough energy to power nearly 137 homes for one year. Products made using recovered rather than virgin or raw materials use significantly less energy. Less energy used means less burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. When burned, these fuels release pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon monoxide, into the air.

Recycling at MUSC Reduces Air and Water Pollution

In 2003, recycling reduced overall air emissions by 24.9 tons excluding CO2 and methane and reduced waterborne waste by 4.2 tons.

By decreasing the need to extract and process new raw materials from the earth, recycling can eliminate the pollution associated with the first two stages of a products development: material extraction and processing. Mineral extracting and processing pollute the air, land, and water with toxic materials, such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and sulfur dioxides. Recycling reduces, and in many cases eliminates, these pollutants.

Recycling at MUSC Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions

MUSC’s recycling efforts last year reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 613 metric tons of carbon equivalent.  

By reducing air and water pollution and saving energy, recycling offers an important environmental benefit: it reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons, that contribute to global climate change. Recycling and composting reduce greenhouse gas by (1) decreasing the energy needed to make products from raw materials, (2) reducing emissions from incinerators and landfills, which are the largest source of methane gas emissions in the U.S., and (3) slowing the harvest of trees, thereby maintaining the carbon dioxide storage benefit provided by forests.

Recycling at MUSC Conserves Natural Resources

By recycling over 990 tons of paper last year, MUSC saved 20,878 trees. MUSC reduced the need for 90 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone by recycling over 45 tons of metal.

By using recycled materials instead of trees, metal ores, minerals, oil and other raw materials harvested from the earth, recycling-based manufacturing conserves the world's scarce natural resources. This conservation reduces pressure to expand forests cutting and mining operations.

Waste Generation Increases

We have to be forever diligent in our recycling efforts.  In 2000, U.S. residents, businesses, and institutions produced nearly 232 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste, which is approximately 4.5 pounds of waste per
person per day, up from 2.7 pounds per person per day in 1960.  This trend is likely attributable to a strong economy since economic growth has historically led to increases in waste generation.

This data is taken from MUSC's Solid Waste and Recycling Diversion Report 2003 and fed into the National Recycling Coalition's Environmental Benefits Calculator.  To find out more about how recycling effects global warming go to the EPA global warming info page.

Thank you to Julie Muir at Standford for web page contents and graphics.

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