Excerpts from Case Study on Lee County's Material Recovery Facility

Lee County’s Material Recovery Facility (recycling facility) began as a 900 square foot operation with workers standing at tables, hand sorting through two tons of recyclable materials per day. Today Lee County’s MRF has grown into a 60,000 square foot facility that offers normal weekly curbside recycling and electronics curbside collection as well. Lee County also has two off site facility that serves as a drop off location for household chemical waste and electronics recycling.

“One of the main reasons for recycling is to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfills. Today, recycling efforts in the United States divert 32 percent of waste away from landfills. That prevents more than 60 million tons of garbage from ending up in landfills every year.” (EPA: Recycling, n.d.) Many recycling processes require less energy than it would take to manufacture the same item brand-new; therefore recycling is a sustainable answer to this problem of over-consuming and disposal of garbage.

The EPA website states, "that the some of the benefits of recycling are:
· Recycling protects and expands U.S. manufacturing jobs and increases U.S. competitiveness.
· Recycling reduces the need for creating new landfills and incinerators.
· Recycling prevents pollution caused by the manufacturing of products from virgin materials.
· Recycling saves energy.
· Recycling decreases emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.
· Recycling conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals.
· Recycling helps sustain the environment for future generations.” (EPA: Recycling, n.d.)