The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that on America Recycles Day, they will release the final version of The National Recycling Strategy. This is part one in a series on building a circular economy. During last year’s America Recycles Day, the EPA announced the goal of increasing the United States recycling rate to 50% by 2030.

In order to achieve this goal, the EPA has defined three key metrics to measure:

1. Reduce contamination in recycling
2. Make our recycling processing system more efficient
3. Strengthen the economic markets for recycled materials

Read more about the overview and methods of measurement for the three goals on epa.gov.

As a data destruction and electronics recycling company, Securis was interested in the information gathered regarding the recycling of electronics. The EPA has created a table that shows data from 1960 to 2018 showing the total number of tons of electronics recycled, composted, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled. See the full data table on the EPA’s electronics page.

The EPA has compiled a list of possible actions that corporations can do to support recycling, including the following:

1. Commit to purchasing products made with recycled content (such as plastic bags and bins made
   from post-consumer plastic resin (PCR).
2. Develop and share messaging about buying products made with recycled content.
3. Host dialogues with manufacturers and other stakeholders to learn what policies, programs and
   incentives would promote greater use of recycled content in products.

For more information on what your organization can do, understanding the issues, and facts and figures about waste, materials, and recycling, visit their Sustainable Materials Management page.