Cut Emissions Industry, Materials & Waste Use Waste as a Resource

Increase Recycling

Highly Recommended
Worthwhile
Metal items

Recycling is a mechanical process that repurposes waste into new products without altering their chemical structure. This solution focuses on four common waste types: metals, paper and cardboard, plastics, and glass. It reduces GHG emissions by minimizing reliance on energy-intensive primary material production, reducing demand for raw materials, and diverting paper from landfills, where decomposition can produce methane.

Our focus is on postconsumer municipal solid waste (MSW) collected through residential and commercial recycling programs. Textiles, rubber, wood, and e-waste are also important waste streams but are excluded in our scope due to limited availability of global data. Organic waste is addressed separately in other Drawdown Explorer solutions, including Increase Centralized Composting, Increase Decentralized Composting, and Produce Biochar.

Last updated December 22, 2025

Solution Basics

Mt recycled

t CO₂-eq (100-yr)/unit
01.41×10⁶1.48×10⁶
units/yr
Current 740 01,3001,400
Achievable (Low to High)

Climate Impact

Gt CO₂-eq (100-yr)/yr
Current 1.1 1.92.1
US$ per t CO₂-eq
-100
Gradual

CO₂ , CH₄

Solution Basics

Mt recycled

t CO₂-eq (100-yr)/unit
0600,0001×10⁶
units/yr
Current 160 0220260
Achievable (Low to High)

Climate Impact

Gt CO₂-eq (100-yr)/yr
Current 0.16 0.220.26
US$ per t CO₂-eq
-400
Gradual

CO₂ , CH₄

Solution Basics

Mt recycled

t CO₂-eq (100-yr)/unit
2×10⁶
units/yr
Current 35.9 04554
Achievable (Low to High)

Climate Impact

Gt CO₂-eq (100-yr)/yr
Current 0.07 0.090.1
US$ per t CO₂-eq
-4
Gradual

CO₂ , CH₄

Solution Basics

Mt recycled

t CO₂-eq (100-yr)/unit
058,00079,000
units/yr
Current 27 03648
Achievable (Low to High)

Climate Impact

Gt CO₂-eq (100-yr)/yr
Current 0.002 0.0030.004
US$ per t CO₂-eq
9,000
Gradual

CO₂ , CH₄

Additional Benefits

183,187,188
    183
    • 184
    • 185
    • 186
    • 187
    • 188
191,192,194

Overview

Mechanical recycling mitigates GHG emissions by reducing the need for more energy-intensive and pollutant-emitting raw material extraction and processing (Stegmann et al., 2022; Sun et al., 2018; Zier et al., 2021) and reducing production of methane from decomposing paper in landfills (Demetrious & Crossin, 2019; Lee et al., 2017). 

Recyclable materials constitute a significant portion of global MSW, with average compositions of approximately 14% paper and cardboard, 10% plastics, 4% glass, and 3.5% metals (Kaza et al., 2018; United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP], 2024). Recycling reprocesses postconsumer materials into secondary raw materials or products without altering their chemical composition.

Figure 1 illustrates a typical single-stream recycling system at a materials recovery facility (MRF), where mechanical and optical sorting technologies separate materials by type (Gundupalli et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2022). The sorted materials then undergo cleaning, crushing or shredding, and remelting or repulping in preparation for use in manufacturing new products.

Figure 1. Overview of the separation steps in a materials recycling facility to separate metal, paper and cardboard, plastic, and glass waste. Modified from Waldrop (2020).

Diagram of a recycling facility

Source: Waldrop, M. M. (2020, October 1). Recycling meets reality. Knowable Magazine.

Metals recycling provides ferrous and non-ferrous inputs for the metal production sector, which globally emits an estimated 3.6 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr for 2–3 Gt of primary metal output (Azadi et al., 2020). Virgin (primary) metals are extracted from nonrenewable ores; as higher-grade ores are consumed, mining shifts to lower-grade ore deposits, which require more energy-intensive extraction and processing (Norgate & Jahanshahi, 2011). Using recycled metals in place of virgin metals reduces energy requirements for smelting and refining (Daehn et al., 2022) and water use during production. 

Virgin ore processing primarily emits CO₂, with smaller contributions of methane and nitrous oxide. Some primary metal production, particularly aluminum production, emits fluorinated gases (F-gases) (Raabe et al., 2019; Raabe et al., 2022). Recycling emits significantly less CO₂ than primary material production.

Paper and cardboard recycling involves hydropulping, deinking, and reforming recovered fibers into new paper products. Conventional paper is produced from virgin tree pulp and involves harvesting, debarking, chipping, and mechanical or chemical pulping. Pulp-making alone accounts for 62% of energy use and 45% of emissions in paper production (Sun et al., 2018), contributing significantly to the 1.3–2% of global GHG emissions from virgin pulp and paper manufacturing (Furszyfer Del Rio et al., 2022). Recycling uses less energy and produces fewer GHG emissions. Recycling 1 t of paper saves ~17 mature trees (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [U.S. EPA], 2016a), lessening deforestation from harvesting and reducing the energy and water required for pulping. Recovering used paper from landfills further avoids decomposition-related methane release.

Plastics recycling involves melting plastic waste into resin, forming it into granules or pellets, and using it to manufacture new products. The primary material production of plastics represents 4.5–5.3% of total global GHG emissions (Cabernard et al., 2022; Karali et al., 2024), with ~75% occurring in the early life-cycle stages. More than 99% of plastics are derived from fossil fuels. Recycling plastics reduces CO₂ and methane emissions by replacing petroleum-based feedstock with recycled plastic. 

Glass recycling crushes glass waste into cullet, which can then be melted and reintroduced as a raw material in glass manufacturing. Virgin glass production requires melting raw materials such as silica sand, soda ash, and limestone at ~1,500 °C (Baek et al., 2025; Westbroek et al., 2021) and releases CO₂ from decomposition of carbonates. Cullet use releases no CO₂ from carbonate decomposition and lowers the melting temperature, reducing furnace fuel combustion. 

This assessment evaluates metal, paper and cardboard, plastic, and glass recycling separately to better capture the distinct emissions profiles and cost requirements of each material, providing a clearer understanding of the climate benefits and trade-offs. 

Impact Calculator

Adjust effectiveness and adoption using range sliders to see resulting climate impact potential.

Effectiveness

1.48×10⁶
t CO2-eq/Mt recycled
25th
percentile
1.41×10⁶
75th
percentile
1.55×10⁶
1.48×10⁶
median

Adoption

740
Mt recycled/yr
Low
1,300
High
1,400
740
current
Achievable Range

Climate Impact

1.10
Gt CO₂-eq/yr (100-yr)
05
which is the equivalent of
1.85%
of global emissions
Adjust effectiveness and adoption using range sliders to see resulting climate impact potential.

Effectiveness

1×10⁶
t CO2-eq/Mt recycled
25th
percentile
600,000
75th
percentile
2×10⁶
1×10⁶
median

Adoption

160
Mt recycled/yr
Low
220
High
260
160
current
Achievable Range

Climate Impact

0.16
Gt CO₂-eq/yr (100-yr)
05
which is the equivalent of
0.27%
of global emissions
Adjust effectiveness and adoption using range sliders to see resulting climate impact potential.

Effectiveness

2×10⁶
t CO2-eq/Mt recycled

Adoption

35.9
Mt recycled/yr
Low
45
High
54
35.9
current
Achievable Range

Climate Impact

0.07
Gt CO₂-eq/yr (100-yr)
05
which is the equivalent of
0.12%
of global emissions
Adjust effectiveness and adoption using range sliders to see resulting climate impact potential.

Effectiveness

79,000
t CO2-eq/Mt recycled
25th
percentile
58,000
75th
percentile
100,000
79,000
median

Adoption

27
Mt recycled/yr
Low
36
High
48
27
current
Achievable Range

Climate Impact

0.00
Gt CO₂-eq/yr (100-yr)
05
which is the equivalent of
0.00%
of global emissions

The Details

Current State

We estimated recycling effectiveness as the net emissions savings from avoided primary manufacturing and landfilling, minus the emissions associated with recycling, as outlined in Equation 1 (see Climate Impact for more information on technical substitutability ratios [TSRs]). We included landfilling emissions only for materials that generate meaningful end-of-life GHG impacts. Paper and cardboard emit both biogenic CO₂ and methane emissions from anaerobic decomposition (Lee et al., 2017), and plastics contribute minor emissions from landfill handling due to their inert nature (Chamas et al., 2020; Zheng & Suh, 2019). Metals and glass are also considered inert and do not biodegrade. Their landfilling emissions are primarily from collection and transport, which fall outside the scope of this analysis.

Equation 1.

$$Effectiveness = ([Primary\ manufacturing_{emissions} \times TSR]\ + \ Landfilling_{emissions})\ - \ Recycling_{emissions}$$

Metals recycling has a high carbon abatement potential of 1,480,000 t CO₂‑eq /Mt metal waste recycled (1,650,000 t CO₂‑eq /Mt metal waste recycled, 20-year basis) (Table 1a). In our analysis, metal recycling emissions were about one-third of those from primary metal production. 

Paper and cardboard recycling has a similar carbon abatement potential of 1,000,000 t CO₂‑eq /Mt paper and cardboard waste recycled (1,000,000 t CO₂‑eq /Mt paper and cardboard waste recycled, 20-year basis) (Table 1b). Although recycling lowers fossil fuel use in pulping, our estimates showed only slightly lower emissions than primary manufacturing. In contrast, preventing CO₂ and methane release from decomposing paper in landfills have comparable emissions to primary paper production, making landfill diversion the larger climate impact.

Plastics recycling is the most effective of the four materials at reducing emissions, eliminating approximately 2,000,000 t CO₂‑eq /Mt plastic waste recycled (3,000,000 t CO₂‑eq /Mt plastic waste recycled, 20-year basis) (Table 1c). This is largely due to the high emissions intensity of virgin plastic production, which reached global production volumes of 374 Mt in 2023 (Plastics Europe, 2024a) and relies heavily on fossil fuels both as feedstocks and as energy sources for heat generation. While pellet-to-product conversion contributes to overall emissions, plastic pellet manufacturing accounts for most GHGs emitted in the plastic supply chain (Zhu et al., 2025). For studies without clearly defined boundaries, we assumed the reported emissions primarily reflected pellet production.

Glass recycling is the least effective at reducing emissions but still abates a meaningful amount at 79,000 t CO₂‑eq /Mt glass waste recycled (84,000 t CO₂‑eq /Mt glass waste recycled) (Table 1d). Emissions savings come from reduced fuel use in high-temperature melting furnaces and avoiding CO₂ release during the processing of raw materials (Baek et al., 2025).

While nitrous oxide is also released from fuel combustion during recycling of metals, paper and cardboard, plastics, and glass, it represents a small share of total CO₂‑eq emissions, so we considered it negligible (Diaz & Warith, 2006; U.S. EPA, 2016b).

Table 1. Effectiveness at reducing emissions.

Unit: t CO₂‑eq /Mt metal waste recycled, 100-yr basis

25th percentile 1,410,000
Mean 1,480,000
Median (50th percentile) 1,480,000
75th percentile 1,550,000

Unit: t CO₂‑eq /Mt paper and cardboard waste recycled, 100-yr basis

25th percentile 600,000
Mean 1,000,000
Median (50th percentile) 1,000,000
75th percentile 2,000,000

Unit: t CO₂‑eq /Mt plastic waste recycled, 100-yr basis

25th percentile 2,000,000
Mean 2,000,000
Median (50th percentile) 2,000,000
75th percentile 2,000,000

Unit: t CO₂‑eq /Mt glass waste recycled, 100-yr basis

25th percentile 58,000
Mean 79,000
Median (50th percentile) 79,000
75th percentile 100,000

Emissions mitigation from recycling metals and paper and cardboard results in net cost savings, while plastics break even and glass remains cost-intensive. Initial capital costs for all four material recycling systems are higher than for landfilling, but operating costs are lower. Net landfilling costs are overall profitable for all four materials (see Increase Centralized Composting and Improve Landfill Management for more information on landfilling costs). While operational costs for recycling can vary based on the design and efficiency of MRFs, overall savings can result from reduced landfill tipping fees, lower disposal volume, and revenue from selling recovered materials. These economic factors are determined by energy savings, market demand, and materials-specific recovery efficiencies.

Metals recycling generates net net savings of US$200 million/Mt metal waste recycled, or US$100/t CO₂‑eq mitigated (Table 2a). In addition to significantly reduced energy use and raw material costs (DebRoy & Elmer, 2024), metals recycling delivers high-quality materials comparable to newly mined metals (Damgaard et al., 2009). This drives strong market demand, with revenues often covering – and in some cases exceeding – the costs of separation and/or reprocessing alone.

Paper and cardboard recycling has the highest net savings of the four recycling streams compared to landfilling, with US$400 million/Mt paper and cardboard waste recycled. Combining effectiveness with the net costs presented here, we estimated a savings per unit climate impact of US$400/t CO₂‑eq (Table 2b). This reflects the energy and resource efficiency of paper recycling, along with revenue generation from recovered paper sales (Bajpai, 2014).

Plastics recycling costs US$8 million/Mt less than landfilling, yielding a cost saving of US$4/t CO₂‑eq (Table 2c). However, plastics recycling shows the most variability, ranging from modest savings to higher costs than primary material production. Inexpensive virgin plastics, high contamination risk, complex sorting and reprocessing, and weak or volatile market value (Li et al., 2022) make recycling plastics economically challenging without supportive policies or subsidies.

Glass recycling has a net cost of US$700 million/Mt glass waste recycled and the highest cost per unit of climate impact (US$9,000/t CO₂‑eq , Table 2d). This is due to high processing costs, low market value for cullet (e.g., selling for a fraction of the recycling cost; Figure A1), and contamination that limits resale or reuse (Bogner et al., 2007; Ng & Phan, 2021; Olafasakin et al., 2023). Although glass recycling is costly, the societal and environmental benefits are far higher than those of landfilling (Colangelo, 2024).

Financial data were geographically limited. We based cost estimates on global reports with selected studies from India, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States for landfilling and Canada, the European Union, Germany, Philippines, and the United States for recycling. Transportation and collection of recyclables can add notable costs to waste management, but we did not include them in this analysis. We calculated amortized net cost for landfilling and recycling by subtracting revenues from operating costs and amortized initial costs over a 30-year facility lifetime. Furthermore, revenues reflect market-based prices, which are subject to change based primarily on demand for recyclables.

Table 2. Cost per unit of climate impact.

Unit: 2023 US$/t CO₂‑eq , 100-yr basis

Median -100

Unit: 2023 US$/t CO₂‑eq , 100-yr basis

Median -400

Unit: 2023 US$/t CO₂‑eq , 100-yr basis

Median -4

Unit: 2023 US$/t CO₂‑eq , 100-yr basis

Median 9,000

We did not consider a learning curve for the Increase Recycling solution due to a lack of global data quantifying cost reductions specific to mechanical recycling technologies. Recycling systems use well-established processes that are already mature and widely deployed.

Recycling costs depend largely on regional factors, including material availability, market prices, infrastructure, and transportation distances. Consumer sorting habits and contamination rates also influence recycling performance and often outweigh potential learning-based cost decreases from technological improvements. Additionally, many mechanical recycling facilities operate near or at peak process efficiency, leaving little room for the technological upgrades that typically lower costs over time.

Speed of action refers to how quickly a climate solution physically affects the atmosphere after it is deployed. This is different from speed of deployment, which is the pace at which solutions are adopted.

At Project Drawdown, we define the speed of action for each climate solution as emergency brake, gradual, or delayed.

Increase Recycling is a GRADUAL climate solution. It has a steady, linear impact on the atmosphere.

Adoption

Worldwide, we estimated that metals are recycled at a rate of 740 Mt/yr (Table 3a). We based this on a study by Gorman et al. (2022), which reported that approximately 1,277 Mt of metals were produced globally in 2018 using recycled feedstocks. This value included all types of scrap metals: postconsumer, pre-consumer, and home scrap reused within factories. To isolate postconsumer recycling, we applied a 58% share based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS, 2022), which gives a typical breakdown of scrap types across major metals. While this ratio is U.S.-based, we used it as a global proxy due to limited international data. Our current adoption estimate accounts for processing losses, contamination, and quality limits that prevent a full 1:1 replacement of virgin metals (Gorman et al., 2022).

We estimated current paper and cardboard recycling at 160 Mt/yr, the median among two global datasets and one report (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2023; Table 3b). The most recent global data were compiled in 2023 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ([FAO], n.d.), and an earlier dataset from a World Bank analysis from 174 countries in 2018 (World Bank, 2018). To estimate postconsumer recycled paper, we assumed a 75% share of total paper waste based on industry averages (European Paper Recycling Council, 2024).

Plastics are currently recycled at a rate of 35.9 Mt/yr, based on one global dataset (173 countries; World Bank, 2018), two reports, and one study (Table 3c). Plastics Europe (2024a, 2024b) provides data on global mechanically recycled (postconsumer) plastics production, derived from estimations and statistical projections. We assumed the share of postconsumer plastics from Houssini et al. (2025) and World Bank (2018) to be 100% because the vast majority of plastic waste appears to originate from postconsumer sources.

Glass has the lowest current recycling rate at 27 Mt/yr, calculated as the midpoint among one global dataset (168 countries; World Bank, 2018), two reviews (Delbari & Hof, 2024; Ferdous et al., 2021), and one report (Maximize Market Research Private Limited, 2025) (Table 3d). For values based on total waste generation, we used a global production-based recycling rate, which may underestimate actual glass waste recycling due to limited data on postconsumer glass waste.

Since the World Bank (2018) provided data on waste generation in metric tons per year, we applied global recycling rates of 59.3%, 9%, and 21% to the total waste generated for paper and cardboard, plastics, and glass, respectively (see Appendix for details).

Table 3. Current adoption level.

Unit: Mt recycled/yr, 2018

Estimate (Gorman et al., 2022) 740

Unit: Mt recycled/yr, 2023

25th percentile 150
Mean 160
Median (50th percentile) 160
75th percentile 180

Unit: Mt recycled/yr, 2023

25th percentile 31.2
Mean 32.0
Median (50th percentile) 35.9
75th percentile 36.6

Unit: Mt recycled/yr, 2020

25th percentile 24
Mean 24
Median (50th percentile) 27
75th percentile 27

Postconsumer metals recycling has grown steadily in recent years (Table 4a, Figure 2). We used global data on secondary metals production from Gorman et al. (2022), a 39.1% share of recycled metals from the total addressable market (Gorman et al., 2022), and a 58% postconsumer scrap factor (USGS, 2022) to estimate the metals recycling adoption trend from 2014 to 2018. Annual adoption varies across this period. Taking the median annual change, we estimate a global adoption trend of 12 Mt/yr/yr, or 1.6% growth year-over-year (YoY). The mean annual change is estimated as 11 Mt/yr/yr, indicating consistent growth in the recovery of metals from end-of-life products.

Paper and cardboard recycling has gradually but inconsistently grown over the past two decades (Table 4b, Figure 2). Using worldwide recovered paper production data from the FAO (n.d.), we estimated the annual change in paper and cardboard waste recycled from 2003 to 2023. We applied a 75% factor to restrict this to postconsumer collection. While early years (2003–2016) in the data generally showed positive adoption, albeit with some fluctuations, more recent years (2017–2023) reflect declines, including noticeable drops in 2021–2022 (–1.9 Mt/yr/yr) and 2022–2023 (–5.4 Mt/yr/yr). The overall adoption trend is mixed despite a brief spike in 2020–2021. Taking the median annual change over the full 20-year period, we estimated a global trend of 2.2 Mt/yr/yr or a 1.3% YoY growth. The mean annual change is slightly higher at 2.8 Mt/yr/yr (2.0% YoY growth), indicating moderate but uneven progress in the recovery of paper and cardboard.

Plastics recycling is slowly increasing as a share of global plastic waste management, but the overall trend remains modest (Table 4c, Figure 2). We used data from the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development ([OECD], 2022a) to estimate global adoption trends from 2000–2019 and supplemented this with 2019–2023 estimates from Plastics Europe (2022, 2023, 2024a). The adoption trend fluctuates from year to year, reflecting variability in collection rates, contamination levels, and recycling infrastructure. Taking the median annual change in recycled plastic waste across 23 years, we estimated a global adoption trend of 1.3 Mt/yr/yr, or 8.5% YoY growth. The mean annual change is slightly higher at 1.4 Mt/yr/yr, suggesting a slow growth in recycling capacity compared with plastic production volumes. However, this progress is uneven across geographies, with some countries expanding recycling systems while others face barriers, including limited infrastructure and low incentives for recovery.

Glass recycling showed a median annual change of 0 Mt/yr/yr and a mean of 0.8 Mt/yr/yr (3.7% growth YoY) from 2009–2019 (Table 4d, Figure 2). These estimates are based on Chen et al. (2020), who modeled World Bank data (Kaza et al., 2018) to generate a global dataset of waste treatment quantities across 217 countries. The apparent absence of change likely reflects limited availability of global data and inconsistent reporting rather than truly flat adoption. Although the dataset from Chen et al. (2020) is comprehensive, it is modeled rather than based on reported figures.

Table 4. Adoption trend.

Unit: Mt/yr/yr, 2014–2018

25th percentile 2.3
Mean 11
Median (50th percentile) 12
75th percentile 20

Unit: Mt/yr/yr, 2003–2023

25th percentile 0.15
Mean 2.8
Median (50th percentile) 2.2
75th percentile 5.9

Unit: Mt/yr/yr, 2000–2023

25th percentile 0.93
Mean 1.4
Median (50th percentile) 1.3
75th percentile 1.8

Unit: Mt/yr/yr, 2009–2019

25th percentile 0
Mean 0.8
Median (50th percentile) 0
75th percentile 0

Figure 2. Trends in recycling adoption of metals (2014–2018), paper & cardboard (2003–2023), plastics (2000–2023), and glass (2009–2019). Adapted from Chen et al. (2020), FAO (n.d.), Gorman et al. (2022), OECD (2022a), and Plastics Europe (2022, 2023, 2024a).

Sources: Chen, D. M.-C., Bodirsky, B. L., Krueger, T., Mishra, A., & Popp, A. (2020). The world’s growing municipal solid waste: Trends and impacts. Environmental Research Letters, 15(7), Article 074021; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.). FAO‑FAOSTAT: Forestry production and trade [Data set]. Retrieved April 25, 2025; Gorman, M. R., Dzombak, D. A., & Frischmann, C. (2022). Potential global GHG emissions reduction from increased adoption of metals recycling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 184, Article 106424; Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development. (2022a). Global plastics outlook database [Data set]; Plastics Europe. (2022). Plastics – the facts 2022 [Report]; Plastics Europe. (2023). Plastics – the fast facts 2023 [Infographic]; Plastics Europe. (2024a). Plastics – the fast facts 2024 [Infographic].

Metals recycling adoption is expected to remain high, with the global ceiling estimated at 2,100 Mt/yr (Table 5a). This corresponds to 68.2% of total projected metals production by 2050, based on the “maximum scenario” in Gorman et al. (2022). The scenario reflects a best-case technical potential of recycled metals adoption under full utilization of scrap feedstocks (Gorman et al., 2022). It assumes that all available postconsumer, pre-consumer, and home scrap can be recovered and can fully replace as much virgin material as possible using current technologies. We isolated the postconsumer portion as a 58% share of available metal scrap, as outlined in USGS (2022) data. 

There is also a strong potential for increased paper and cardboard recycling, with an estimated adoption ceiling of 360 Mt/yr (Table 5b). We assumed a recovery rate of 85% of total global paper production, accounting for practical limits imposed by fiber degradation, contamination, and processing inefficiencies. According to UNODC (2023), about 48% of paper globally is produced from recycled materials, leaving considerable room for improvement. The 85% ceiling also assumes that not all types of paper can be recovered (e.g., sanitary paper or heavily coated grades). Because this value is based on production rather than discarded paper waste, it may slightly underestimate the ceiling based on postconsumer waste generation. 

We estimated the adoption ceiling for plastics recycling at 180 Mt/yr (Table 5c). Technical barriers such as contamination, material heterogeneity, and plastic degradation constrain large-scale adoption. We therefore assumed and applied a 70% recycling rate to postconsumer plastic waste streams. We obtained similar estimates across multiple sources reporting global plastic waste generation (Houssini et al., 2025; OECD, 2022b; Stegmann et al., 2022). 

We estimated a ceiling of 100 Mt/yr for glass recycling (Table 5d) based on a 90% recovery rate from global waste generation estimates (Chen et al., 2020; Ferdous et al., 2021). Although glass is considered infinitely recyclable, losses due to contamination, sorting inefficiencies, and market constraints limit complete recovery. We included modeled estimates from Chen et al. (2020) to provide a more comprehensive global ceiling due to the scarcity of global data on glass recycling. 

For metals and paper and cardboard, values are derived from single datasets; for plastics, rounding across multiple datasets produced identical values across percentiles. Therefore, only the median is shown for these three subsolutions.

Table 5. Adoption ceiling.

Unit: Mt recycled/yr

Estimate (Gorman et al., 2022) 2,100

Unit: Mt recycled/yr

Estimate (UNODC, 2023) 360

Unit: Mt recycled/yr

Median (50th percentile) 180

Unit: Mt recycled/yr

25th percentile 94
Mean 100
Median (50th percentile) 100
75th percentile 110

For sources reporting global recycling rates or tonnage for all materials except metals, we define low and high achievable adoption as 25% or 50% increase in the most recently available material-specific recycle rate, respectively.

For metals recycling, achievable adoption is largely shaped by the dynamics of secondary metal production in global commodity markets, which in turn depends on the relative quantity of scrap available (Ciacci et al., 2016). We set achievable adoption at 1,300–1,400 Mt/yr by 2050 (Table 6a), based on the “plausible” and “ambitious” scenarios from Gorman et al. (2022), respectively. These estimates represent 41–48% of projected global metals production and incorporate both postconsumer and pre-consumer scrap, with the postconsumer share standardized at 58% across scenarios (USGS, 2022). Major commodity metals included in these estimates are steel, aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, iron, nickel, and manganese, which together represent more than 99% of all metal demand by mass from 2014–2018 (USGS, 2021). Material availability and infrastructure for downstream scrap processing remain key hurdles (Allwood et al., 2025), although industrial-scale recovery systems are already well established in many high-income countries (Campbell et al., 2022; de Sa & Korinek, 2021).

We estimated the achievable adoption range for paper and cardboard recycling at 220–260 Mt/yr (Table 6b), with an assumed postconsumer share of 75% applied to the total global recycling volumes reported by FAO (n.d.) and UNODC (2023). This range reflects expanded municipal collection, improvements in fiber separation technologies, and increased demand for recovered pulp in paper manufacturing. 

Plastics recycling has substantial opportunity for growth, given <10% global recycling rates and the exponential growth of plastic accumulation in the environment (Dokl et al., 2024; Nayanathara Thathsarani Pilapitiya & Ratnayake, 2024). A 25–50% increase in global mechanically recycled plastic volumes would bring the achievable range to 45–54 Mt/yr (Table 6c). While meaningful, these levels are 8–9 times smaller than the 414 Mt of plastic produced in 2023 (Plastics Europe, 2024a). Constraints include the complexity of sorting mixed plastic streams, limited market demand for lower-grade recycled pellets, and insufficient investment in complementary technologies such as chemical recycling, which remains below 0.5 Mt/yr.

For glass recycling, we set an achievable adoption range of 36–48 Mt/yr by 2050 (Table 6d), based on harmonized waste modeling and forward-looking estimates from Chen et al. (2020) and Delbari and Hof (2024). However, this scale-up depends substantially on reducing contamination at the collection stage, expanding color- and ceramic-sorting technologies, and improving closed-loop markets for container glass (Baek et al., 2025; Yuan et al., 2024).

Table 6. Range of achievable adoption.

Unit: Mt recycled/yr

Current adoption 740
Achievable – low 1300
Achievable – high 1400
Adoption ceiling 2100

Unit: Mt recycled/yr

Current adoption 160
Achievable – low 220
Achievable – high 260
Adoption ceiling 360

Unit: Mt recycled/yr

Current adoption 36
Achievable – low 45
Achievable – high 54
Adoption ceiling 180

Unit: Mt recycled/yr

Current adoption 27
Achievable – low 36
Achievable – high 48
Adoption ceiling 100

Impacts

Increased recycling has strong potential for climate impact, especially in reducing emissions from virgin material production and landfilling waste (see Appendix for waste sector emissions). 

Metals recycling has the highest current and achievable GHG emissions savings of the four material categories (Table 7a). At a >500 Mt/yr current adoption rate, we estimate current metals recycling avoids 1.1 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (1.2 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis). Our low and high achievable adoption levels reduce 1.9 and 2.1 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (2.1 and 2.4 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis), respectively, with annual GHG reductions up to 3.1 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (3.5 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis) using the adoption ceiling. 

Paper and cardboard recycling currently avoids 0.16 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.16 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis) (Table 7b). Achievable GHG reduction is 0.22–0.26 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.22–0.26 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis), with a maximum potential of 0.36 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.36 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis).

Plastics recycling has a lower current climate impact of 0.07 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.1 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis), but it has the potential to increase to a ceiling matching that of recycling paper and cardboard (Table 7c). We estimated low and high achievable adoption levels avoid 0.09 and 0.1 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.1 and 0.2 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis), respectively, with GHG emissions savings of 0.4 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.5 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis) at the adoption ceiling. The 20-year impacts highlight the mitigated methane emissions associated with oil refining for virgin plastic production, with recycling plastics reducing both the need for petrochemical feedstocks and the volume of waste sent to landfills.

Glass recycling has the lowest current and achievable emissions reductions, avoiding 0.0021 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.0023 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis) with the potential to increase to 0.0028–0.0038 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.0030–0.0041 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis) under higher adoption (Table 7d). We estimated a maximum impact ceiling of 0.0079 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr (0.0084 Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 20-year basis). Although emissions savings are relatively small, glass recycling is still worthwhile to benefit from cullet-driven energy reductions, conserve raw materials, and contribute to larger reductions when combined with other materials in municipal recycling programs.

Table 7. Climate impact at different levels of adoption.

Unit: Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 100-year basis

Current adoption 1.1
Achievable – low 1.9
Achievable – high 2.1
Adoption ceiling 3.1

Unit: Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 100-year basis

Current adoption 0.16
Achievable – low 0.22
Achievable – high 0.26
Adoption ceiling 0.36

Unit: Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 100-year basis

Current adoption 0.07
Achievable – low 0.09
Achievable – high 0.1
Adoption ceiling 0.4

Unit: Gt CO₂‑eq/yr, 100-year basis

Current adoption 0.0021
Achievable – low 0.0028
Achievable – high 0.0038
Adoption ceiling 0.0079

In our analysis, we adjusted emissions reductions from recycling using a TSR, since recycled materials often do not replace virgin materials on a 1:1 basis due to differences in quality, durability, or performance (Nordahl & Scown, 2024). To ensure we didn’t overestimate emissions savings, we applied an average material-specific ratio that adjusted the avoided emissions from primary material production. Recycled paper and cardboard and glass were assigned a ratio of 0.83; metals, 0.90; and plastics, 0.80 (Figure 3). These unitless ratios were based on technical literature (Barbato et al., 2024; Rigamonti et al., 2020; UNEP, 2024; Zheng & Suh, 2019) and were applied consistently across all emissions units for effectiveness.

Figure 3. Conceptual diagram of a general recycling loop for (a) metals, (b) paper & cardboard, (c) plastics, and (d) glass and how technical substitutability determines the maximum share of recycled content due to quality constraints. Graphics for (b), including the MRF and manufacturing plant for (a), (c), and (d), were modified from International Paper (n.d.). BioRender and Canva were used to make the remaining graphics.

Recycling cycle diagram.

Source: International Paper. (n.d.). Paper’s life cycle: The recycling process [Infographic]. Retrieved June 10, 2025.

Income and Work

Recycling can create jobs and reduce energy costs. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimated that incinerating or landfilling 10 kt of waste creates one or six jobs respectively, while recycling the same amount of waste creates 36 jobs (NIH Environmental Management System [NEMS], n.d.). A case study in Florida found that increasing recycling rates can lead to small amounts of job growth, with most new jobs concentrated in the recycling processing sector (Liu et al., 2020). 

Using recycled materials can reduce the need for imports and support domestic manufacturing (Das et al., 2010; Dussaux & Glachant, 2019). The sale of products manufactured from recyclables instead of virgin materials can translate to economic benefits. A study of recycling systems in Nigeria found that the sale of recyclables could contribute about US$11.7 million to the country’s economy each year and create about 16,562 new jobs (Ayodele et al., 2018).  

Health

Materials in landfills can leach into the surrounding environment (McGinty, 2021). Plastics, along with associated additives such as bisphenol A and phthalates, can degrade into microplastics that enter the surrounding ecosystem and food chain, posing health risks to humans (Bauer et al., 2022; Li et al., 2022; Rajmohan et al., 2019; Zheng & Suh, 2019).

Equality

In low- and middle-income countries, informal recycling, which involves networks of individuals who sort through waste and sell or recycle it using informal methods, is a common form of waste management (Yang et al., 2018). Increasing recycling in these contexts could formalize this recycling method and improve some of the social and health equity concerns associated with informal recycling, such as exploitation, safety, child labor, and occupational health exposures, and may improve income-earning capabilities (Aparcana & Salhofer, 2013; Yang et al., 2018). Low- and middle-income countries typically face a disproportionate burden of plastic pollution, which could be improved by increasing recycling capacities globally (World Wildlife Fund [WWF], 2023). 

Land Resources

Recycling can benefit land resources and soil quality by reducing materials in landfills and incinerators and by reducing the need to extract virgin materials such as timber and minerals (Dussaux & Glachant, 2019; McGinty, 2021; U.S. EPA, 2025). Rajmohan et al. (2019) estimated that about 22–43% of plastic waste reaches landfills. Plastic waste can degrade into microplastics, leaching into surrounding ecosystems and reducing soil fertility (McGinty, 2021; Rajmohan et al., 2019). The environmental benefits of displacing the need for production using virgin materials through recycling may be more significant than reducing landfilling (Geyer et al., 2016). Recycling, along with the use of wood residues, is projected to reduce the demand for wood and fiber, easing pressures on land resources (FAO, 2009). 

Water Resources

Recycling can reduce the amount of water needed to produce new materials. For example, using recycled steel to make steel requires 40% less water than using virgin materials (NEMS, n.d.).

Air Quality

Increasing recycling reduces the amount of waste in landfills and incinerators and can reduce harmful pollution associated with landfilling and incineration (U.S. EPA, 2025). Additionally, recycling reduces the need to mine and process new materials, thereby reducing air pollution emitted during these processes (U.S. EPA, 2025).

Other

Manufacturing emissions reductions due to recycling of metals, paper and cardboard, plastics, and glass are generally both permanent and additional, depending on local regulations and recycling practices. While recycling reduces the need for virgin production of raw materials and associated emissions, several caveats affect the extent of its climate benefits. 

Permanence

There is a low risk that the avoided emissions from increased recycling will be reversed in the next 100 years. Using recycled materials in place of newly extracted (virgin) resources avoids emissions from extraction, refining, and manufacturing. These reductions are considered permanent because the avoided activities occur to a lesser extent and fewer associated emissions are released. Recycling uses less energy and therefore reduces burning of fossil fuels and emits less GHGs. Avoided methane emissions from landfilled paper waste also has high permanence.

Additionality

Emissions reductions from increasing recycling are additional when improvements go beyond what would happen anyway under existing law or infrastructure. Increases in recycled rates, expansion to underdeveloped areas, and improvements in recycled material quality can result in additional climate benefits (Awino & Apitz, 2024; Halog & Anieke, 2021; Oo et al., 2024; Valenzuela-Levi et al., 2021). Efforts to enable or expand closed-loop recycling are also considered additional, especially for glass bottle recycling and in regions without this infrastructure.

Other Caveats

Material-specific limitations also apply. Material losses during product use and end-of-life processing limit metals recycling. Many metals are locked in products with long lifespans, difficult-to-separate designs, or technically unrecoverable applications, reducing availability for recycling (Ciacci et al., 2016; Guo et al., 2023). While improved recycling can decrease losses (Charpentier Poncelet et al., 2022), stagnant recycled metal inputs do not match growing metal demand (Watari et al., 2025).

Paper and cardboard can be recycled only five to seven times before fibers degrade beyond usability (Bajpai, 2014; Obradovic & Mishra, 2020), limiting long-term recyclability. Plastic recycling faces similar limits because many plastics degrade after a few cycles and mechanical processes are highly sensitive to contamination (Klotz et al., 2022; Klotz et al., 2023). For glass, downcycling is common due to quality control issues and variable regional demand for high-purity cullet. Van Ewijk et al. (2021) also emphasized that the benefits of paper recycling depend substantially on the carbon intensity of the energy used, highlighting the need to power recycling with low-carbon electricity.

Increasing metals recycling, paper and cardboard recycling, and plastics recycling can inadvertently increase environmental and human exposure to hazardous chemicals if not properly managed. Exposure to heavy metal fumes can occur while processing metal waste, and concealed pressurized or reactive items in scrap can cause fires or explosions. Chemical additives such as mineral oils and printing inks often persist throughout the paper life cycle and can migrate into the environment and food packaging, posing health risks such as chronic inflammation, endocrine disruption, and cancer (Pivnenko et al., 2016; Sobhani & Palanisami, 2025). Flame retardants, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and other pollutants can leach from materials during and after plastics recycling. Microplastics accumulate at higher concentrations in recycled plastics and are released during all recycling stages (Monclús et al., 2025; Singh & Walker, 2024). Additionally, recycled papers and plastics contain unintentionally added substances, which carry different additives whose composition is often unknown (Monclús et al., 2025; Sobhani & Palanisami, 2025).

Increased plastics collection for recycling without global coordination can lead to disproportionate plastic pollution if high-income countries export plastic waste to low-income countries with inadequate recycling infrastructure (Singh & Walker, 2024).

When glass recycling is included in single-stream systems, glass shards can damage MRF machinery and contaminate other recyclable materials, decreasing their market value (Deer, 2021). Additionally, the heavy weight and fragility of glass means recycling trucks require multiple trips, consuming more fuel and increasing transportation costs. 

Another key risk is that materials collected for recycling may ultimately be landfilled when poor market conditions prevent their recovery. 

Ciacci et al. (2016) and van Ewijk and Stegemann (2023) noted that as recycling approaches near-total recovery, energy consumption steeply rises, driven by increased decontamination efforts, sorting challenges, and diminished material quality. However, recycling rates are currently low enough that recycling is less carbon intense than primary material manufacturing.

The eventual quality degradation in secondary materials requires supplementation with virgin resources. However, overall embodied emissions are still lower than they would be for producing all-new materials. 

Glass recycling poses a trade-off between convenience and recycling efficiency in single-stream systems. Only 40% of glass is repurposed into new products, and the glass can contaminate other materials. Multi-stream or source-separated systems require more effort but achieve 90%-plus recycling rates (Berardocco et al., 2022; Deer, 2021).

Watari et al. (2025) noted that countries can achieve high local recycling rates and high recycled content by importing scrap metals from elsewhere, but with the trade-off that metal production emissions are offshored rather than reduced. This also introduces dependencies on international scrap flows and global supply chains (Guo et al., 2023), which can similarly occur for paper, cardboard, and plastics.

Reinforcing

All of these solutions can reuse clean and high-quality recycled materials as a raw material or feedstock or repurpose them as substitute materials in targeted uses. The embodied emissions from the recovered waste used as production or process inputs will be reduced, enhancing the solutions’ net climate impacts and supporting circularity.

Recycling paper and cardboard waste reduces deforestation required for extracting and processing primary raw materials.

Increased adoption of efficient mechanical recycling systems and equipment can improve the rate and cost of scaling similar highly-efficient, complementary technologies (e.g., chemical recycling). 

Competing

Diverting certain paper and cardboard types from landfills lowers methane emissions available to be captured and sold for biogas revenue. Paper and cardboard recycling also can reduce the amount of material that can be converted into biochar or compost.

Consensus of effectiveness of recycling as a climate solution: High 

Recycling reduces solid waste, mitigates GHG emissions from landfilled solid waste, and offers significant savings in electricity and fuel consumption (Cudjoe et al., 2021; Kaza et al., 2018; Uekert et al., 2023). UNEP (2024) estimated that 2.1 Gt of municipal solid waste was generated globally in 2020, and projected that to increase to 3.8 Gt by 2050 if action is not taken. Although postconsumer waste contributes ~5% to total global GHG emissions (Oo et al., 2024), around 30–37% of global waste ends up in landfills with only 19% recovered through recycling and composting processes (Kaza et al., 2018; UNEP, 2024).

Three extensive reviews of industrial decarbonization identify four technologies either ready for near-term deployment or already achieving material impact across global industries: electrification, material efficiency, energy efficiency, and circularity driven by increased reuse and recycling (Daehn et al., 2022; Gailani et al., 2024; Rissman et al., 2020). The last includes recovery of the four waste subcategories considered in this solution, where metals and plastics rank among the top six most-produced human-made materials globally (BioCubes, n.d.).

Incorporating recycled metal scraps into manufacturing consumes 30–95% less energy than producing metals from raw feedstocks, where the primary metal sector emits approximately 10% of global GHG emissions from energy-intensive mining, smelting, and refining (Yokoi et al., 2022). Reprocessing 1 t of plastic waste can save up to 130 GJ of energy (Singh & Walker, 2024), and secondary production of plastics with a ~40% global collection rate could mitigate 160 Mt CO₂ /yr in 2050 (Daehn et al., 2022). Glass recycling offers 2–3% energy savings and a 5% reduction in CO₂ emissions from furnace fuel combustion for every 10% increase in cullet content in the melting batch (Baek et al., 2025; Glass Packaging Institute, n.d.; Miserocchi et al., 2024). 

We reiterate that GHG savings from recycling are highly sensitive to assumptions such as material quality, contamination rates, transportation distances, and market conditions. These factors introduce uncertainty because recycling benefits can vary depending on the efficiency of recycling systems in practice and market viability.

The results presented in this document summarize findings from 18 reports, 22 reviews and meta-analyses, 41 original studies, nine perspectives, two books, five web articles, and three datasets reflecting the most recent evidence for more than 200 countries. 

Take Action

Looking to get involved? Below are some key actions for this solution that can get you started, arranged according to different roles you may play in your professional or personal life.

These actions are meant to be starting points for involvement and are not intended to be prescriptive or necessarily suggest they are the most important or impactful actions to take. We encourage you to explore and get creative!

Lawmakers and Policymakers

  • Establish ambitious recycling goals; incorporate them into climate plans.
  • Ensure public procurement uses recycled materials or products as much as possible.
  • Consult with manufacturers, retailers, and the public to determine how best to design local recycling programs.
  • Empower citizen leaders to help manage MSW collection and recycling programs; ensure legal and regulatory structures clearly designate citizen and/or local control to avoid political disagreements and interference.
  • Use decision-making models and economic analysis tools to design MSW systems that incorporate aspects such as life-cycle assessments, material flows, cost/benefit analyses, environmental impact assessments, management systems, and assessments of immediate impacts on human well-being, especially in low-income and urban settings.
  • Ensure waste management systems and practices are appropriate for the local context and not just imported models from other countries.
  • Coordinate recycling efforts, policies, and budgets horizontally (e.g., across agencies) and vertically (e.g., across subnational, national, and international efforts), ensuring an inclusive process for local communities.
  • Use financial incentives that are appropriate for the local context such as subsidizing recycling plants, transportation, and pickup; offer tax exemptions and other incentives to low-income communities.
  • Use financial disincentives and taxes appropriate for the local context, such as landfilling fees, rent and/or property taxes, product fees, and collection fees included in utility bills or tied to waste quantity; ensure fees do not burden or stop low-income communities from recycling (possibly by tying collection fees to income bracket).
  • Invest in waste management infrastructure, including waste drop-off and buy-back centers, collection and separation facilities, roads and collection vehicles, education programs, community engagement mechanisms, and research and development for more efficient recycling techniques, behavioral change mechanisms, product design, and alternative materials.
  • Institute bans on landfilling recyclable (or compostable) materials; establish penalties for noncompliance.
  • Enact container deposit programs to encourage recycling and reuse.
  • Mandate standard shapes and color coding for waste bins to facilitate collection and separation.
  • Ban single-use plastics such as shopping bags and water bottles; ensure strong customs enforcement for imports.
  • Enact extended producer responsibility approaches that hold producers accountable for waste; set standards for the traceability of materials; require clear labeling for recyclable products.
  • Aim to eliminate government corruption behind illicit waste trade; create monitoring programs to hold waste managers accountable.
  • Incentivize or encourage waste management facilities to run on renewable energy and use electric fleets.
  • Incentivize or encourage manufacturers – including climate solution industries such as solar and wind producers – to use as much recycled materials as possible.
  • Require products made of metal, paper, plastic, or glass to contain a minimum percentage of recycled materials; ensure packaging producers meet recycling obligations potentially through the use of market-based mechanisms such as packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) and/or packaging waste export recovery notes (PERNs).
  • Work to bring informal waste pickers into the formal MSW system by providing or advocating for training, protective gear, formal employment, free or low-cost childcare services, and other social benefits and purchasing separated recyclable waste.
  • Work with businesses and industries to develop consistent markets for recycled goods and stabilize the price of recycled materials.
  • Carefully enter into transparent public–private recycling partnerships, ensuring legal systems can enforce compliance with contractual terms.
  • Set collection fees, designate collection areas, and establish the amount of monitoring services at the municipal level rather than letting private companies do so.
  • Improve building codes and manufacturing regulations to require the use of recycled materials and material traceability; set standards for building and vehicle demolition to require the recovery of window glass and other recyclable materials.
  • Set recycling-facilitating regulations and standards for product disassembly.
  • Set standards that ease barriers for trading recycled goods and recyclable materials; halt the export of waste from rich countries to low- and middle-income countries; enforce trade standards and ensure illicit trade networks do not circumvent them.
  • Foster cooperation and technology transfers between low- and middle-income countries, avoiding models used in rich countries that are ill-suited for other contexts.
  • Deploy diverse means of engaging the public in recycling, such as volunteer groups, social activities, and musical trucks.
  • Create or improve training programs for waste management professionals that focus on practical skills and knowledge for working with communities to design and manage MSW systems.
  • Partner with schools, manufacturers, retailers, nonprofits, and other community organizations to promote recycling.
  • Establish programs that teach how to separate waste effectively, the waste hierarchy, and why these processes are important; incorporate these concepts into public school curricula.

Further information:

Practitioners

  • Place recycling plants as close to points of waste generation as possible.
  • Consult with government officials, manufacturers, retailers, and the public to determine how best to design local recycling programs; utilize local data to inform planning, development, collection, and sorting techniques.
  • Support and cooperate with citizen leaders to help manage MSW collection and recycling programs.
  • Use decision-making models and economic analysis tools to design MSW systems that incorporate aspects such as life-cycle assessments, material flows, cost/benefit analyses, environmental impact assessments, management systems, and assessments of immediate impacts on human well-being, especially in low-income and urban settings.
  • Take advantage of financial incentives such as subsidies for recycling plant construction, transportation, and pickup; if none exist, advocate to policymakers for incentives.
  • Invest in waste management infrastructure, including waste drop-off and buy-back centers, collection and separation facilities, roads, collection vehicles, education programs, community engagement mechanisms, and research and development for more efficient recycling techniques, behavioral change mechanisms, product design, and alternatives to non-recyclable materials.
  • Use energy efficiency equipment and enhanced heat recovery techniques; install smart technology control systems.
  • Use electric equipment and renewable energy sources as much as possible.
  • Work with the renewable energy industry to ensure new solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbines utilize as much recycled materials as possible.
  • Work to bring informal waste pickers into the formal MSW system by providing or advocating for training, protective gear, formal employment, free or low-cost childcare services, and other social benefits and purchasing separated recyclable waste.
  • Work with policymakers, businesses, and industries to develop consistent markets for recycled goods and stabilize the price of recycled materials.
  • Deploy diverse means of engaging the public in recycling, such as volunteer groups, social activities, and musical trucks.
  • Create or improve training programs for waste management professionals that focus on practical skills and knowledge for working with communities to design and manage MSW systems.
  • Partner with schools, manufacturers, retailers, nonprofits, and other community organizations to promote recycling.
  • Establish programs that teach how to separate waste effectively, the waste hierarchy, and why these processes are important; incorporate these concepts into public school curricula.

Further information:

Business Leaders

  • Use recycled materials in business operations as much as possible and ensure employees recycle.
  • Improve the quality of products, reduce material usage and product weight, and extend product life cycles through design that allows for easy reuse, repair, upgrading, recycling, and remanufacturing.
  • Work with industry peers to set design standards for common products that contain recycled materials.
  • Improve the traceability of materials used in products to enhance sorting efficiency.
  • Collect used products and reuse the materials for future production.
  • Advocate to policymakers for improved municipal recycling programs and support for integrating recycled products into your industry.
  • Provide financial assistance to employees for training in sustainable waste management, circular business models, and other related fields.
  • Create or join platforms that allow business-to-business collaboration to increase adoption of recycling and integration of recycled materials into products and business models.
  • Conduct market research on consumer demands and trends to identify potential markets for recycled materials.
  • Fund research or start-ups that aim to boost recycling in your industry.
  • Create, support, or join education campaigns and/or public-private partnerships that facilitate collaboration on recycling.

Further information:

Nonprofit Leaders

  • Ensure procurement uses strategies to reduce waste and use recycled materials as much as possible.
  • Help administer local recycling programs; take advantage of financial incentives such as subsidies for recycling plants, transportation, and pickup; ensure services are provided to low-income communities.
  • Consult with government officials, manufacturers, retailers, and the public to determine how best to design local recycling programs.
  • Help recycling service providers navigate certification and permitting; help identify funding opportunities.
  • Help develop decision-making models and economic analyses for designing recycling systems, incorporating aspects such as life-cycle assessments, material flows, cost/benefit analyses, environmental impact assessments, management systems, and assessments of impacts on human well-being, especially in low-income and urban settings.
  • Improve data collection on employment figures in the waste and recycling sectors; work to capture labor statistics for informal waste pickers – especially, women and children involved in the sector that are not captured by current data.
  • Advocate for ambitious public recycling goals, including integration into local and national climate plans.
  • Advocate for international trade standards that ease barriers for trading in recycled goods and recyclable materials; seek to halt the practice of rich countries exporting waste to low- and middle-income countries; advocate for better enforcement of trade standards to ensure illicit trade networks do not circumvent these standards.
  • Create or improve training programs for waste management professionals that focus on practical skills and knowledge for working with communities to design and manage MSW systems.
  • Advocate for bans on discarding recyclable materials to landfills and penalties for noncompliance.
  • Establish or advocate for container deposit programs to encourage recycling and reuse.
  • Advocate for bans on single use plastics such as shopping bags and water bottles.
  • Advocate for extended producer responsibility approaches that hold producers accountable for waste; demand standards for traceability and labeling of materials in products to facilitate recycling.
  • Empower citizen leaders to help manage MSW collection and recycling programs; advocate for clear legal and regulatory structures to avoid political disagreements and interference.
  • Help safeguard against government corruption to avoid the illicit waste trade; create monitoring programs to hold waste management companies and/or leadership accountable.
  • Deploy diverse means of engaging the public in recycling, such as volunteer groups, social activities, and musical trucks.
  • Work to bring informal waste pickers into the formal MSW system by providing or advocating for training, protective gear, formal employment, free or low-cost childcare services, and other social benefits.
  • Help facilitate local cooperatives or other management structures for recycling programs; offer to purchase separated recyclable waste from waste pickers.
  • Work with businesses and industry to develop consistent markets for recycled goods and stabilize the price of recycled materials.
  • Partner with schools, manufacturers, retailers, nonprofits, and other community organizations to promote recycling.
  • Establish programs that teach how to separate waste effectively, the waste hierarchy, and why these processes are important; incorporate these concepts into public school curricula.
  • Create, support, or join education campaigns and/or public-private partnerships that facilitate collaboration on recycling.

Further information:

Investors

  • Ensure portfolio companies and company procurement reduce waste, recycle, and use recycled materials at all stages of the supply chain.
  • Require portfolio companies to measure and report on waste, recycling rates, and use of recycled materials.
  • Provide low-interest loans to recycling service providers for start-up capital, improving efficiency, transitioning to renewable energy, and other development needs.
  • Invest in companies developing or modifying products to be compatible with a circular economy.
  • Fund start-ups that aim to improve sorting technologies, alternative packaging materials, energy efficiency of waste separation equipment, and other industry needs.
  • Offer financial services, notably rural financial market development, including low-interest loans, microfinancing, and grants, to support recycling initiatives.
  • Create, support, or join education campaigns and/or public-private partnerships that facilitate collaboration on recycling.

Further information:

Philanthropists and International Aid Agencies

  • Ensure your organization’s procurement recycles and uses recycled materials as much as possible.
  • Help administer local recycling programs; take advantage of financial incentives such as subsidies for recycling plants, transportation, and pickup; ensure services are provided to low-income communities.
  • Foster cooperation and technology transfers between low- and middle-income countries, avoiding models used in rich countries that are ill-suited for other contexts.
  • Offer grants and loans to establish recycling projects, ensuring projects have sustainable means of generating income sources to maintain operations after grant or loan terms end.
  • Provide low-interest loans to recycling service providers for start-up capital, improving efficiency, transitioning to renewable energy, and other development needs.
  • Invest in companies developing or modifying products to be compatible with a circular economy.
  • Fund start-ups that aim to improve sorting technologies, alternative packaging materials, energy efficiency of waste separation equipment, and other industry needs.
  • Offer financial services, notably rural financial market development, including low-interest loans, microfinancing, and grants to support recycling initiatives.
  • Hold community consultations with government officials, manufacturers, retailers, and the public to determine how best to design local recycling programs.
  • Help recycling service providers navigate certification and permitting processes.
  • Help develop decision-making models and economic analyses for designing recycling systems, incorporating aspects such as life-cycle assessments, material flows, cost/benefit analyses, environmental impact assessments, management systems, and assessments of impacts on human well-being, especially in low-income and urban settings.
  • Improve data collection on employment figures in the waste and recycling sectors; work to capture labor statistics for informal waste pickers – especially, women and children involved in the sector that are not captured by current data.
  • Advocate for ambitious public recycling goals and for the goals to be integrated into local and national climate plans.
  • Advocate for international trade standards that ease barriers for trading in recycled goods and recyclable materials; seek to halt the practice of rich countries exporting waste to low- and middle-income countries; advocate for better enforcement of trade standards to ensure illicit trade networks do not circumvent these standards.
  • Create or improve training programs for waste management professionals that focus on practical skills and knowledge for working with communities to design and manage MSW systems.
  • Advocate for bans on discarding recyclable (or compostable) materials to landfills and penalties for noncompliance.
  • Establish or advocate for container deposit programs to encourage recycling and reuse.
  • Advocate for bans on single use plastics such as shopping bags and water bottles.
  • Advocate for extended producer responsibility approaches that hold producers accountable for waste; demand standards for the traceability and labeling of materials in products to facilitate the recycling process.
  • Empower citizen leaders to help manage MSW collection and recycling programs; advocate for clear legal and regulatory structures to avoid political disagreements and interference.
  • Help safeguard against government corruption to avoid the illicit waste trade; create monitoring programs to hold waste management companies and/or leadership accountable.
  • Deploy diverse means of engaging the public in recycling, such as volunteer groups, social activities, and musical trucks.
  • Work to bring informal waste pickers into the formal MSW system by providing or advocating for training, protective gear, formal employment, free or low-cost childcare services, and other social benefits.
  • Help facilitate local cooperatives or other management structures for recycling programs; offer to purchase separated recyclable waste from waste pickers.
  • Work with businesses and industry to develop consistent markets for recycled goods and to stabilize the price of recycled materials.
  • Partner with schools, manufacturers, retailers, nonprofits, and other community organizations to promote recycling.
  • Establish programs that teach how to separate waste effectively, the waste hierarchy, and why these processes are important; incorporate these concepts into public school curricula.
  • Create, support, or join education campaigns and/or public-private partnerships that facilitate collaboration on recycling.

Further information:

Thought Leaders

  • Adopt recycling, share your experience, and inform your community how to effectively recycle in your area.
  • Consult with government officials, manufacturers, retailers, and the public to determine how best to design local recycling programs.
  • Help recyclers navigate certification and permitting; help identify funding opportunities.
  • Help develop decision-making models and economic analyses for designing recycling systems, incorporating aspects such as life-cycle assessments, material flows, cost/benefit analyses, environmental impact assessments, management systems, and assessments of impacts on human well-being, especially in low-income and urban settings.
  • Create ways of tracing materials and verifying recycled materials; explore the use of blockchain technology.
  • Conduct climate impact assessments of chemical recycling for plastics at an industrial scale; assess its feasibility to supplement mechanical recycling.
  • Improve data collection on employment figures in the waste and recycling sectors; work to capture labor statistics for informal waste pickers – especially, women and children involved in the sector that are not captured by current data.
  • Research and develop strategies for increasing recycling behavior.
  • Advocate for ambitious public recycling goals and for the goals to be integrated into local or national climate plans.
  • Advocate for international trade standards that ease barriers for trading in recycled goods and recyclable materials; seek to halt the practice of rich countries exporting waste to low- and middle-income countries (“waste dumping”); advocate for better enforcement of trade standards to ensure illicit trade networks do not circumvent these standards.
  • Create or improve training programs for waste management professionals that go into practical skills and knowledge for working with communities to design and manage MSW systems.
  • Advocate for bans on discarding recyclable (or compostable) materials to landfills and penalties for noncompliance.
  • Advocate for container deposit programs to encourage recycling and reuse.
  • Advocate for bans on single use plastics such as shopping bags and water bottles.
  • Advocate for extended producer responsibility approaches that hold producers accountable for waste; demand standards for the traceability and labeling of materials in products to facilitate the recycling process.
  • Empower citizen leadership to help manage MSW collection and recycling programs; advocate for clear legal and regulatory structures to avoid political disagreements and interference.
  • Help safeguard against government corruption to avoid the illicit waste trade; create monitoring programs to hold waste management companies and/or leadership accountable.
  • Deploy diverse means of engaging the public in recycling, such as volunteer groups, social activities, and musical trucks.
  • Work with businesses and industry to develop consistent markets for recycled goods and to stabilize the price of recycled materials.
  • Partner with schools, manufacturers, retailers, nonprofits, and other community organizations to promote recycling.
  • Establish programs that teach how to separate waste effectively, the waste hierarchy, and why these processes are important; incorporate these concepts into public school curricula.
  • Create, support, or join education campaigns and/or public-private partnerships that facilitate collaboration on recycling.

Further information:

Technologists and Researchers

  • Improve the efficiency of waste separation machinery and develop low-cost, low-maintenance means of waste management – particularly for contexts such as low- and middle-income countries.
  • Improve collecting, sorting, and pre-treating processes to enhance recovery of materials while minimizing degradation and contamination.
  • Improve energy efficiency of equipment such as glass furnaces by enhancing heat recovery; design or improve smart technology control systems.
  • Explore the use of artificial intelligence in separating waste streams.
  • Explore, discover, or improve new uses for recycled or recovered materials.
  • Create ways of tracing materials and verifying recycled materials, such as blockchain technology.
  • Engineer means of reducing the weight of materials in common products such as packaging and glass without sacrificing recyclability or functionality.
  • Improve chemical recycling of plastics – particularly solvent-based purification and de-polymerization – while maintaining low energy consumption and high utilization rates for the remaining waste.
  • Assess the climate impact of industrial-scale chemical recycling of plastics and its feasibility to supplement mechanical recycling.
  • Advance systems for collecting, sorting, and recycling metals, plastics, and glass contained in electronic devices.
  • Improve means of removing ink and adhesives from paper.
  • Improve waste handling techniques and environmental safeguards for the sludge produced during paper recycling; design products using the sludge.
  • Enhance systems for sorting plastics.
  • Research ways to improve recycling or reusing agricultural, construction, and thermoset plastics; find means to recycle polymers such as PVC.
  • Increase the performance of metal-sensing and -sorting equipment such as X-ray detection or spectroscopy; improve means of detecting external impurities, especially in steel scrap.
  • Design recycle-friendly alloys that can be used in a variety of ways and products.
  • Improve technology for sorting colored glass and detecting ceramics.
  • Improve liquefaction technology for plastics to reduce costs, minimize upgrading needs, and produce higher quality products.
  • Research and develop strategies for increasing recycling behavior.
  • Collect up-to-date data on recycled materials - particularly, on glass recycling. 

Further information:

Communities, Households, and Individuals

  • Participate in local recycling programs, share your experience with your community, and educate others on how to recycle in your area.
  • Practice conscious consumerism; buy only what’s needed and avoid products that use excessive packaging or have a short lifespan.
  • Form stakeholder groups to monitor and help administer local recycling systems.
  • Reuse products, packaging, and materials as much as possible before recycling or disposing of them.
  • Use your power as a consumer to influence businesses to adopt practices that increase recycling.
  • Participate in or advocate for consultations with government officials, manufacturers, retailers, and the public to determine how best to design local recycling programs.
  • Advocate for ambitious public recycling goals to be integrated into local or national climate plans.
  • Advocate for bans on discarding recyclable materials to landfills and penalties for noncompliance.
  • Establish or advocate for container deposit programs to encourage recycling and reuse.
  • Advocate for bans on single use plastics such as shopping bags and water bottles.
  • Advocate for extended producer responsibility approaches that hold producers accountable for waste; demand standards for the traceability and labeling of materials in products to facilitate recycling.
  • Help safeguard against government corruption to avoid the illicit waste trade; create community monitoring programs to hold waste management companies and/or leaders accountable.
  • Create, support, or join education campaigns and/or public-private partnerships that facilitate collaboration on recycling.

Further information:

“Take Action” Sources

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Rissman, J., Bataille, C., Masanet, E., Aden, N., Morrow, W. R., Zhou, N., Elliott, N., Dell, R., Heeren, N., Huckestein, B., Cresko, J., Miller, S. A., Roy, J., Fennell, P., Cremmins, B., Koch Blank, T., Hone, D., Williams, E. D., de la Rue du Can, S., … Helseth, J. (2020). Technologies and policies to decarbonize global industry: Review and assessment of mitigation drivers through 2070. Applied Energy, 266, Article 114848. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114848

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Sobhani, Z., & Palanisami, T. (2025). Emerging contaminants in organic recycling: Role of paper and pulp packaging. Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 215, Article 108070. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.108070

Stegmann, P., Daioglou, V., Londo, M., van Vuuren, D. P., & Junginger, M. (2022). Plastic futures and their CO2 emissions. Nature, 612(7939), 272–276. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05422-5

Sun, M., Wang, Y., Shi, L., & Klemeš, J. J. (2018). Uncovering energy use, carbon emissions and environmental burdens of pulp and paper industry: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 92, 823–833. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.04.036 

Uekert, T., Singh, A., DesVeaux, J. S., Ghosh, T., Bhatt, A., Yadav, G., Afzal, S., Walzberg, J., Knauer, K. M., Nicholson, S. R., Beckham, G. T., & Carpenter, A. C. (2023). Technical, economic, and environmental comparison of closed-loop recycling technologies for common plastics. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 11(3), 965–978. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c05497

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U.S. Geological Survey. (2022). Iron and steel scrap. In Mineral commodity summaries 2022 (pp. 90–91). Link to source: https://doi.org/10.3133/mcs2022 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2016a). Environmental factoids [Archived]. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WasteWise Program. Retrieved March 24, 2025, from Link to source: https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/smm/wastewise/web/html/factoid.html 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2016b). Greenhouse gas inventory guidance: Direct emissions from stationary combustion sources. Link to source: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2016-03/documents/stationaryemissions_3_2016.pdf 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2025). Recycling basics and benefits. Retrieved September 2, 2025, from Link to source: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics-and-benefits 

Valenzuela-Levi, N., Araya-Córdova, P. J., Dávila, S., & Vásquez, Ó. C. (2021). Promoting adoption of recycling by municipalities in developing countries: Increasing or redistributing existing resources? Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 164, Article 105173. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105173

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van Ewijk, S., & Stegemann, J. A. (2023). Waste recycling. In An introduction to waste management and circular economy (pp. 217–254). UCL Press. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800084650

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Westbroek, C. D., Bitting, J., Craglia, M., Azevedo, J. M. C., & Cullen, J. M. (2021). Global material flow analysis of glass: From raw materials to end of life. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 25(2), 333–343. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13112

World Bank. (2018). What a waste global database: Country-level dataset (Last updated: 2024, June 4) [Data set]. Link to source: https://datacatalogfiles.worldbank.org/ddh-published/0039597/3/DR0049199/country_level_data.csv 

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Zheng, J., & Suh, S. (2019). Strategies to reduce the global carbon footprint of plastics. Nature Climate Change, 9(5), 374–378. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0459-z

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Appendix

Market Revenue Variability of Recyclables

Figure A1. The % revenue from recyclables compared to the % mass of each recyclable processed in an MRF. Values pertain to 2021.

Source: Bradshaw, S. L., Aguirre-Villegas, H. A., Boxman, S. E., & Benson, C. H. (2025). Material recovery facilities (MRFs) in the United States: Operations, revenue, and the impact of scale. Waste Management, 193, 317–327.

Current Adoption

In addition to applying global recycling rates of 59.3%, 9%, and 21% to the total waste generated for paper and cardboard, plastics, and glass, respectively (World Bank, 2018; Table A1), we also calculated total tonnage recycled using reported recycling percentages and total MSW tonnage for each country. Combined recycled percentages were consistently lower than the total combined percentage of metal, paper and cardboard, plastic, and glass waste in MSW. This indicates ample opportunity for increased recycling, even in regions where it is already well established. 

Table A1. Global recycling rates for each of the waste materials analyzed in this solution.

Waste material Global recycling rate (%) Reference
Metals 76a Charpentier Poncelet et al. (2022)
Paper and cardboard 59.3b European Paper Recycling Council (2020)
Plastics 9c OECD (2022b)
Glass 21d Ferdous et al. (2021)
Westbroek et al. (2021)

aEstimated using end-of-life recycling rates from Charpentier Poncelet et al. (2022), weighted by average annual global production for aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, iron, nickel, and manganese 2015–2019. We normalized weights against total metal production (1,619 Mt) to reflect each metal’s contribution to global scrap availability. This approach reflects the dominance of aluminum and iron in global scrap flows.

bBased on the average global paper recycling rate in 2018.

cBased on the global plastic recycling rate in 2019.

dBased on total glass produced in 2018 (a production-based recycling rate, meaning the share of recycled cullet used in total glass production), rather than on total glass waste generated (a waste-based recycling rate). We used this value due to a lack of consistent global data on postconsumer (end-of-life, old scrap) glass waste generation, although it may underestimate the recycling rate of actual discarded glass.

Achievable Adoption

The World Bank (2018) also provided country-specific recycling rates and waste composition fractions of MSW for the materials we considered. Metals, paper and cardboard, plastics, and glass were reported as percentages of MSW by 169, 174, 173, and 168 countries, respectively. However, only 125 countries reported recycling rates, and these rates reflect combined MSW rather than material-specific recovery, so the dataset could not be used to estimate achievable adoption ranges for individual materials. 

Example Calculation of Achievable Adoption

For low achievable adoption, we assumed global recycling increases by 25% of the existing or most recently available rates or total recycled waste tonnage (i.e., recycling volumes) for all four materials except metals. For example, Delbari and Hof (2024) reported 2018 estimates of global glass recycling volumes at 27 Mt annually, so the Adoption – Low recycling rate was calculated at 34 Mt of glass waste recycled/yr. 

For high achievable adoption, we assume that global recycling rates increase by 50% of the existing or most recently available rates or total recycled waste tonnage (i.e., recycling volumes) for all four materials except metals. As an example, Houssini et al. (2025) reported global plastic production in 2022, from which 38 Mt were generated as secondary plastics from plastic mechanical recycling. Therefore, the high adoption recycling rate came out to 57 Mt of plastic waste recycled/yr.

Waste Sector Emissions

According to estimates by Ferdous et al. (2021), Ge et al. (2024), and Oo et al. (2024), the waste sector is responsible for 3.4–5% of total global GHG emissions, with solid waste management of landfills accounting for roughly two-thirds (Ge et al., 2024). In view of this and the energy-intensive production of raw materials, consistently improving recycling efficiency and rates can meaningfully mitigate the world’s carbon output.

Sources

Bradshaw, S. L., Aguirre-Villegas, H. A., Boxman, S. E., & Benson, C. H. (2025). Material recovery facilities (MRFs) in the United States: Operations, revenue, and the impact of scale. Waste Management, 193, 317–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2024.12.008

Charpentier Poncelet, A., Helbig, C., Loubet, P., Beylot, A., Muller, S., Villeneuve, J., Laratte, B., Thorenz, A., Tuma, A., & Sonnemann, G. (2022). Losses and lifetimes of metals in the economy. Nature Sustainability, 5(8), 717–726. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00895-8

Delbari, S. A., & Hof, L. A. (2024). Glass waste circular economy—Advancing to high-value glass sheets recovery using industry 4.0 and 5.0 technologies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 462, Article 142629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.142629

European Paper Recycling Council. (2020). European declaration on paper recycling 2016-2020: Monitoring report 2019. Confederation of European Paper Industries. https://www.cepi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/EPRC-Monitoring-Report_2019.pdf 

Ferdous, W., Manalo, A., Siddique, R., Mendis, P., Zhuge, Y., Wong, H. S., Lokuge, W., Aravinthan, T., & Schubel, P. (2021). Recycling of landfill wastes (tyres, plastics and glass) in construction – A review on global waste generation, performance, application and future opportunities. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 173, Article 105745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105745

Ge, M., Friedrich, J., & Vigna, L. (2024, December 5). Where do emissions come from? 4 charts explain greenhouse gas emissions by sector. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors

Houssini, K., Li, J., & Tan, Q. (2025). Complexities of the global plastics supply chain revealed in a trade-linked material flow analysis. Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), Article 257. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02169-5

Oo, P. Z., Prapaspongsa, T., Strezov, V., Huda, N., Oshita, K., Takaoka, M., Ren, J., Halog, A., & Gheewala, S. H. (2024). The role of global waste management and circular economy towards carbon neutrality. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 52, 498–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2024.11.021

Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development. (2022b). Global plastics outlook: Economic drivers, environmental impacts and policy options [Report]. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/de747aef-en 

Westbroek, C. D., Bitting, J., Craglia, M., Azevedo, J. M. C., & Cullen, J. M. (2021). Global material flow analysis of glass: From raw materials to end of life. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 25(2), 333–343. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13112

World Bank. (2018). What a waste global database: Country-level dataset (Last updated: 2024, June 4) [Data set]. https://datacatalogfiles.worldbank.org/ddh-published/0039597/3/DR0049199/country_level_data.csv

Credits

Lead Fellow

  • Nina-Francesca Farac, Ph.D.

Contributors

  • Ruthie Burrows, Ph.D.

  • James Gerber, Ph.D.

  • Daniel Jasper

  • Alex Sweeney

Internal Reviewers

  • Emily Cassidy

  • Megan Matthews, Ph.D.

  • Christina Swanson, Ph.D.

Methods and Supporting Data

Methods and Supporting Data

Comments / Questions

  • Greenhouse gas quantity expressed relative to CO₂ with the same warming impact over 100 years, calculated by multiplying emissions by the 100-yr GWP for the emitted gases.

  • Greenhouse gas quantity expressed relative to CO₂ with the same warming impact over 20 years, calculated by multiplying emissions by the 20-yr GWP for the emitted gases.

  • 8th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture

  • Reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere by preventing or reducing emissions.

  • Air conditioning

  • The process of increasing acidity.

  • The extent to which emissions reduction or carbon removal is above and beyond what would have occurred without implementing a particular action or solution.

  • An upper limit on solution adoption based on physical or technical constraints, not including economic or policy barriers. This level is unlikely to be reached and will not be exceeded.

  • The quantity and metric to measure implementation for a particular solution that is used as the reference unit for calculations within that solution.

  • A composting method in which organic waste is processed in freestanding piles that can be aerated actively with forced air or passively by internal convection.

  • The interactions of aerodynamic forces and flexible structures, often including the stucture's control system.

  • A process in which microbes break down organic materials in the presence of oxygen. This process converts food and green waste into nutrient-rich compost.

  • Farming practices that work to create socially and ecologically sustainable food production.

  • Addition of trees and shrubs to crop or animal farming systems.

  • Spread out the cost of an asset over its useful lifetime.

  • A process in which microorganisms break down organic material in the absence of oxygen. Methane and CO₂ are the main byproducts.

  • A crop that live one year or less from planting to harvest; also called annual.

  • aerated static piles

  • black carbon

  • Solar panels that generate electricity from sunlight captured on both sides, increasing energy output by reflecting light from the ground and surroundings.

  • Made from material of biological origin, such as plants, animals, or other organisms.

  • A renewable energy source generated from organic matter from plants and/or algae.

  • An energy source composed primarily of methane and CO₂ that is produced by microorganisms when organic matter decomposes in the absence of oxygen.

  • Carbon stored in biological matter, including soil, plants, fungi, and plant products (e.g., wood, paper, biofuels). This carbon is sequestered from the atmosphere but can be released through decomposition or burning.

  • Living or dead renewable matter from plants or animals, not including organic material transformed into fossil fuels. Peat, in early decay stages, is partially renewable biomass.

  • Biogas refined to the same quality as natural gas. CO₂ and impurities are removed, and the biomethane can be distributed and used in existing natural gas technologies.
     

  • A type of carbon sequestration that captures carbon from CO₂ via photosynthesis and stores it in soils, sediments, and biomass, distinct from sequestration through chemical or industrial pathways.

  • A synthetic organic compound used to make a type of hard, clear plastic for food and drink packaging and many consumer goods.

  • A climate pollutant, also called soot, produced from incomplete combustion of organic matter, either naturally (wildfires) or from human activities (biomass or fossil fuel burning).

  • A secure, decentralized way of digitally tracking transactions that could be used to improve the transparency and efficiency of carbon markets. 

  • High-latitude (>50°N or >50°S) climate regions characterized by short growing seasons and cold temperatures.

  • bisphenol A

  • The components of a building that physically separate the indoors from the outdoor environment.

  • Businesses involved in the sale and/or distribution of solution-related equipment and technology, and businesses that want to support adoption of the solution.

  • Compound annual growth rate

  • A chemical reaction involving heating a solid to a high temperature; to make cement clinker, limestone is calcined into lime in a process that requires high heat and produces CO₂.

  • The ratio of the actual electricity an energy technology generates over a period of time to the maximum it could have produced if it operated continuously at full capacity.

  • A four-wheeled passenger vehicle.

  • Average number of people traveling in a car per trip.

  • Technologies that collect CO₂ before it enters the atmosphere, preventing emissions at their source. Collected CO₂ can be used onsite or in new products, or stored long term to prevent release.

  • A greenhouse gas that is naturally found in the atmosphere. Its atmospheric concentration has been increasing due to human activities, leading to warming and climate impacts.

  • Total GHG emissions resulting from a particular action, material, technology, or sector.

  • Amount of GHG emissions released per activity or unit of production. 

  • A marketplace where carbon credits are purchased and sold. One carbon credit represents activities that avoid, reduce, or remove one metric ton of GHG emissions.

  • A colorless, odorless gas released during the incomplete combustion of fuels containing carbon. Carbon monoxide can harm health and be fatal at high concentrations.

  • The time it takes for the emissions reduction from a measure to equal the emissions invested in implementing the measure.

  • Activities or technologies that pull CO₂ out of the atmosphere, including enhancing natural carbon sinks and deploying engineered sinks.

  • Long-term storage of carbon in soils, sediment, biomass, oceans, and geologic formations after removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere or CO₂ capture from industrial and power generation processes.

  • carbon capture and storage

  • carbon capture, utilization, and storage

  • A binding ingredient in concrete responsible for most of concrete’s life-cycle emissions. Cement is made primarily of clinker mixed with other mineral components.

  • chlorofluorocarbon

  • Processes that use chemical reactions or heat to break down plastic waste into basic molecular components or feedstocks that can then be used to make new plastic products.

  • methane

  • A system in which resources, materials, and products are used for as long as possible through reuse, repair, refurbishment, and recycling.

  • Energy sources that have little to no negative environmental or climate impacts during operation relative to fossil fuel–based energy sources.

  • Gases or particles that have a planet-warming effect when released to the atmosphere. Some climate pollutants also cause other forms of environmental damage.

  • A binding ingredient in cement responsible for most of the life-cycle emissions from cement and concrete production.

  • A waste management process where waste is made into the same original product, preserving quality and value so materials can be reused multiple times while keeping resources in continuous use.

  • A system that encompasses both forward supply chains (from producer to consumer) and reverse logistics for reuse, recycling, or proper disposal.

  • Neighbors, volunteer organizations, hobbyists and interest groups, online communities, early adopters, individuals sharing a home, and private citizens seeking to support the solution.

  • A solution that potentially lowers the benefit of another solution through reduced effectiveness, higher costs, reduced or delayed adoption, or diminished global climate impact.

  • The average annual rate at which a value grows over a specified period, assuming profits are reinvested and growth occurs steadily each year.

  • Funding with substantially more generous terms than market loans (typically due to lower interest rates, longer repayment periods, or partial grants) used to support projects with public or development benefits.

  • A farming system that combines reduced tillage, cover crops, and crop rotations.

  • A risk-sharing financial agreement in which two parties (e.g., renewable generator, government) guarantee a fixed price (e.g., electricity price). If market prices fluctuate, one party pays the other the difference.

  • Persistent long, thin clouds that form behind aircraft when water vapor in the exhaust condenses, then freezes into ice crystals at high altitudes. 

  • A measure of the total space cooling demand to maintain an indoor temperature below 24 °C

  • carbon dioxide

  • A  measure standardizing the warming effects of greenhouse gases relative to CO₂. CO₂-eq is calculated as quantity (metric tons) of a particular gas multiplied by its GWP.

  • carbon dioxide equivalent

  • Plant materials left over after a harvest, such as stalks, leaves, and seed husks.

  • A granular material made by crushing broken or waste glass.

  • direct air capture

  • Financial agreements in which government creditors forgive a portion of debt in exchange for specific conservation commitments.

  • The process of cutting greenhouse gas emissions (primarily CO₂) from a particular sector or activity.

  • An industrial process that removes printing ink from used or waste paper fibers, creating clean pulp that can be turned into new paper products.

  • A solution that works slower than gradual solutions and is expected to take longer to reach its full potential.

  • Microbial conversion of nitrate into inert nitrogen gas under low-oxygen conditions, which produces the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide as an intermediate compound.

  • Greenhouse gas emissions produced as a direct result of the use of a technology or practice.

  • A window consisting of two glass panes separated by a sealed gap and typically filled with air or an inert gas to improve the heat flow resistance.

  • A waste management system that transforms waste into different products of lower quality and value, making materials harder to recycle again and limiting reuse.

  • European Energy Agency

  • Ability of a solution to reduce emissions or remove carbon, expressed in CO₂-eq per installed adoption unit. Effectiveness is quantified per year when the adoption unit is cumulative over time.

  • Exajoule (one quintillion joules)

  • A process that uses electric current to drive a reaction, such as using electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

  • Greenhouse gas emissions accrued over the lifetime of a material or product, including as it is produced, transported, used, and disposed of.

  • Solutions that work faster than gradual solutions, front-loading their impact in the near term.

  • Methane produced by microbes in the digestive tracts of ruminant livestock, such as cattle, sheep and goats.

  • Environmental Protection Agency

  • Extended Producer Responsibility

  • expanded polystyrene

  • Environmental Research & Education Foundation

  • environmental, social, and governance

  • exchange-traded fund

  • A process triggered by an overabundance of nutrients in water, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, that stimulates excessive plant and algae growth and can harm aquatic organisms.

  • Electric vehicle

  • An ecological process that releases water into the atmosphere as a gas from soil and ice (evaporation) and plants (transpiration).

     

  • The scientific literature that supports our assessment of a solution's effectiveness.

  • A policy framework that assigns responsibility to producers for the end-of-life servicing of their products.

  • A group of human-made molecules that contain fluorine atoms. They are potent greenhouse gases with GWPs that can be hundreds to thousands times higher than CO₂.

  • Food, agriculture, land, and ocean

  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

  • feed conversion ratio

  • The efficiency with which an animal converts feed into increased body mass, measured as the ratio of the weight of the feed given to weight gain. Lower FCR means less feed for the same growth.

  • Raw material inputs for manufacturing, processing, and managing waste.

  • Containing or consisting of iron.

  • A measure of fishing activity over time and area, commonly measured by number of trips, vessel time, or gear deployed.

  • A solar PV system with panels mounted at a constant angle.

  • Glass is manufactured by floating molten glass on a molten tin bath, producing a smooth, flat product with high optical clarity, often used for window applications.

  • food loss and waste

  • Food discarded during pre-consumer supply chain stages, including production, harvest, and processing.

  • Food discarded during pre-consumer supply chain stages, including production, harvest, and processing, along with food discarded wt the retail and consumer stages of the supply chain.

  • Food discarded at the retail and consumer stages of the supply chain.

  • Combustible materials found in Earth's crust that can be burned for energy, including oil, natural gas, and coal. They are formed from decayed organisms through prehistoric geological processes.

  • Free, prior, and informed consent

  • A principled process of working with Indigenous communities that requires consent from Indigenous peoples for any decision, action, or activity that impacts their community and/or lands.

  • Unintentional leaks of gases or vapor into the atmosphere.

  • Unintentional leaks of gases or vapor into the atmosphere.

  • A group of countries representing the majority of the world's population, trade, and GDP. There are 19 member countries plus the European Union and the African Union

  • Manipulating the environment to influence the quantities or impact of climate pollutants in the atmosphere.

  • greenhouse gas

  • gigajoule or billion joules

  • The glass layers or panes in a window.

  • A measure of how effectively a gas traps heat in the atmosphere relative to CO₂. GWP converts greenhouse gases into CO₂-eq emissions based on their 20- or 100-year impacts.

  • A solution that has a steady impact on the atmosphere. Effectiveness is expected to be constant over time rather than having a higher impact in the near or long term.

  • A fixed income debt instrument focused on sustainable projects. Green bonds work in the same manner as traditional bonds and may be issued by corporations, financial institutions, and governments.

  • A fixed income debt instrument focused on sustainable projects. They work in the same manner as traditional bonds and may be issued by corporations, financial institutions, and governments.

  • The practice of charging more for renewable energy than for conventional energy to cover added costs .

  • Biomass discarded during landscaping and gardening.

  • A gas that traps heat in the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

  • The makeup of electricity generation on a power grid, showing the share contributed by various energy sources (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar, hydro) relative to total electricity production.

  • metric gigatons or billion metric tons

  • global warming potential

  • A low-carbon steel-making technology that uses hydrogen from water, direct reduction of iron, and electric arc furnaces. 

  • hectare

  • household air pollution

  • A sector or process that is exceptionally challenging to decarbonize, often because of a lack of mature technology options.  

  • hydrochlorofluorocarbon

  • Number of years a person is expected to live without disability or other limitations that restrict basic functioning and activity.

  • A measure of the total space heating demand to maintain an indoor temperature above 18 °C

  • A unit of land area comprising 10,000 square meters, roughly equal to 2.5 acres.

  • Hybrid electric car

  • hydrofluorocarbon

  • hydrofluoroolefin

  • hydrofluoroolefin

  • high-income countries

  • Metal waste that is produced at a mill or foundry during the metal production process and recycled internally.

  • Particles and gases released from use of polluting fuels and technologies such as biomass cookstoves that cause poor air quality in and around the home.

  • heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration

  • Organic compounds that contain hydrogen and carbon.

  • Human-made F-gases that contain hydrogen, fluorine, and carbon. They typically have short atmospheric lifetimes and GWPs hundreds or thousands times higher than CO₂. 

  • Human-made F-gases that contain hydrogen, fluorine, and carbon, with at least one double bond. They have low GWPs and can be climate-friendly alternatives to HFC refrigerants.

  • Hydrogen is a gas that can be a fuel, feedstock, or means of storing energy. It generates water instead of GHG when burned, but the process of producing it can emit high levels of GHGs. 

  • A recycling process that separates fibers from contaminants for reuse. Paper or cardboard is mixed with water to break down fibrous materials into pulp.

  • internal combustion engine

  • International Energy Agency

  • Aerobic decomposition of organic waste in a sealed container or bin/bay system. 

  • Greenhouse gas emissions produced as a result of a technology or practice but not directly from its use.

  • A solid block of purified silicon formed by melting and crystallizing raw silicon; it serves as the base material for slicing into wafers used in solar cells.

  • Device used to power vehicles by the intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust of fuel that drives moving parts.

  • The annual discount rate that balances net cash flows for a project over time. Also called IRR, internal rate of return is used to estimate profitability of potential investments.

  • Individuals or institutions willing to lend money in search of a return on their investment.

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

  • Indigenous peoples’ land

  • Integrated pest management.

  • internal rate of return

  • International Union for Conservation of Nature

  • The most comprehensive global list of species threatened with extinction, maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

  • International agreement adopted in 2016 to phase down the use of high-GWP HFC F-gases over the time frame 2019–2047.

  • A measure of energy equivalent to the energy delivered by 1,000 watts of power over one hour.

  • kiloton or one thousand metric tons

  • kilowatt-hour

  • A land-holding system, e.g. ownership, leasing, or renting. Secure land tenure means farmers or other land users will maintain access to and use of the land in future years.

  • Gases, mainly methane and CO₂, created by the decomposition of organic matter in the absence of oxygen.

  • levelized cost of electricity

  • leak detection and repair

  • Regular monitoring for fugitive methane leaks throughout oil and gas, coal, and landfill sector infrastructure and the modification or replacement of leaking equipment.

  • Relocation of emissions-causing activities outside of a mitigation project area rather than a true reduction in emissions.

  • The rate at which solution costs decrease as adoption increases, based on production efficiencies, technological improvements, or other factors.

  • Percent decrease in costs per doubling of adoption.

  • A metric describing the expected break-even cost of generating electricity per megawatt-hour ($/MWh), combining costs related to capital, operation, and fuel (if used) and dividing by total output over the generator's lifetime.

  • landfill gas

  • Greenhouse gas emissions from the sourcing, production, use, and disposal of a technology or practice.

  • A process that converts biomass, plastics, or other solid wastes into liquid fuel or chemicals.

  • The total weight of an organism before any meat processing.

  • low- and middle-income countries

  • liquefied petroleum gas

  • land use change

  • A measure of the amount of light produced by a light source per energy input.

  • live weight

  • marginal abatement cost curve

  • Livestock grazing practices that strategically manage livestock density, grazing intensity, and timing. Also called improved grazing, these practices have environmental, soil health, and climate benefits, including enhanced soil carbon sequestration.

  • A tool to measure and compare the financial cost and abatement benefit of individual actions based on the initial and operating costs, revenue, and emission reduction potential.

  • Defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as: "A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values." References to PAs here also include other effective area-based conservation measures defined by the IUCN. 

  • A facility that receives recyclable waste from residential, commercial, and industrial sources; separates, processes, and prepares them; and then sells them to manufacturers for reuse in new products.

  • A measure of energy equivalent to the energy delivered by one million watts of power over one hour.

  • A greenhouse gas with a short lifetime and high GWP that can be produced through a variety of mechanisms including the breakdown of organic matter.

  • A measure of mass equivalent to 1,000 kilograms (~2,200 lbs).

  • million hectares

  • Soils mostly composed of inorganic materials formed through the breakdown of rocks. Most soils are mineral soils, and they generally have less than 20% organic matter by weight.

  • A localized electricity system that independently generates and distributes power. Typically serving limited geographic areas, mini-grids can operate in isolation or interconnected with the main grid.

  • Reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by cutting emissions or removing CO₂.

  • megajoule or one million joules

  • Percent of trips made by different passenger and freight transportation modes.

  • Marine Protected Area

  • materials recovery facility

  • Municipal solid waste

  • megaton or million metric tons

  • Materials discarded from residential and commercial sectors, including organic waste, glass, metals, plastics, paper, and cardboard.

  • megawatt

  • Megawatt-hour

  • micro wind turbine

  • square meter kelvins per watt (a measure of thermal resistance, also called R-value)

  • nitrous oxide

  • The enclosed housing at the top of a wind turbine tower that contains the main mechanical and electrical components of the turbine.

  • A commitment from a country to reduce national emissions and/or sequester carbon in alignment with global climate goals under the Paris Agreement, including plans for adapting to climate impacts.

  • A gaseous form of hydrocarbons consisting mainly of methane.

  • Chemicals found in nature that are used for cooling and heating, such as CO₂, ammonia, and some hydrocarbons. They have low GWPs and are ozone friendly, making them climate-friendly refrigerants.

  • Microbial conversion of ammonia or ammonium to nitrite and then to nitrate under aerobic conditions.

  • A group of air pollutant molecules composed of nitrogen and oxygen, including NO and NO₂.

  • A greenhouse gas produced during fossil fuel combustion and agricultural and industrial processes. N₂O is hundreds of times more potent than CO₂ at trapping atmospheric heat, and it depletes stratospheric ozone.

  • Metals or alloys that do not contain significant amounts of iron.

  • Social welfare organizations, civic leagues, social clubs, labor organizations, business associations, and other not-for-profit organizations.

  • A material or energy source that relies on resources that are finite or not naturally replenished at the rate of consumption, including fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas.

  • nitrogen oxides

  • nitrous oxide

  • The process of increasing the acidity of seawater, primarily caused by absorption of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

  • An agreement between a seller who will produce future goods and a purchaser who commits to buying them, often used as project financing for producers prior to manufacturing.

  • Waste made of plant or animal matter, including food waste and green waste.

  • organic waste

  • Protected Area

  • A certification that verifies a metric ton of packaging waste has been recovered and is being exported for reprocessing.

  • A certification that verifies a metric ton of packaging waste has been recovered and reprocessed.

  • Productive use of wet or rewetted peatlands that does not disturb the peat layer, such as for hunting, gathering, and growing wetland-adapted crops for food, fiber, and energy.

  • A legally protected area that lacks effective enforcement or management, resulting in minimal to no conservation benefit.

  • Airborne particles composed of solids and liquids.

  • A measure of transporting one passenger over a distance of one kilometer.

  • Incentive payments to landowners or managers to conserve natural resources and promote healthy ecological functions or ecosystem services.

  • Small, hardened pieces of plastic made from cooled resin that can be melted to make new plastic products.

  • The longevity of any greenhouse gas emission reductions or removals. Solution impacts are considered permanent if the risk of reversing the positive climate impacts is low within 100 years.

  • Packaging waste export recovery note

  • Advanced solar cells combining perovskite and silicon layers to capture more of the solar spectrum, achieving higher efficiency than conventional silicon cells.

  • Payments for ecosystem services

  • A mixture of hydrocarbons, small amounts of other organic compounds, and trace amounts of metals used to produce products such as fuels or plastics.

  • Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of synthetic chemicals that do not degrade easily in the environment. They can pollute the environment and can have negative impacts on human health.

  • Reduce the use of a material or practice over time.

  • Eliminate the use of a material or practice over time.

  • Plug-in hybrid electric car

  • Private, national, or multilateral organizations dedicated to providing aid through in-kind or financial donations.

  • An atmospheric reaction among sunlight, VOCs, and nitrogen oxide that leads to ground-level ozone formation. Ground-level ozone, a component of smog, harms human health and the environment.

  • The process by which certain materials, such as those in solar cells, convert sunlight into electricity by releasing electrons.

  • The process by which sunlight is converted into electricity. When light hits certain materials, such as those in solar panels, it mobilizes electrons, creating an electric current.

  • A family of synthetic organic compounds used to make plastics softer, more flexible, and durable. They are added to a wide range of plastics for consumer and industrial uses.

  • polyisocyanurate

  • The adjustment of turbine blade angles around their long axis in which a control system rotates blades slightly forward or backward to regulate wind capture and optimize electricity generation.

  • passenger kilometer

  • particulate matter

  • Particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter that can harm human health when inhaled.

  • Elected officials and their staff, bureaucrats, civil servants, regulators, attorneys, and government affairs professionals.

  • System in a vehicle that generates power and delivers it to the wheels. It typically includes an engine and/or motor, transmission, driveshaft, and differential.

  • Purchase Power Agreements

  • Purchase Power Agreement.

  • People who most directly interface with a solution and/or determine whether the solution is used and/or available. 

  • A substance that is the starting material for a chemical reaction that forms a different substance.

  • Extraction of naturally occurring resources from the Earth, including mining, logging, and oil and gas refining. These resources can be used in raw or minimally processed forms to produce materials.

  • The process of converting inorganic matter, including carbon dioxide, into organic matter (biomass), primarily by photosynthetic organisms such as plants and algae.

  • Packaging waste recovery note

  • Defined by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as "A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values". References to PAs here also include other effective area-based conservation measures defined by the IUCN. 

  • A process that separates and breaks down wood and other raw materials into fibers that form pulp, the base ingredient for making paper products.

  • polyurethane

  • Long-term contract between a company (the buyer) and a renewable energy producer (the seller).

  • Long-term contracts between a company (the buyer) and a renewable energy producer (the seller).

  • photovoltaic

  • research and development

  • A situation in which improvements in efficiency or savings lead to consumers increasing consumption, partially or fully offsetting or exceeding the emissions or cost benefits.

  • renewable energy certificate

  • Chemical or mixture used for cooling and heating in refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump equipment. Refrigerants absorb and release heat as they move between states under changing pressure.

  • The amount of refrigerant needed for a particular refrigeration, air conditioning, or heat pump system.

  • A group of approaches to farming and ranching that emphasizes enhancing the health of soil by restoring its carbon content and providing other benefits to the farm and surrounding ecosystem.

  • A solution that can increase the beneficial impact of another solution through increased effectiveness, lower costs, improved adoption, enhanced global climate impact, and/or other benefits to people and nature.

  • A material or energy source that relies on naturally occuring and replenishing resources such as plant matter, wind, or sunlight.

  • A market-based instrument that tracks ownership of renewable energy generation.

  • The moldable form of raw plastic material, created by melting down waste or virgin plastics and serving as the building block for creating new plastic goods.

  • The process of moving items from end users (e.g., consumers) back to the sellers or manufacturers to reuse, recycle, or dispose of. This can include transportation, cleaning, sorting, and more.

  • A class of animals with complex stomachs that can digest grass. Most grazing livestock are ruminants including cows, sheep, and goats along with several other species.

  • sustainable aviation fuel

  • A wetland ecosystem regularly flooded by tides and containing salt-tolerant plants, such as grasses and herbs.

  • Very large or small numbers are formatted in scientific notation. A positive exponent multiplies the number by powers of ten; a negative exponent divides the number by powers of ten.

  • Seasonal coefficient of performance

  • Sustainable Development Goals

  • Average units of heat energy released for every unit of electrical energy consumed, used to measure heat pump efficiency.

  • A practice in which multiple utility companies own and operate high-voltage power lines, sharing both costs and benefits.

  • A window consisting of one glass pane without any additional insulating layers.

  • Small-scale family farmers and other food producers, often with limited resources, usually in the tropics. The average size of a smallholder farm is two hectares (about five acres).

  • soil organic carbon

  • Carbon stored in soils, including both organic (from decomposing plants and microbes) and inorganic (from carbonate-containing minerals).

  • Carbon stored in soils in organic forms (from decomposing plants and microbes). Soil organic carbon makes up roughly half of soil organic matter by weight.

  • Biologically derived matter in soils, including living, dead, and decayed plant and microbial tissues. Soil organic matter is roughly half carbon on a dry-weight basis.

  • Reducing global warming by increasing how much of the sun's radiation is reflected back to space and/or decreasing how much of the Earth's radiative heat is trapped in the atmosphere. 

  • soil organic matter

  • A substance that takes up another liquid or gas substance, either by absorbtion or adsorption.

  • sulfur oxides

  • sulfur dioxide

  • The rate at which a climate solution physically affects the atmosphere after being deployed. At Project Drawdown, we use three categories: emergency brake (fastest impact), gradual, or delayed (slowest impact).

  • Climate regions between latitudes 23.4° to 35° above and below the equator characterized by warm summers and mild winters.

  • A polluting gas produced primarily from burning fossil fuels and industrial processes that directly harms the environment and human health.

  • A group of gases containing sulfur and oxygen that predominantly come from burning fossil fuels. They contribute to air pollution, acid rain, and respiratory health issues.

  • Processes, people, and resources involved in producing and delivering a product from supplier to end customer, including material acquisition.

  • Sport utility vehicle

  • metric ton

  • metric tons

  • Technology developers, including founders, designers, inventors, R&D staff, and creators seeking to overcome technical or practical challenges.

  • Climate regions between 35° to 50° above and below the equator characterized by moderate mean annual temperatures and distinct seasons, with warm summers and cold winters.

  • A measure of energy equivalent to the energy delivered by one trillion watts of power over one hour.

  • trifluoroacetic acid

  • trifluoroacetic acid

  • A measure of how well a material prevents heat flow, often called R-value or RSI-value for insulation. A higher R-value means better thermal performance.

  • A measure of the rate of heat flow or heat transfer through a material or building component. A lower U-value means better thermal performance.

  • Individuals with an established audience for their work, including public figures, experts, journalists, and educators.

  • Charges for disposal of materials paid to facility operators. Fees can be charged per ton of waste disposed or based on economic indicators such as the Consumer Price Index.

  • A solar PV systems with panels that move automatically to follow the sun’s path, maximizing energy capture and improving efficiency over fixed systems.

  • A window consisting of three panes of glass separated by two insulating inert gas-filled layers, providing more heat flow resistance than single or double glazing.

  • Low-latitude (23.4°S to 23.4°N) climate regions near the Equator characterized by year-round high temperatures and distinct wet and dry seasons.

  • Terawatt, equal to 1,000 gigawatts

  • terawatt-hour

  • United Nations

  • United Nations Environment Programme

  • U.S. Composting Council

  • Self-propelled machine for transporting passengers or freight on roads.

  • A measure of one vehicle traveling a distance of one kilometer.

  • Aerobic decomposition of organic waste by earthworms and microorganisms.

  • vehicle kilometer

  • volatile organic compound

  • Gases made of organic, carbon-based molecules that are readily released into the air from other solid or liquid materials. Some VOCs are greenhouse gases or can harm human health.

  • watt (a measure of power or energy transfer.)

  • Watts per square meter Kelvin

  • A thin, flat slice of silicon cut from an ingot and processed to create individual solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity.

  • Landscape waste, storm debris, wood processing residues, and recovered post-consumer wood.

  • A framework for waste management that ranks options by their sustainability: 1) prevent (do not purchase unnecessary waste), 2) reduce, 3) reuse, 4) recycle, 5) recover, 6) dispose.

  • A measure of power equal to one joule per second.

  • Using strategies such as insulation, air sealing, ventilation, and moisture control to upgrade a building’s exterior structure, making indoors more comfortable and energy efficient.

  • Aerobic decomposition of organic waste in long, narrow rows called windrows. Windrows are generally twice as long as they are wide.

  • A subset of forest ecosystems that may have sparser canopy cover,  smaller-stature trees, and/or trees characterized by basal branching rather than a single main stem.

  • extruded polystyrene

  • The rotation of the nacelle (the enclosed housing at the top of a wind turbine tower that contains the main mechanical and electrical components of the turbine) so that the rotor blades are always facing directly into the wind.

  • year-over-year

  • year

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