United States
Environmental Protectk
Agency
The Resource Conservation Challenge:
What Can You Change Today?
The Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) is a national effort to conserve natural
resources and energy by managing materials more efficiently. By committing ourselves
o reduce more waste, to reuse and recycle more products, to buy more recycled and
recyclable products, and to reduce toxic chemicals in waste, we to conserve energy
and preserve natural resources.
Making Change Happen
We are working with states, industry, businesses, and others to find smarter, faster ways
to accomplish RCC goals. Whether we partner within the federal government, with major
businesses, or with a town and its residents, we use approaches or principles that yield
environmental results.
The RCC is working hard to reduce waste and increase the reuse and recycling of mate-
rials. We've targeted the nation's largest waste streams, and set priorities for:
Recycling municipal solid waste
Reusing and recycling industrial materials
Reducing priority and toxic chemicals in products and waste
Promoting green initiatives, especially the safe design and recycling of electronics
WHAT CAN YOU
TODAY
S M T W T F S
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RESOURCE CONSERVATION
CHALLENGE
Finding Solutions for Used Electronics
RCC's Plug-In To eCycling Partnership includes 21 manufacturers and retailers of
consumer electronics, as well as 26 governments, which are providing Americans
with more access to electronics recycling. In its first years, Plug-In Partners
recycled 45.5 million pounds of unwanted electronics. Plug-In partners rely on
recyclers that meet or exceed our voluntary guidelines for safe electronics
recycling. Plug-In Partners have run pilot programs with manufacturers, retailers,
and local governments to create more compelling opportunities for consumers to
drop off old electronics. These pilots collected over 11 million pounds of used
electronics and provided valuable data on best practices.
For more information, visit .
Recycled/Recyclable. Printed with vegetable oil based inks on 100% (minimum 50% postconsumer) recycled paper.
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In 2000, recycling resulted in an annual
energy savings equal to the amount of
energy used in 6 million homes in a year
(more than 660 trillion BTUs). In 2005,
recycling is conservatively projected to save
enough energy for 9 million homes (900
trillion BTUs).
Reaching a 35 Percent National
Recycling Rate by 2008
We're reinvigorating the public's commitment to,
and value placed on, recycling. We hope to help
the nation achieve our 35 percent goal by
focusing on:
Paper
Food scraps and yard trimmings
Packaging/container materials
We're working with states, local governments, national recycling organizations, and recycling
businesses to provide more opportunities for recycling at local levels. We're cooperating with
commercial and municipal sectors that provide the greatest opportunities for success. For
example, shopping centers nationwide are now committed to recycling more materials through
our America's Marketplace Recycles! partnership (www.epa.gov/rcc/amr.htm).
Reusing and Recycling Industrial Materials
Historically, Americans simply disposed of millions and millions of tons of industrial byproducts.
Now, through the RCC we're trying to increase reuse and recycling of these industrial materials.
We have opportunities to increase the use of coal ash, construction and demolition debris, and
foundry sands in highway, building, and other construction projects. When we safely are use
these materials we conserve virgin resources, reduce energy use and associated greenhouse gas
emissions, and extend the useful life of landfills. There are also economic advantages to the safe
reuse of some industrial byproducts. We're aggressively looking for smart ways to use:
Coal ash. We aim to have at least 45 percent of this byproduct in use by 2008. More than 129
million tons of coal ash are generated every year. Using this coal ash in lieu of Portland cement
can reduce the amount of carbon emitted in the manufacturing process.
Construction and demolition debris. We're collaborating with our stakeholders to set targets
that reduce the waste from construction and demolition and increase the use of materials in
construction and demolition debris.
Foundry sands. We're focusing on nonhazardous "green sands," which use clay as binder
material and are the molding media most commonly used by foundries.
If we achieve all the goals of our Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2), we'll be reducing
11 million tons of carbon dioxide in greenhouse gas emissions, saving 3,540,766 barrels of
crude oil.
For more information, visit .
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Protecting Health and Ecosystems by Reducing Risk from Toxic Chemicals
We're taking careful and deliberate steps to remove the worst chemicals, such as lead, mercury,
and dioxins, from our environment. These chemicals, along with 28 others, are federal priorities
because they are persistent, bioaccumulative, and highly toxic. We're trying to reduce risk from
these chemicals. Companies can produce less waste and thus lower their disposal costs by sub-
stituting, eliminating, or recycling certain chemicals in manufacturing processes. We challenge
industry to join our efforts to improve the environment more quickly. By relying on American inge-
nuity, we can substantially reduce the volume and toxicity of priority chemicals in waste. We ask
companies to voluntarily:
Substitute safer alternatives when they can.
Minimize the amount of priority chemicals they use, if
they can't substitute for them.
Maximize their recycling efforts.
Design products to minimize exposure to, and release
of, priority chemicals during manufacturing and use.
We're providing technical assistance and special recogni-
tion to help motivate companies to reduce both the risk
from and amount of priority chemicals they use.
The National Partnership for
Environmental Priorities (NPEP) uses
voluntary partnerships to reduce the
use and release of priority chemicals.
Partners receive public recognition,
information, and assistance.
For more information visit
.
Promoting and Practicing Environmental Stewardship for Electronic Products
Computers and other electronic products are one of the fastest growing (and among the least
recycled) components of America's waste stream. We estimate that we discard electronic prod-
ucts at the rate of 2 million a year. On top of that are millions of televisions, video games, CD
players, telephones, and computers that are stored somewhere because their owners cannot, or
do not know how to, reuse or recycle them.
Our national partners are collaborating with us to address
environmental considerations along the entire life cycle of
electronic products. Focusing initially on personal computers,
televisions, and cell phones, we're striving to change the
overall design, operation, reuse, recycling, and disposal of
electronic equipment. We are committed to maintaining and
building markets for recyclable electronics. One way we're
supporting markets is through the Federal Electronics
Challenges (FEC). The FEC is a voluntary effort by federal
agencies to buy greener electronics and to manage used
electronics in an environmentally responsible way. What's
more, electronic products are being made with materials that
pose significantly lower risk from toxic components, such as
lead. Our Plug-In To eCycling partners are working diligently
to provide recycling services for used electronic equipment.
Working with them, we plan to increase recycling services
nationwide by 50 percent over the next two years.
Helping Consumers Buy
"Green" Computers
As we now look for the ENERGY
STARฎ logo, in the future we will want
to look for the "EPEAT" emblem.
EPEAT stands for Electronics Product
Environmental Assessment Tool. It's
being created to help
consumers evaluate, compare, and
select desktop computers, laptops, and
monitors according to their environ-
mental attributes. Computers will have
either a Bronze, Silver, or Gold EPEAT
emblem that indicates their environ-
mental performance.
For more information, visit
.
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Changing Our Lives
Accepting responsibility for improving our environment means
changing our habits, processes, and practices. Everyone has a
role. Businesses, consumers, and governments work together
to ensure change across the whole supply chainfrom design-
ing better, less toxic products to ensuring easier product reuse
and recyclability, to constructing millions of miles of highways
using millions of tons of coal ash.
Our RCC partners understand these concepts and are our
means to this end. Their innovative solutions point us toward an
environmentally sustainable future, where waste is a concept of
the past. Moving to an efficient and safe materials flow system
is our ultimate goal. We acknowledge government and industry
progress and willingness to adopt a resource and energy con-
servation ethic. The RCC combines and strengthens many individual efforts into a unified force that:
Conserves energy and materials
Reduces risks from the use of toxic and priority chemicals in waste
Prevents pollution and promotes materials reuse and recycling in all product life cycles
For More Information Visit us on the Internet at .
Goals of the Resource Conservation
Challenge
Prevent waste in the first place.
Reduce risk from and minimize the use of toxic
chemicals.
Use environmentally efficient manufacturing
processes that include reuse and recycling.
Design and use durable, reusable, and recyclable
products.
Find safe, widespread uses for industrial materials.
Manage materials, not waste.
Minimize our individual and collective impacts on
our environment.
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5305W)
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
EPA530-F-05-011
October 2005
www.epa.gov/osw
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