Recycling reduces GHG emissions in two important ways. First, recycling keeps materials out of the landfill. Landfills are designed to be anaerobic, meaning that once waste has been dumped, very little air remains below the surface. Landfill gas is generated as a byproduct of the digestion of organic materials by organisms that thrive in these anaerobic conditions. Food waste, paper, grass, and other organic matter is readily digested and turned into landfill gas- which is 50 percent methane. While most modern landfills are required to capture some of their methane emissions, significant quantities continue to escape into the atmosphere.

Recycling also reduces GHG emissions by reducing the need to continually mine and refine virgin resources for product production. Everyday consumer products such as an aluminum soda can are made from resources mined from the earth, transported great distances, and eventually processed with industrial machinery requiring massive energy inputs. This all results in significant GHG emissions. Recycling one ton aluminum cans results in four tons of GHG reductions.

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