Recycling keeps waste out of landfills, reduces dependence on oil and create jobs.

LESS WASTE

According to the EPA, about 75% of what is found in the average garbage can is recyclable. Recycling and composting diverted 68 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2001, up from 34 million tons in 1990, the EPA estimates.

MORE JOBS

Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates one job; sending 10,000 tons of waste to landfills creates six jobs and recycling 10,000 tons of waste creates 36 jobs, according to earth911.com. When people choose to give their aluminum cans, bottles and newspapers to collectors via ecycler.com, it creates income for those who wish to redeem the recyclables for cash.

Ecycler.com, a site that pairs people who have recyclables to give away with those who wish to pick them up and redeem them for cash, creates jobs for collectors around the country. Once a collector picks up the items from a discarder, all he or she has to do is take them to a local recycling center and get paid for the items. Most recycling centers pay more as the number of items increases, so it pays to wait to pick up items until the discarder has a good bagful of cans or papers. Or, if the discarder wishes for a small number of items to be picked up immediately, the collector can hold onto them until he has enough from that discarder, or multiple discarders, to make a trip to a redemption facility worthwhile. The amount of money that can be earned can provide a nice source of supplemental income.

SUSTAINABILITY

Earth911 estimates that the national recycling rate of 30% saves the equivalent of more than five billion gallons of gasoline, reducing dependence on foreign oil by 114 million barrels. The goal of ecycler.com is to increase the national recycling rate by making it easier for people to recycle.