Indicator 12.5.1 - National recycling rate, tons of material recycled - Indicators For The Sustainable Development Goals

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Headline data

National recycling rate, tons of material recycled
Year	Value	Units
2001	30.0	Percent
2002	29.9	Percent
2003	31.1	Percent
2004	31.2	Percent
2005	31.4	Percent
2006	32.3	Percent
2007	33.4	Percent
2008	44.4	Percent
2009	44.8	Percent
2010	34.0	Percent
2011	34.7	Percent
2012	34.4	Percent
2013	34.3	Percent
2014	34.6	Percent
2015	34.7	Percent
2016	35.1	Percent
2017	35.2	Percent
2018	32.1	Percent

Source:

Geographical Area:

Unit of Measurement:

Footnote:

This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from United States statistics closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from American statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other American-specific metadata information.

Indicator	12.5.1 - recycling rate
Organisation	United States Environmental Protection Agency
Definition and concepts	Recycling rate: the amount of municipal solid waste generated that was recycled or composted.
Unit of measure	percentage
Data sources	https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/advancing-sustainable-materials-management
Comment and limitations	Research possible data source
Method of computation	Using data gathered from industry associations, businesses and government sources, such as the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau, EPA estimates the weight in tons of all MSW materials and products generated, recycled, composted, managed by other methods for food, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled. Other sources of data, such as waste characterizations and research reports performed by governments, industry or the press, supplement these data.

This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Indicator	Indicator 12.5.1: National recycling rate, tons of material recycled
Target	Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
Organisation	United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
Definition and concepts	Definitions: National Recycling Rate is defined as the quantity of material recycled in the country plus quantities exported for recycling minus material imported intended for recycling out of total waste generated in the country. Note that recycling includes codigestion/anaerobic digestion and composting/aerobic process, but not controlled combustion (incineration) or land application. National recycling rate can be presented by type of waste, including e-waste, plastic waste, municipal waste, and others. Concepts: Material recycled expressed in tons, reported at the last entity in the recycling chain, preferably when tons of material is bought as secondary resource to be used in production facilities during the course of the reporting year; Secondary mineral materials used in the construction sector are excluded; composting is considered recycling for the purposes of this indicator. Recycling is defined under the UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire on Environment Statistics and further for the purpose of these indicators as “Any reprocessing of waste material […] that diverts it from the waste stream, except reuse as fuel. Both reprocessing as the same type of product, and for different purposes should be included. Recycling within industrial plants i.e., at the place of generation should be excluded.” For the purpose of consistency with the Basel Convention reporting and correspondence with EUROSTAT reporting system, Recovery operations R2 to R12 listed in Basel Convention Annex IV, are to be considered as ‘Recycling’ under the UNSD reporting for hazardous waste. Total waste generated is the total amount of waste (both hazardous and non-hazardous) generated in the country during the year. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) includes waste originating from households, commerce and trade, small businesses, office buildings and institutions (schools, hospitals, government buildings). It also includes bulky waste (e.g., old furniture, mattresses) and waste from selected municipal services, e.g., waste from park and garden maintenance, waste from street cleaning services (street sweepings, the content of litter containers, market cleansing waste), if managed as waste. Further information on MSW is defined in the SDG indicator methodology for 11.6.1. Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to all items of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and its parts that have been discarded by its owner as waste without the intent of re-use.
Unit of measure	Tonnes, Percent (%), Kilograms (Kg)
Data sources	Data provided by national governments, including National Statistical Offices (NSOs), Ministries of Environment and other relevant organizations.
Data providers	National Statistical Systems and relevant ministries.
Comment and limitations	Most countries control large end-of-chain recycling facilities and export of recyclable materials, so data from these entities are feasible to collect. There may be recycling carried out in the informal sector that never enters the formal channels, in this case, countries can estimate the size of the informal recycling sector to properly account for all the recycling in the country. National recycling rate is part of measuring progress towards sustainable consumption and production, but it does not capture prevention, reduction, reuse and repair. Calculating additional intensity indicators against the Domestic Material Consumption and the Material Flow gives proxies and helps connect this indicator to resource efficiency in consumption and production. Additional research is needed to understand typical losses (due to transformation of materials, loss of humidity, percent of rejects) along the recycling chain for various recyclable materials. The losses would need to be known as percentages from the point of entry in the recycling value chain (i.e., Collection of source segregated material, or input to sorting facility) to the point of exit (i.e., when the material leaves the last recyclable processing unit to enter a facility as secondary raw material). This would allow connecting indicator 11.6.1. which will measure among other things the municipal recycling rate, to the national recycling rate. Municipal recycling rate is likely going to be measured at the beginning of the chain, while indicator 12.5.1 will likely be measured at the point of exit from the chain. Such studies may be done using the process flow and material mass balance approach. Another approach could be to follow transactions in the waste management process and introducing so called “system of boundaries” defining points of reporting of waste quantities.
Method of computation	A full methodology for this indicator is available in the document entitled, “Global Chemicals and Waste Indicator Review Document” (UNEP, 2021). National Recycling Rate is defined as the quantity of material recycled in the country plus quantities exported for recycling minus material imported intended for recycling out of total waste generated in the country. Note that recycling includes codigestion/anaerobic digestion and composting/aerobic process, but not controlled combustion (incineration) or land application. $R e c y c l i n g r a t e = \frac{\begin{matrix} (M a t e r i a l r e c y c l e d + M a t e r i a l e x p o r t e d i n t e n d e d f o r r e c y c l i n g \\ - M a t e r i a l i m p o r t e d i n t e n d e d f o r r e c y c l i n g) \times 100 \end{matrix}}{T o t a l w a s t e g e n e r a t e d}$ $T o t a l w a s t e g e n e r a t e d = W a s t e f r o m m a n u f a c t u r i n g (I S I C 10 - 33) + W a s t e f r o m e l e c t r i c i t y, g a s, s t e a m a n d a i r c o n d i t i o n i n g s u p p l y (I S I C 35) + W a s t e f r o m o t h e r e c o n o m i c a c t i v i t i e s (e x c l u d i n g I S I C 38) + M u n i c i p a l w a s t e (e x c l u d i n g c o n s t r u c t i o n a n d m i n i n g)$ It is proposed that recycling rate is disaggregated by type of waste, including e-waste and other waste types (such as packaging waste and metals). For the disaggregation by waste stream, the formula will be the same but particular waste types will be evaluated. (Existing data on e-waste and the importance of e-waste means that this disaggregation will be collected at the global level.)
Metadata update	2024-05-24
International organisations(s) responsible for global monitoring	United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
Related indicators	11.6.1, 12.4.2, 12.3.1, 14.1.1