According to recent figures, the United States is considered as the number 1 garbage-producing country in the planet. The Environmental Protection Agency or the EPA, states that the United States has 10,000 municipal and 3,000 urban landfills. The sad thing is that most of these landfills are tightly sealed, to prevent the garbage from leaching and contaminating nearby rivers, lakes, streams or seas.

The tight sealing of these landfills though effectively inhibits the natural degradation of organic wastes. What happens once our landfills reach full capacity? Could recycling help provide us with answers to our looming garbage crisis?

How The Recycling Movement is Picking Up Steam Today

Because environment advocates and government planners worry about the threat of a full-blown garbage crisis, more and more programs are now being implemented to prevent the overflowing of our landfills. More states and counties have now adopted a wide array of recycling and waste recovery programs.

Some US states are already far ahead of the rest when it comes to implementing recycling programs. In Portland, Oregon for example, recycling bins are in every street corner, while in Albuquerque, New Mexico, there is a clear lack of curbside recycling programs and facilities. Some US states are also offering used electronics recycling programs. Cities like Gallup, New Mexico have recycling initiatives where residents are paid one cent for each pound of plastic bottle they turn-over for recycling.

Positive Recycling Facts And Figures To Cheer About

The last time the US Environment Protection Agency released data regarding

The national recycling data was way back in 2005. While the current figures have yet to be released, the 2005 data has indicated a positive improvement for recycling and materials recovery. Here are some positive developments to cheer about:

? An estimated 8,550 curbside recycling programs are now operating in the United States, and these recycling and composting programs have recovered 32.1 percent, or 79 million tons of material solid waste. The total number though does not include data from hazardous, industrial and construction waste.

? The level of composting, or the process of recycling leave, grass and other organic items, rose from 3,227 in 2003, to 3,470 in 2005 alone.

? From 2005 alone, 50 percent of all paper products in the country was recycled, which amounted to 42 million tons of recycled paper. Container and packaging recycling has also increased by forty percent.

The amount of solid waste ending up in US landfills has also decreased by 9 million tons from 1990 to 2005, and the number continues to decline each year. While the not-so-recent figures may be encouraging, The EPA and other environment groups still contend that the US still needs to do more to fully address the issues of garbage and waste disposal.