Clean Energy and Zero Waste Produce the most Jobs

Job Creation: Reuse and Recycling vs. Disposal

Type of Operation	Jobs per 10,000 tons of dis­card­ed mate­r­i­al per year
Prod­uct Reuse
Com­put­er Reuse	296
Tex­tile Reclamation	85
Misc. Durables Reuse	62
Wood­en Pal­let Repair	28
Recy­cling-based Manufacturers	25
Paper Mills	18
Glass Prod­uct Manufacturers	26
Plas­tic Prod­uct Manufacturers	93
Con­ven­tion­al Mate­ri­als Recov­ery Facil­i­ties (recy­cling sort­ing centers)	10
Com­post­ing	4
Land­fill and Incineration	1

Note: Fig­ures are based on inter­views with select facil­i­ties around the coun­try. Source: Insti­tute for Local Self-Reliance, Wash­ing­ton, DC, 1997.

New­er data from ILSR’s 2013 report on com­post­ing in Mary­land affirms this:

Jobs, Com­post­ing vs. Dis­pos­al in MD

Type of Operation	Jobs per 10,000 tons/year	FTE Jobs/$10 Mil­lion Invested
Com­post­ing Sitesa	4.1	21.4
Com­post Use	6.2	n/a
Total Com­post­ing & Com­post Use	10.3
Dis­pos­al Facilities
Land­fill­ing	2.2	8.4
Burn­ing (with ener­gy recovery)	1.2	1.6

^a Includes mulching and natural wood waste recycling sites.

TPY = tons per year (of material composted)

FTE = full-time equivalent

Incinerator data based on Eileen Berenyi, Governmental Advisory Assoc. Inc., 2012–2013 Municipal Waste to Energy in the United States Yearbook & Directory. Westport, Connecticut. 2012.

Source: Pay Dirt: Composting in Maryland to Reduce Waste, Create Jobs & Protect the Bay, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 2013.

Poten­tial New MD Jobs By Com­post­ing 1 Mil­lion Tons of Organics 

Option	FTE Jobs
Burn­ing	120
Land­fill­ing	220
Com­post­ing	740
Com­post Use	620
Total Com­post­ing	1,360

FTE = full-time equivalent

Com­post­ing jobs based on one-third ton­nage com­post­ed at small facil­i­ties, one-third at medi­um-sized facil­i­ties, and one-third at large facil­i­ties. Com­post use jobs based on data from 13 com­pa­nies using com­post for soil ero­sion con­trol, stormwa­ter man­age­ment, and oth­er green infra­struc­ture applications.

Source: Pay Dirt: Com­post­ing in Mary­land to Reduce Waste, Cre­ate Jobs & Pro­tect the Bay, Insti­tute for Local Self-Reliance, 2013.