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Voluntary Initiatives to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Organic Materials
EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) is a national effort to conserve natural resources and energy by managing materials more efficiently. RCC partners seek to conserve energy and preserve natural resources by committing to:
- Reduce more waste;
- Reuse and recycle more products;
- Buy more recycled and recyclable products; and
- Reduce toxic chemicals in waste.
EPA is relying on partnerships and projects to meet the Resource Conservation Challenge. These partnerships are designed to provide smarter, faster, voluntary solutions that safeguard our environment. Several partnerships and projects are geared toward reducing and recycling organic materials:
- The GreenScapes program is designed to help preserve natural resources and prevent waste and pollution. The GreenScapes Partnership Program encourages companies, government agencies, and other entities to make more holistic decisions regarding waste generation and disposal and the associated impacts on land, water, air, and energy use.
- WasteWise is a successful voluntary partnership program that seeks to reduce MSW through innovative waste prevention and recycling techniques. More than 1,200 partners from business, government, and institutions have reported a reduction of 35 million tons of municipal solid waste. WasteWise Partners continue to take on new challenges, such as encouraging the reuse and recycling of construction and demolition debris and the use of recycled products to create new "WasteWise buildings."
- RecycleMania
is a friendly competition among university recycling
programs in the United States that provides students
with a fun, proactive activity in waste reduction.
Over a 10-week period, schools compete in different
contests, including food service organics, to
see which institution can collect the largest
amount of recyclables, the least amount of trash,
and have the highest recycling rate.
