Waste reduction -- the combination of waste prevention and recycling -- has numerous benefits. It diverts materials from landfills, boosts recycling and composting rates, and often results in savings for participating communities and organizations. During the past decade, the national recycling rate has climbed to 28 percent, and numerous communities, businesses, government offices, and institutions are reducing their municipal solid waste (MSW) stream by more than 50 percent. In fact, some are reducing their MSW by as much as 85 or 90 percent. What makes these programs so successful? At what cost? What role do waste prevention, reuse, and composting play? And what can other communities, governments, and organizations -- and the nation as a whole -- learn from these record-setters?

To answer these questions, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), through a grant from EPA, created the Waste Reduction Record-Setters project. The goal of the project is to identify successful waste reduction programs in communities, businesses, and other organizations and to encourage their replication.

From 1996 to 1998, the project identified 100 communities and nearly 200 businesses, institutions, and other organizations reporting waste reduction rates at 50 percent or higher.

Some of these are featured in our Waste Reduction Record-Setters Profiles, which features more than 50 examples of cutting-edge recycling programs from around the world.

To document these success stories, EPA has published a report and series of fact sheet packets featuring ILSR’s research on record-setting community programs.

The publications listed below are available free through the RCRA hotline 1-800-424-9346 (within U.S.),1-703-412-9810 (outside U.S. and Washington, DC metro area). Most are also available or will soon be available as PDF files.