Americas Marketplace Recycles

Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
Americas Marketplace Recycles: A Guide to Waste Reduction at Shopping Centers
This guide was created to help shopping centers and retailers increase reuse and recycling, reduce waste disposal, often saving money in the process. It also serves as a resource for local and state recycling coordinators who work with the commercial sector. The guide contains numerous case examples from shopping centers and retailers who are leaders in waste prevention and recycling. You may download the guide in its entirety or by chapter.
Americas Marketplace Recycles: A Guide to Waste Reduction at Shopping Centers (complete guide) (PDF) (52 pp, 4MB, about PDF)
- Cover, Table of Contents, and Introduction (PDF) (7 pp, 2.3MB, about PDF)
- Chapter 1: Establishing a Successful Recycling Program (PDF) (14 pp, 440K, about PDF) Summarizes the 10 critical steps for developing a recycling program at a shopping center or retail facility.
- Chapter 2: Preventing Waste in the First Place (PDF) (4 pp, 162K, about PDF) Describes waste prevention activities shopping centers and their retail partners can initiate and provides case examples ranging from using floor-ready merchandise to reduce packaging, to recycling polystyrene foam peanuts used in transport of goods.
- Chapter 3: Resource Management (PDF) (2 pp, 147 K, about PDF) Unlike traditional disposal contracting which compensates contractor services based on volume of waste disposed, Resource Management contracts cap disposal costs to encourage a single contractor to work with you to improve resource efficiency through enhanced source reduction, recycling, and materials recovery.
- Chapter 4: Closing the Loop (PDF) (1 pg, 86K, about PDF) Discusses opportunities for integrating recycled-content products into shopping center and retail store construction, renovation, landscaping, maintenance, and operations.
- Chapter 5: Case Studies (PDF) (9 pp, 351K, about PDF) Provides case studies on shopping centers and retailers who are leaders in recycling and waste prevention.
- Resources | PDF Version (6 pp, 407K, about PDF) Lists organizations, websites, and publications helpful to shopping centers and retailers.
- Appendices (PDF) (106 pp, 770K, about PDF)
- Appendix A summarizes the materials most commonly found and how they can best be recycled;
- Appendix B lists products available with recycled-content; and
- Appendix C provides links to EPA programs relevant to the retail industry.