Maine Recycles Week is observed each year from Nov. 8-15 in schools and local communities throughout the state. This year marks the 10th anniversary.

Just what does that mean to you and me? Do we have something to celebrate?

Yes. By recycling we reduce costs to our communities and to ourselves. We prevent pollution and conserve energy. And we safeguard our health by protecting our air and water quality. Recycling sustains us.

Let's consider the cost savings. Money saved is something every taxpayer can appreciate. Out of the nearly 2 million tons of materials discarded annually in Maine, thanks to your efforts, an estimated 750,000 tons, or 36 percent, are recycled into new products.

For every ton your town recycles, it avoids paying disposal "tip" fees. These can range anywhere from $30 to $100 per ton. Even better, communities that sell their recyclables see profits where others pay to haul away.

Public demand for recycling programs to include more items has resulted in innovative sorting and production processes.

Investment in these new technologies is driven by the fact that recycling is measurably more efficient and cost-effective.

According to the Association of Post-Consumer Plastics, "Recycling is a solution and a profit opportunity, not an obligation and cost burden." It's time to rethink how we view these materials. It just doesn't add up to toss waste away when you can recycle. Instead of thinking of our discards as waste, let's see them as resources for making new products.

Manufacturers do. Factories in America and abroad rely on recycled materials. Recycling supports jobs and enhances our economy. We can celebrate that recycling supports Maine jobs. A number of Maine manufacturers rely on recycled materials, especially paper.

At a time when the economy has our pricing barometer jumping up and down, lower prices and fewer overseas buyers can mean more profitable production for Maine mills.

Consider paper. We can celebrate that Mainers recycle a huge amount of paper (about 300,000 tons) that is turned into newspapers, books, boxes, bags, insulation, packaging, flooring and office paper, among other products.

To complete the cycle, we can purchase products made from recycled materials.

We do this every day without thinking, but here's a startling statistic provided by Inform (www.informinc.org), "If every household in the U.S. replaces just one standard role of tissue with 100 percent recycled content tissue, we can save the equivalent of 330,000 trees, 106 million gallons of water and 25 millions pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year."

Recycling paper has an added benefit. The trees we save when we recycle are more than just pretty – they help our planet breathe, removing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

Conversely, paper dumped into a landfill generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is 23 times as potent as carbon dioxide.

Consider this. Since 1989, our state has had a goal to recycle 50 percent of its municipal waste. We can achieve this by recycling instead of discarding all our most common paper products.

This is one simple way to participate in Maine Recycles Week. You may have ideas of your own.

Another fact to celebrate is our outstanding recycling rate for returned bottles and cans. Thanks to a healthy redemption system, 90 percent of the beverage containers sold in Maine are returned and recycled.

This success story makes our recycling rate for aluminum, plastic and glass containers one of the nation's highest.

In contrast, states without a bottle bill see much lower recycling rates for these valuable commodities.

When you think about Maine Recycles Week, enjoy the progress we've made. You can feel good about our accomplishments. Recycling works.

Maine boasts more than 300 municipal and regional...