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What do all these numbers mean? In addition to preventing pollution, an important impact of recycling is that is conserves a huge amount of energy. Making products and packaging from raw materials harvested from nature uses a much larger amount of energy than using recycled materials. Every manufactured item has the energy used to make it "embedded" into it. Recycling takes advantage of that energy, as it is easier and more energy efficient to make a glass bottle from another glass bottle than from raw materials. The WARM model and other calculators measure the difference between recycling all these tons of materials and using them to make new products versus sending them to an incinerator and making replacement products from raw materials. This difference is expressed as the amount of CO2 that was not produced because we did not have to make and use all the energy that would have been needed if we used raw materials. The numbers above help municipalities calculate and track their environmental footprint. For more information about the process of measuring the environmental benefits of waste reduction, visit httu://el2a.gov/climatechange/wycd/waste/nleasureghhg.htinl#click. These numbers, however, don't have much meaning to the average person. To help recyclers understand the significance of their actions, the EPA has also developed tools to translate these numbers into equivalent examples that people can more easily understand. • For example, using the figures above, the EPA estimates that Roseville would have had to remove 1,603 cars from the road for one year to have had the same environmental impact in 2013 as they did by recycling. To achieve this, approximately 10.5% of Roseville's households would have had to give up one car for a year. Although WARM is the most widely peer-reviewed, and accepted model, it is considered to have several Flaws. Many believe the use of this calculator is conservative, and understates the real impact of waste reduction efforts, but it offers a conservative starting place to measure our impacts, and work towards our goals. Even with these conservative calculations, the impacts of Roseville's recycling program prove to be quite significant. Measuring Environmental Benefits Calculator (MEBCalCTM) Jeffrey Morris, Ph.D., Economist at Sound Resource Management in Seattle, has developed a calculator that begins with the EPA's WARM calculator, and expands upon it to gather information on not just carbon, and CO„ but also several other important environmental, and human health indicators. Although not yet widely used, this calculator shows the significant benefits that WARM docs not consider. The MEBCaIcT°' model expands, and shows the benefits other than just energy savings, and carbon savings. Recycling materials with zero waste in mind recognizes not just the value in the resource itself, but the contribution to the health of the conununity when materials are kept out of landfills, and incinerators, avoiding the toxic, and carcinogenic emissions. 11