JACKSON, Miss. -- Today is Mississippi Recycling Awareness Day. The Mississippi Recycling Coalition and the Southeast Recycling Development Council (SERDC) were at the State Capital Thursday morning to show the significant economic impacts that the recycling industry brings to the state.
 
“This started as an environmental movement, 20 to 25 years go but this has developed into an economic driver,” said Will Sager SERDC
 
Sager says in North Carolina recycling added five percent to the number of jobs in the industry during the recession.
 
“We need our elected officials to understand that there is true economic value in the material going into these bins, our programs are supporting jobs, and we are watching job growth.”
 
“Local Governments are spending seventy million dollars a year in tipping fees to burry material they could have sold for 180 million dollars.”
 
He also says raw materials gathered form recycling eliminate the need to import those materials from outside the state.