User Guide for the Recycling Infrastructure and Market Opportunities Map

EPA developed the Recycling Infrastructure and Market Opportunities Map to assist in efforts to meet the National Recycling Goal of increasing the U.S. recycling rate to 50% by 2030 and to support the building of new recycling infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This map identifies and displays information on:

• Estimated generation, recycling, and recycling potential by ZIP code and material.
• Locations of recycling infrastructure.
• Potential primary and secondary end markets for recycled materials.
• Market factors such as landfill tipping fees and bottle bill deposit prices.
• Other municipal solid waste infrastructure such as landfills and transfer stations.

Below is information about how to use the map and generate commonly requested views. 

• Overview of Map Icons
• Create Map Views
• View and Filter Facility-Level Data
• Print the Map
• Download Data

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Overview of Map Icons

The map landing page displays the following icons. Use them to navigate and display the various features and information from the map, including estimated material tonnages, MSW infrastructure, potential end markets, and market factors.

About: Use the left-hand arrow to open or minimize the information about the map. This panel includes information about data sources, methods, and links to download the data.

Layer List: View the full list of map layers that can be turned on and off. Within the Layer List, click on the light gray headings to expand and contract groups of layers.

Legend: View map layers and icons currently displayed on the map.

Basemap Gallery: Choose from a variety of base maps that provide context for your map view (e.g., topographic, aerial, street, etc.).

Attribute Table: Use the bottom arrow to open or minimize the attribute tables for the layers displayed on the map. As a default, only layers displayed in the map will appear in the attribute table, and the layers will be filtered by the map extent.

Near Me: Enter a physical address, city, state, or ZIP code and a specified radius to read a count of facilities in that area.

Bookmarks: Set and quickly navigate to user-specified regions of the country. To add a Bookmark, zoom to your location of interest and click “Add.”

Add Data: Add data layers from the ArcGIS Online library, including data layers from other EPA maps. Layers you add using the Add Data feature will appear at the bottom of each scroll menu in the Layer List.

• If the added layer does not initially appear on the map, it is possible that another layer is covering it. Turn off the other layer to display the added layer.
• To learn more about the available environmental and demographic indicators, click on “DETAILS” before you add the data to the map. Note that when you add the data to the map, the layer will be added to the “Select & Display Layers” menu under the “Infrastructure” section. There you can scroll to the added layer and select or deselect it.

Home View: Click to reset the map to view the entire nation.

Your Location: Zoom to your current location on the map.

Print: Print the current map view.

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Create Map Views

Note: When you open the map, you will find default layers automatically displayed. The layers in the Legend

are the ones that will be visible on the map. To display different layers, use the Layer List

to turn on or off different layers.

View Infrastructure Layers

Infrastructure facilities appear as icons on the map. Each type of facility is its own layer with a distinct icon. You can view them separately.

1. Navigate to a region of interest using Bookmarks

   

   Near Me

   

   Your Location

   

   +/- buttons or by double clicking on the map to zoom in.

2. Select layers from the Layer List

   

   to make them appear as icons on the map. Click the Legend

   

   to view the complete list of selected layers and their icons.

3. Click on each icon to display a pop-up box that provides facility-specific information. Refer to the next section on how to view and filter the data for multiple facilities.

Note: The map may require additional time to load if you select large areas. Selecting a smaller area will reduce load time and improve your ability to find individual facilities. In addition, the Near Me tool will count a maximum of 1,000 facilities for each infrastructure type in the selected radius, as reflected in the pop-up box. If the count is 1,000 or more for any infrastructure type, consider reducing the Near Me radius to get an accurate facility count for an area, particularly before filtering. The maximum distance input for the Near Me tool is 100 miles.

View Estimated Generation, Recycling, and Recycling Potential Layers

The Estimated Generation, Recycling, and Recycling Potential layers are mapped at a ZIP code level as shaded areas. Each of the 16 materials has three separate layers for estimated generation, recycling, and recycling potential (the difference between generation and recycled quantities). The shading of the layers is proportional to the values of the data for each ZIP code.

1. Navigate to a region of interest using Bookmarks

   

   Near Me

   

   Your Location

   

   +/- buttons or by double clicking on the map to zoom in.

2. Select layers from the Layer List

   

   to make them appear as icons on the map. Click the Legend

   

   to view the complete list of selected layers and their colors and shading.

   Note: The color for estimated generation, recycling, and recycling potential layers across materials type is consistent. Be sure to check the Legend and confirm which layers you turned on.

3. Click on any polygon (i.e., ZIP code) to display a pop-up box that provides ZIP code-specific information.

Note: The Estimated Generation, Recycling, and Recycling Potential layers are large datasets and will take some time to load. Since these layers cover the entire U.S. and are not transparent, selecting more than one layer will mean that the layers will completely overlap each other (the layer closest to the top of the Layer List will be the only one displayed on the map). Due to the large data size and overlap consideration, EPA does not recommend turning multiple Estimated Generation, Recycling, and Recycling Potential layers on at once.

View Potential Primary and Secondary End Markets Layers

Potential primary and secondary end markets appear as icons on the map. Each type of facility is its own layer with a distinct icon. You can view them separately.

1. Navigate to a region of interest using Bookmarks

   

   Near Me

   

   Your Location

   

   +/- buttons or by double clicking on the map to zoom in.

2. Select layers from the Layer List

   

   to make them appear as icons on the map. Click the Legend

   

   to view the complete list of selected layers and their icons.

3. Click on each icon to display a pop-up box that provides facility-specific information. Refer to the next section on how to view and filter the data for multiple facilities.

Note: The map may require additional time to load if selecting large areas. Selecting a smaller area will reduce load time and improve your ability to find individual facilities. In addition, the Near Me tool will count a maximum of 1,000 facilities for each potential end market type in the selected radius, as reflected in the pop-up box. If the count is 1,000 or more for any potential end market type, consider reducing the Near Me radius to get an accurate facility count for an area, particularly before filtering. The maximum distance input for the Near Me tool is 100 miles.

View Market Factors

The Market Factors layers include Bottle Bill Policies and Landfill Tipping Fees and are mapped on a state level as shaded areas. The shading of the Landfill Tipping Fees is proportional to the values of the tipping fee for each state. The Bottle Bill layer shading is dependent on whether states have a bottle bill. Note that most states do not have bottle bills and are grayed out on the map.

1. Navigate to a region of interest using Bookmarks

   

   Near Me

   

   Your Location

   

   +/- buttons or by double clicking on the map to zoom in.

2. Select layers from the Layer List

   

   to make them appear as icons on the map. Click the Legend

   

   to view the complete list of selected layers and their colors and shading.

3. Click on any polygon (i.e., ZIP code) to display a pop-up box that provides state-specific information.

Note: Turning on a Market Factor layer will cover any material data layer from the "Estimated Materials Type by ZIP code" tab. Clicking on a polygon (i.e., ZIP code) will still show the material-level data for that area. 

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View and Filter Facility-Level Data

There are several ways to view a list of facilities in the attribute table. Below is an example of one way to filter data, as well as a description for how to further filter map layers.

Navigate to a region of interest using Bookmarks 

Near Me 

Your Location 

+/- buttons or by double clicking on the map to zoom in.

Select the layers you would like to display on the map.

View a list of recycling infrastructure or potential end markets facilities

1. Open the attribute table by clicking the arrow at the bottom middle of the screen.

   

   The attribute table will show a list of facilities for each facility type in different tabs.

2. As a default, the facilities displayed in the attribute table will be filtered by map extent. Deselect “Filter by map extent” to view all facilities in the U.S. 

   

3. Click any facility type (i.e., recycling infrastructure type or potential end market type) in the Layer List 

   

   to find the facilities on the map as well.

Sort and filter lists of recycling infrastructure and potential end market facilities

1. The attribute table presents a tab for each recycling infrastructure and potential end market type in the map. You can filter data corresponding to the map view, or you can filter the national dataset. To filter the full national list of any recycling infrastructure or potential end market type, make sure that “Filter by map extent” is not selected. 

   

2. To sort the listed facilities, click on any column header in a tab and choose Sort Ascending or Sort Descending. 

   

3. Filtering must be applied to each tab individually. To begin, select a tab and click the Options button in the upper left corner of the table. Then choose “Filter.”

4. Select Add a Filter Expression to apply one filter, or Add an Expression Set to apply multiple filters. To remove a filter, click the “x” at the end of the expression.

5. A dropdown box will appear from which you can choose the fields on which you want to filter (e.g., Facility Name, Address, NAICS Code, etc.). Then, choose the filters (e.g., is, contains, is greater than), and input the relevant text or numbers. Keep the radio dial button selection set to “Value” and click “Okay.” The table will update to reflect the filters.

Note: The Near Me tool will count a maximum of 1,000 facilities for each facility type in the selected radius, as reflected in the pop-up box. If the count is 1,000 or more for any facility type, consider reducing the Near Me radius to get an accurate facility count for an area, particularly before filtering. The maximum distance input for the Near Me tool is 100 miles. In addition, to show or hide columns in a table, click Options, and then Show/Hide Columns to select columns to show or hide.

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Print the Map

The Print

function in the map enables you to export an image of the map in different visual layouts and file formats. You can find detailed instructions for printing the map below.

1. Click the Print Icon.

   

2. Use the Layout dropdown menu to select the layout of the map.

   

   The “MAP_ONLY” layout will produce a screenshot of the map, whereas the other layouts (e.g., A3 Portrait, A4 Landscape, etc.) will include a title and map Legend in addition to the screenshot.

   1. If a layout with a title is selected, then there will be an option to edit the Map title. 

      

3. Use the Format dropdown menu to select the file format of the map. 

   

   The default format is PDF.

4. Click on the Advanced Settings button 

   

   to adjust the map scale and extent, output spatial reference, layout metadata, map size, print quality, and whether to feature attributes.

5. Click the Print button 

   

6. Once the map print is generated, it will appear in the print list. Click on the map print to open the file.

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Download Data

There are two ways to download the data:

1. Download data from the map interface into a Microsoft Excel document, which is limited to the first 2,000 records in a table.
2. Download the full spatial datasets from the ArcGIS Online.

Download data directly from the map into a Microsoft Excel document

• Open the attribute table by clicking the arrow at the bottom of the screen.

  

• Select the tab with the dataset of interest. Filter the data from here if desired. Then, click the Options button in the table viewer and select “Export all to CSV.”

  

  This will export only the first 2,000 rows in the tab being viewed. To export data from multiple layers, do so one tab at a time.

Download data from ArcGIS Online

Data are available for download as spatial files from ArcGIS Online. In the map interface, access the full spatial datasets by clicking the three dots next to the layer in the Layer List as circled below in red. From the menu, select “Show item details” and then on the new page select “Export Data.”

Alternatively, access the datasets by using the links in the “About the Map” panel that can be toggled on or off using the arrow button halfway down the left side of the map.

Note: Some layers are saved as file geodatabases, so users must download the full file geodatabase to access individual layers.