The Plug-In To eCycling Program aims to increase the safe recycling of old consumer electronics by providing incentives to manufacturers and retailers to provide more support for eCycling. Private sector partners have committed to make more recycling opportunities available to the public.

Product Stewardship Partnerships involve efforts to reduce the life-cycle impacts of products, through voluntary product stewardship partnerships with manufacturers, retailers, other governments and non-government organizations. An example of this is Carpet America, an industry-led, multi-stakeholder organization that seeks to divert 40% of carpet from landfills by 2012 through recycling, reuse, and other waste recovery and waste minimization activities.

The WasteWise Partnership Program is a successful voluntary partnership program that seeks to reduce municipal solid waste through innovative waste prevention and recycling techniques. More than 1200 partners from business, government, and institutions have reported a reduction of 35 million tons of municipal solid waste. Our WasteWise Partners continue to take on new challenges, such as encouraging the reuse and recycling of construction and demolition debris and the use of recycled products to create new "WasteWise buildings".

America's Marketplace Recycles! The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and EPA have teamed up to form America's Marketplace Recycles! (AMR!), a new initiative under the EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge. AMR! is an award program aimed at shopping centers, their retail tenants and employees, and the shopping public.

AgStar encourages the use of methane recovery (biogas) technologies at concentrated animal feeding operations that manage manure as liquids or slurries. The technologies reduce methane concentrations while achieving environmental benefits. In the last 2 years, the number of methane recovery technologies has increased by nearly 30%, from 31 to 40, with an additional seven currently in start-up or under construction.

Hospitals for a Healthy Environment is a partnership between the American Hospital Association and U.S. EPA that provides health care professionals the tools and information necessary to reduce mercury waste, reduce the overall volume of waste, and identify pollution prevention opportunities. As of July 2003, the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment program had 459 partners representing 1,661 facilities: 494 hospitals, 963 clinics, 39 nursing homes and 165 other types of facilities. In addition, 53 local governments, suppliers of goods and services, associations and vendors have enlisted as program champions.

National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP) encourages state and local governments, the private sector, and/or non-governmental organizations to form voluntary partnerships that reduce the generation of hazardous wastes containing any of 30 Waste Minimization Priority Chemicals. Four companies have already engaged in voluntary partnerships with the program since its launch in 2002.

The Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) is an effort to find innovative ways to conserve our valuable resources through waste reduction and energy recovery activities that will improve public health and the environment. The RCC challenges all Americans - makers of goods, sellers of goods, and buyers of goods to: prevent pollution and promote recycling and reuse; reduce priority chemicals at all life cycle stages; and conserve energy and materials. This umbrella program encompasses a variety of EPA sustainability activities, such as WasteWise, the National Waste Minimization Partnership Program, and the Coal Combustion Products Partnership Program. Overall, this program is aimed at boosting the national recycling rate from 30 percent to at least 35 percent by 2005, and at curbing by 50 percent the generation of 30 harmful chemicals normally found in hazardous waste.

Water 2025. In 2003, the Department of the Interior launched its Water 2025 initiative to help the western United States to better manage scarce water resources and to develop partnerships to nourish a healthy environment and sustain a vibrant economy. Water 2025 encourages voluntary water banks and other market-based measures, technological improvements for water conservation and efficiency, and the removal of institutional barriers to increased cooperation and collaboration among federal, state, tribal, and private organizations. Water 2025 also concentrates existing federal financial and technical resources in key western watersheds and in critical research and development, such as water conservation and desalination, which will help to predict, prevent, and alleviate water supply conflicts.

The GreenScapes Alliance is designed to help preserve natural resources and prevent waste and pollution by encouraging companies, government agencies, and other entities to make more holistic decisions regarding waste generation and disposal and the use of the land, water, pesticides, and energy. By focusing on the "4 Rs"-reduce, reuse, recycle, and rebuy-this program can help improve both an organization's bottom-line and the environment. GreenScapes will promote practices and products that still meet users needs but have better environmental profiles than current methods.

The Cooperative Water Program is a partnership between the USGS and 1,400 non-Federal agencies. The program jointly funds water-resources projects in every State, Puerto Rico, and several U.S. Trust territories. Most work in the program is directed toward potential and emerging long-term problems, such as water supply, waste disposal, ground-water quality, effects of agricultural chemicals, floods, droughts, and environmental protection. The program currently funds approximately 750 projects targeted at specific water-resources issues, such as the effects of urbanization, agricultural practices, and energy development on water quality. Data collected by the program are incorporated into the National Water Information System (NWIS). NWIS contains hydrologic information collected by the USGS during the past 120 years, and includes streamflow data from 21,000 sites, water levels from over 1,000,000 wells, and chemical data from rivers, streams, lakes, springs, and ground water at 338,000 sites.

Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) encourages landfills across the country to capture and use their landfill gas emissions as an energy source. Since 1994, LMOP has assisted in the development of over 230 landfill gas utilization projects -- including all 22 projects that went on-line in 2002. Together, these 230 projects are responsible for significant reductions in the emission of methane. They also are preventing the emission of carbon dioxide, since using landfill gas for energy offsets the need to use other, more polluting fuels. In 2002, all operational landfill gas energy projects in the U.S. prevented the release of 17.3 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE, the basic unit of measure of greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere. This reduction is the carbon equivalent of removing the emissions from 13.9 million cars on the road for one year.

The Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) is a consortium of eight regional pollution prevention information centers, funded in part through grants from EPA. The centers lay the groundwork for a seamless national network of easy-to-access, high quality pollution prevention information that promotes waste reduction throughout the country. The centers provide pollution prevention information, networking opportunities and other services to States, local governments and technical assistance providers in their region. The centers represent a broad constituency, including state and local pollution prevention programs, manufacturing extension partnerships, cooperative extension and nonprofit organizations. Since 1993 in the Pacific Northwest region alone, such efforts have saved more than 1 billion gallons of water, eliminated 840 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, reduced solid waste by about 242 million pounds, saved about 636 million KWh of electricity, avoided 15.3 million vehicle miles of travel, and reduced operating costs by more than $243 million.