No one underestimates Americans’ desire to recycle. A national survey completed by Keep America Beautiful revealed that 76 percent of respondents said they make an effort to do it.

Waste 360
By Arlene Karidis
May 19, 2016

What remains a challenge, however, is Americans’ ability to recycle correctly.

So there is a push to make the process easier to understand and accomplish, especially as municipalities’ diversion goals rise and commodities’ values mainly lay low.

Solid waste management professionals are taking a long, hard look at messaging, different curbside collection methods and cost of those methods to collectors, processors and municipalities.

Nonprofit Keep America Beautiful (KAB) is working with partners to standardize and simplify recycling messaging—and to make it stick. They’ve made a discovery: leveraging both emotion and basic information are a powerful combination. For example, its I Want to be Recycled website has attracted over 3 million visitors for its information on what to recycle and how to do it. Read more.