RECYCLING MILESTONES People have reused and recycled materials for centuries out of necessity. But recycling legislation and curbside programs in the United States date back only to the 1970s. Here is a brief timeline of how recycling of waste from households, schools and businesses has evolved over the last several decades. 1970 - The first Earth Day brings national attention to the problem of increasing waste and the importance of recycling. 1971 - The first "Bottle Bill" is born: Oregon introduces a refundable deposit (a nickel) on beer and soda bottles as an incentive to recycle. 1973 - Berkeley, California starts the nation's first curbside recycling program. 1976 - The federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is enacted to close open dumps, create standards for landfills, incinerators and the disposal of hazardous waste. 1988 - The number of curbside recycling programs increases to about 1,050. 1990 - McDonald's stops using Styrofoam containers. Earth Day's 20th anniversary theme is recycling. 1992 - Curbside programs continue to pop up around the country, bringing the total to 5,404. 1996 - The U.S. recycles at a rate of 25 percent; EPA sets a new goal of 35 percent. 2000 - The EPA confirms a link between global warming and waste, showing that reducing our garbage and recycling cut greenhouse gas emissions. 2006 - Dell Computer begins offering a free recycling service for their products, no additional purchases required. 2007 - Five states pass laws requiring that unwanted electronics be recycled. San Francisco becomes the first U.S. city to prohibit the distribution of plastic bags by grocery stores. Around 500 communities use single-stream recycling programs instead of collecting paper, aluminum, glass and plastic in separate bins.

The amount of material we recycle today -- 81 million tons a year -- equals the total quantity of garbage the United States produced in 1960. Today, Americans create 250 million tons of municipal waste in a year, and about 15 billion tons a year of all other types of industrial wastes. Experts say that continuing to increase our recycling rates will help pull us out of the garbage heap and reduce global warming emissions. And that a necessary counterpart to that strategy is to cut down on the waste we produce in the first place.

Reduce and Reuse: Strategies for Zero Waste

Recycling is just one step in a full loop of practices that, together, will reduce the amount of waste going to landfills and cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. Successful recycling involves more than bundling up newspapers and collecting bottles. To close the recycling loop, manufacturers should use recycled materials to make their products, and consumers should buy goods made from post-consumer recycled content. The more we increase demand for products made with recycled materials instead of virgin materials, the more successful recycling will be at diverting waste from landfills, saving natural resources and curbing global warming.

Here are some other ways to work towards zero waste:

Keep organics and recyclables out of landfills and incinerators
More than 60 percent of household waste in the United States is recyclable or compostable. But Americans only compost 8 percent of their waste. Composting prepares organic waste like leftover food and lawn trimmings for reuse as fertilizer instead of leaving it to decompose in landfills or to combust in incinerators, which emit greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. Creating more municipal composting programs would boost composting rates. Such programs exist in only a few cities, and they're outnumbered more than 2 to 1 by curbside recycling programs.

Put trash cans on diets
Much of the waste we dump in our trash cans doesn't need to be there. Cutting back on product packaging, promoting reusable bags over paper and plastic, using sponges instead of paper towels, and favoring mugs or glasses over disposable containers are just a few ways to reduce waste.

Recycle: Strategies to Boost Rates and Curb Global Warming

Just as driving our cars and heating our homes creates greenhouse gas emissions, so does throwing away our waste. Decomposing garbage in landfills releases one fourth of all methane emissions in the United States: methane is a global warming pollutant 22 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Trash incinerators emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. And throwing away products rather than reusing or recycling them often means burning more fossil fuels to strip virgin timber and other raw materials from the earth. If we were to increase our recycling rate from the current 32.5 percent to 35 percent, the effect on greenhouse gas emissions would be comparable to removing a million passenger cars from our roads.

Here are just a few ways that we could boost our recycling rates, cut down on global warming pollution and protect habitat to preserve biodiversity:

Manage electronic waste
Discarded electronics -- old computers, broken cell phones, obsolete television sets -- form the fastest-growing element of our waste stream. Americans threw out 2 million tons of tech trash in 2005 and only recycled about 380,000 tons. Nine states have laws in place that require the recycling of electronics, and several other states are working on new e-waste laws. NRDC supports laws that put the responsibility on manufacturers to recycle their used products, and for designing less toxic, more recyclable gadgets in the first place.

Expand bottle bills
In 2005, 2 million tons of plastic bottles in the United States ended up in the trash instead of in recycling bins. State container deposit laws, known as "bottle bills", are long overdue for an upgrade. Container deposit laws have proven to be the most effective approach to collecting bottles and cans. But right now, only 11 states have bottle bills, and most of them include only beer and soda bottles -- not water bottles, which accounted for 14 percent of bottled beverages in 2005. A national bill with a higher deposit would give a huge boost to our bottle recycling rates.

last revised: 3.28.08