Authorities Hope To Get Massachusetts To Recycle

26:53

April 12, 2011

In 2009 Boston rolled out a single-stream recycling program that allowed residents to put all of their plastics, bottles and papers into one container.

Towns like Needham and Nantucket have much higher average recycling rates than Chelsea and Boston. Click to enlarge (Jeremy Bernfeld for WBUR)

The hope was that with just one bin for everything, recycling would be easier, and more items would make their way from the trash bin to the blue bin. But in Boston, the residential recycling rate is around 20 percent, which — while better than previous years — is still quite low.

We take a look at other successful recycling programs — including models where the more residents throw in the trash, the more they have to pay — to find out what Boston and other cities and towns can learn.

Guests:

Greg Cooper, director of recycling, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Ann Dorfman, director, MassRecycle
Kevin Drew, residential zero waste coordinator, City of San Francisco

This segment aired on April 12, 2011.