Beverage sales, recycling, and wasting

From 1986-2006, beverage sales increased, wasting rates increased, and recycling rates, increased at a much slower pace In 2006, two out of every three bottles and cans sold in the United States were not recycled. This 34% overall recycling rate is down from the overall rate of 41% in 2000, and down twenty percentage points from the all-time high of 54% in 1992.

In 1996, 86 billion bottles and cans were wasted (i.e., not recycled) in the United States, up from 69 billion wasted a decade earlier. By 2006, 141 billion of the 215 billion bottles and cans sold were wasted—almost 10 million tons of wasted aluminum, plastic, and glass.

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Beverage sales, recycling, and wasting