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Aluminum Can recycling
The first American aluminum can recycling plants open in Chicago and Cleveland -
Shortage during WWI
1916-1918: Due to massive shortages of raw materials during World War I, the Federal government creates the Waste Reclamation Service with the motto “Don’t Waste Waste – Save It.” -
Peddling
Many people survive the Great Depression by peddling scraps of metal, rags and other items. -
First Landfill
Fresno Municipal Sanitary Landfill opened in Fresno, California. It is considered to be the first modern sanitary landfill in the US -
Ration
Goods such as nylon, rubber and many metals are rationed and recycled to help support the war effort. -
"Throwaway Living"
The August 1st issue of Life magazine offers a two-page article on “Throwaway Living.” Consumers are progressively sold on the idea that single-use items are a necessity of the modern lifestyle.
Ease and convenience become the two most desirable qualities in product marketing, inevitably leading to parks, forests and highways becoming littered with garbage. -
All-aluminum can
The all-aluminum can is introduced. Recognizing the value of used aluminum cans as a raw material for making new cans, the aluminum industry will soon begin creating a massive system for recycling and redeeming used beverage containers. -
Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965
The first federal legislation addressing solid waste management was the SWDA that created a national office of management regulations. -
RRR Symbol
1965 to 1970: The Mobius Loop is introduced as the symbol for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. In the form of a Mobius strip, the symbol was designed by Gary Anderson after a Chicago-based recycled-container company sponsored an art contest to raise environmental awareness. -
Earth Day
The first Earth Day brings national attention to the problem of increasing waste and the importance of recycling. Earth Day was founded in the U.S by U.S Senator Gaylord Nelson and globally by entrepreneur John McConnell. Now, Earth Day is supported by over 192 countries on April 22nd.
Every year over 1,000,000,000 people and almost every school-aged child takes part in annual Earth Day celebrations to promote conserving our environment by protecting, recycling, cleaning and innovating. -
Glass bottles
The first “Bottle Bill” is born: Oregon introduces a refundable deposit (a nickel) on beer and soda bottles as an incentive to recycle. Canadian Government established the Department of Environment, commonly referred to as Environment Canada. -
In the beginning
Berkeley, California launched what was certainly one of the first to start the curbside recycling -
Closure of open dumps
The Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is enacted to close open dumps, create standards for landfills, incinerators and the disposal of hazardous waste. -
Criteria for sanitary landfills
The EPA developed criteria for sanitary landfills -
Curbside recycling becomes popular
Major U.S. cities began establishing curbside collection programs for plastic and other recyclables. -
Period: to
Recyling catches on
1988- 1,000
1992- nearly 5,000 -
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola began blending recycled plastics into its bottles. -
The number increases
Number of curbside recycling programs, many of which began collecting plastics, jumped from 1,000 in 1988 to nearly 5,000 by 1992. -
McDonald's
McDonald’s stops using Styrofoam containers. The 20th-anniversary theme for Earth Day is recycling. -
The bag switch
Many major grocery and retail stores began in-store collection of plastic bags for recycling—many later added flexible plastic wraps (such as from paper towels, diapers, cases of water, dry cleaning, etc.) to the list of plastics collected in-store. -
America recycles
Americans recycle a record 47.6 billion soft drink containers, an increase of 500 million over the previous year. Aluminum cans are recycled at a rate of 63% in the U.S. with the highest state-wide rate in California at 80%.
There are more than 10,000 recycling centers nationwide and at least 4,000 curbside collection programs.
U.S. collection grows from 1.2 billion cans in 1972 to more than 62 billion cans in 1995 through curbside recycling programs and more than 10,000 recycling centers. -
America Recycles Day
A day to encourage Americans to recycle more and use recycled products. -
California
California was the first to enact the first e-waste recycling law -
Recycling booms
By 2006 there are more than 8,000 curbside recycling programs throughout the country and keeps growing -
Electronic Waste
Dell Computer begins offering a free recycling service for their products—no additional purchases required—sparking the movement of E-waste recycling. -
Recycling Grows
In 2012 the US generated approximately 251 million tons of waste while 87 million tons (34.5%) was recycled -
E-waste
More than 585 million pounds of consumer electronics are recycled—an increase of 125 million pounds (more than 25 percent) over 2011.
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Material-Wise Recycling Rates
87 million tons of waste in the US, 51% consisted of paper ad paperboard, 22% yard trimmings, 9% metal, 4% food waste, 4% glass, 3% plastic and wood and 6% other materials.
70% of paper and paperboard and 58% of yard trimmings were recovered for recycling. -
Plastic bottle recycling
Americans’ access to plastic bottle recycling reached 94 percent. -
Ban on plastic bags
California enacts the first ever state-wide ban on plastic bags in grocery and convenience stores. -
New discovery
A team of Japanese scientists discovered a species of bacteria that eats plastics commonly found in water bottles. The ideonella sakainesis secretes an enzyme that turns the PET to generate an intermediate chemical which is taken up by the cell, then broken down even further giving the bacteria carbon and energy to grow! -
Today
An engineer at Stanford and her team have come up with a new semiconductor that is not only as flexible as skin but is also biodegradable. This new tech could help drastically decrease e-waste in the future.
Considering that the almost 50 million tons of e-waste have been thrown out so far in 2017, a 20% increase from 2015, this is very much a welcome discovery!
