Submitted: The Two Sides Team December 1, 2014

Recycling rates for packaging are high but the growth of packaging arising from online purchases is leading to some new and innovative ideas on how to improve rates still further.

According to a wide ranging article in the Guardian from Rachel Nuwer and Jennifer Kho, Tuesday 18 November 2014, a growing number of companies and entrepreneurs are working on new ways to tackle this problem. And they are making progress: In the US more than half of this packaging waste – 51.5% or 38.75m tons – was recovered for recycling or composting in 2012. That’s a higher percentage than the 34.5% of total municipal solid waste that ended up recycled or composted, which in itself represented a big increase from the 15.9% recovered in 1990 – and the 6.35% in 1960. But that still leaves plenty of packaging waste – more than 36m tons – in landfills.

You can read the full article here

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