The line chart outlines how much waste was recovered and recycled in the US between 1960 and 2011. The garbage recovery is presented in million tons while the recycling is presented in percentages.
Generally speaking, both waste recovery and recycling in the US after 1985 increased remarkably despite the fact that a big proportion of litter remained unrecycled.
As the data suggests, 5.6 million tons of rubbish was recovered in the USA in 1960 and just 6.4% was recycled this year. Recycling in 1965 slightly declined but increased in 1970 when 6.6% of waste recycling took place out of 8 tons. In 1980, more than 14 million tons of garbage were collected and almost 10% was recycled. The recycling rate further developed by almost 2% after 5 years. After a decade, 16% of total waste was recycled and this ratio after that increased steadily and sharply and so did the waste recovery.
Almost one-third of the surplus was recycled in 2005 when waste recovery was nearly 80 million tons, about 8 times higher than that of 25 years earlier. A thorough observation indicates that a great percentage of scrap in the US is not recycled during this time. For instance, out of 80 million tons, only about 32% of waste recycling figure in the US shows that another 50 million tons were not recycled. Finally, in 2011, more than one-third of rubbish was recycled which accounted for around 30 million tons of waste produced in the USA while the remaining 60 million tons were not recycled.