The illustration demonstrates the recycling rates of four types of materials, which are paper and cardboard, glass containers, aluminum cans, and plastics, in percentages during the period of 1982 to 2010 in a certain country.
Overall, paper-based materials and glass containers started with the high indicators in the initial year, and did not witness a big change. Aluminum containers, however, despite starting their journey late and finishing at the same position as they had started, managed to depict a gradual increase. As for plastics, their figures did not change much.
As far as early pioneers are concerned, paper and cardboard were the highest among their counterparts. They commenced at about a 65% recycling rate in the first year and fluctuated between 65 and 70 percent following 8 years. Afterwards, they saw their peak of 80 percent recycling in 1994, after which their figures started to decrease gradually, eventually culminating at 70%. Glass containers, on the other hand, generally decreased from 50% to 40% in the initial 8-year period following the moderate recovery of 10 % within 4 years. Then it increased at a lower rate and became 60% in 2010.
In terms of late establishers, Aluminum is in contrast due to its rapid change. It started at about 5 percent in 1986 and grew to 25% until 2002, after which it accelerated again, ending up with about 45% which puts it into the position that is close to early recycled materials. In 1990, one of the most contemporary recycling methods was put into practice, which is plastic recycling. That year, it began at just above 0. In contrast to others, plastic has not witnessed any sharp changes. Hence, it only managed to raise its figures to almost 10 percent during the given period, which highlights it among the other materials.