Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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A conveyor belt carries mixed plastic to an optical sorter. Recology recovers 600 million pounds of recyclables each year and is the most advanced recycling plant on the planet. They invested 12 million USD last year for IR scanners and blowers that use puffs of air to separate different materials that are identified by the IR scanners. The USA has a recycling rate of 30 percent and with Recology's outreach and other programs they are at a 70 percent -of overall waste-being recycled. Robert Reed is main contact for Recology and he is a proponent of Zero Waste, which is being done more in Europe than USA. "Recycling," he says, "should be the last ditch effort."

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RANDY OLSON
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Plastic or Planet? National Geographic magazine 3/2018
A conveyor belt carries mixed plastic to an optical sorter. Recology recovers 600 million pounds of recyclables each year and is the most advanced recycling plant on the planet. They invested 12 million USD last year for IR scanners and blowers that use puffs of air to separate different materials that are identified by the IR scanners. The USA has a recycling rate of 30 percent and with Recology's outreach and other programs they are at a 70 percent -of overall waste-being recycled. Robert Reed is main contact for Recology and he is a proponent of Zero Waste, which is being done more in Europe than USA. "Recycling," he says, "should be the last ditch effort."