In Tulsa, about 110 thousand homes have recycling carts and most people get it right. Last year – of everything picked up a the curb, trash and recyclables, less than 10% went to a landfill. Every weekday, Tulsans put out 46,000 carts filled with trash and recyclables. While recyclables that go into the trash are wasted, the trash that ends up in recycling carts poses a big problem. The city regularly checks recycling bins for contamination and says it varies between 22% and 36% of the total.
At Broken Arrow’s Leisure Park Elementary, American Waste Control, the owner of TRT, is working to educate the next generation of recyclers about what can – and cannot be – processed locally. “That’s why education is so important, letting everybody know about what can and cannot go into the containers,” said Amanda Curtis with AWC.