Recycling Survey Shows Many Do Recycle, But Confusion Remains (INFOGRAPHIC)

How often do you recycle? If you recycle every day, you're among only half of U.S. adults who claim to do so.

A 2011 national Ipsos poll, represented in the infographic below, found that about 87 percent of American adults do recycle, but only half do so daily. Only 13 percent admit to never recycling.

According to the poll, the largest demographics of recyclers are "college graduates (59%), adults aged 55 and older (57%), residents of the Northeast (58%) and West (56%)."

The survey also found that some Americans don't know which items can actually be recycled. Check out these tips for hard to recycle items and other recyclable items you may not have known about.

HuffPost blogger Mattias Wallander recently explained the importance of textile recycling. His company conducted a national survey of 1,450 Americans and found that just under half of respondents "had thrown clothes in the trash over the last year ... some of them as many as 10 times." Wallander believes that "easy, convenient ways to get rid of reusable clothes and shoes" are an important way to improve textile recycling rates.

If you recycle but still find yourself creating a lot of trash, check out these tips for creating less waste.

Infographic created by Column Five Media for Good. Click on the infographic for a larger version.

Comments

[cbaltazar]

05:30 PM on 05/14/2012

One idea to prevent waste is buying used baby clothing. You can find more info at http://www.cheapbabyclothinginfo.com

[SimonBao]

03:26 PM on 04/27/2012

Someone might want to define "recyclable."

Textiles, for example, are technically recyclable... but NOT recyclable if they're not collected with the other recyclables and if there's no readily available Drop-Off for them.

What is, or is not "recyclable" in concrete terms depends largely on where folks live, on what materials are collected where they live, on what materials their local Drop-Offs are willing to accept.