Memphians recycle just over a quarter of their residential garbage.
According to figures from trade publication Waste News, Memphis recycles 26 percent of its total waste. That figure puts the city almost smack-dab in the middle of the country’s 30 largest cities. San Francisco, which recycles 69 percent of its total waste, leads the rankings, followed by Portland and Los Angeles.
Houston, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio bring up the rear.
Annually, Memphis collects almost 6,000 tons of paper, 552 tons of metal, 828 tons of plastic, 1,800 tons of glass, and about 94,000 tons of yard trimmings, all of which yields the city about $352,000 in recycling revenue each year.
To read more about all this garbage — pun intended — click here to revisit Flyer writer Preston Lauterbach’s 2006 cover story on the subject or read today’s In the Bluff.