The best cities in North America for recycling waste 2010

The statistic gives an index of the best cities in North America for recycling waste in 2010. With a score of 81.9 out of 100, Los Angeles was ranked third.

Recycling in North America

San Francisco and Seattle are among the leading cities in the United States in terms of recycling. In Canada, Toronto and Montreal were rated among the best cities in terms of recycling. Canada has also implemented a program to encourage the reuse of certain materials; used tires are recycled into playgrounds and also mixed with asphalt for road resurfacing. In 2013, Vancouver introduced a pilot program to recycle cigarette butts into various industrial products, such as plastic pallets.

By 2009, San Francisco on the U.S. west coast had developed an extensive recycling program that included a wide range of materials and also charged residents for non-recyclable garbage based on the amount that was thrown out. Similar to a Toronto program, San Francisco also required residents and businesses to separate recyclable materials by placing them in special curbside containers. Recycling rates for bottles in the United States reached only 31 percent in 2014. San Francisco also initiated the curbside separation of compostable materials. by the way, in the United States, about 0.37 pounds municipal solid waste for composting was produced per person per day in 2009. Under the implementation of these progressive regulations, recycling in the city increased significantly. Many residents started to sort their trash before the proposed fines came into effect and by December 2010, no fines had been issued for non-compliance with waste separation.

Index of the best cities in Canada and the U.S. for recycling waste in 2010*

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Release date

2011

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Region

North America

Survey time period

2010

Supplementary notes

* Based on a scale of zero to 100.
According to the source, the index measures the environmental performance of 27 major cities in the U.S. and Canada. It is a composite of 31 indicators (CO2 emissions per unit of GDP, CO2 emissions per person, CO2 reduction strategy, electricity consumption per unit of GDP, electricity consumption per person, clean and efficient energy policies, green spaces, population density, green land use policies, urban sprawl, number of LEED-certified buildings, energy efficient standards, energy efficient building incentives, share of workers travelling by public transit, bicycle, or foot, public transport supply, average commute time from residence to work, green transport promotion, congestion reduction policies, water consumption per capita, water system leakages, water quality policy, stormwater management policy, percent of municipal solid waste recycled, waste reduction policies, nitrogen oxides emissions, sulphur dioxide emissions, PM10 emissions, clean air policy, green action plan, green management, public participation in green policy), based on nine categories (CO2, energy, land use, buildings, transport, water, waste, air quality, environmental governance). Each indicator was aggregated according to an assigned weighting. The category scores were then rebased on a scale of zero to 100. Moreover, each of the nine category scores were assigned an equal weighting (multiplied by 11.1 percent) and summed for a final score on a scale of zero to 100.

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