Recycling is much more than simply sorting items into a collection bin. As the word and its symbol implies, recycling is a "cycle" -- a process dependent on three main steps: collecting, remanufacturing, and purchasing products made with recycled materials. Each of these steps is essential for the recycling industry to succeed.

Purchasing recycled-content products helps maintain market demand for the materials that we do not want in our landfills, and ensures the continuation of recycling programs everywhere. In addition, making products with "recycled resources" rather than virgin resources (raw materials) uses less energy, less water, and creates less air pollution. Buying "recycled" ensures that natural resources are not wasted, and captures the economic potential of what we throw away. By adding value to materials, recycling also creates jobs in the process.

What is Single-Stream Recycling? 
Single-Stream recycling is a recycling process in which materials are all mingled together with no sorting required by individual recyclers. So cans and bottles can be recycled together with newspaper, cardboard, etc. You do not need to sort out different recyclable materials in different recycle bins. The sorting takes place at the recycling plant where the materials are separated and eventually recycled.
> Learn more about the NEW Curbside Recycling Program

What Products are Available?
The availability, variety, and quality of recycled products is growing. Some materials are easily recycled back into the same products. For example, glass from bottles can be made into new bottles, and aluminum from cans is easily made into new cans.

Most materials can also be recycled into different products. Plastic soda bottles can become carpet fiber or park benches; the rubber from used tires can be used for floor mats, or as an additive in asphalt. In fact, there are four materials -- steel, aluminum, glass bottles and jars, and molded pulp containers (e.g., cardboard egg cartons) -- that always have a significant amount of recycled content even though many are not usually labeled.