In 1971, the city of Milwaukee established drop-off sites for the collection of bundled newspaper, glass, and tin cans. In the 1980s, the city began rolling out curbside collection, and plastics and aluminum were added. In 1990, the Solid Waste Reduction, Recovery and Recycling Law was enacted by the state of Wisconsin, providing a graduated series of landfill bans and requiring collection programs for household recyclables be in place by 1995. The curbside recycling program in Milwaukee grew from servicing about 20 percent of 1-4 unit households in 1990 to 100 percent by 1995.
- Number of Residents: 604,477
- Amount of paper recovered for recycling in 2009: 14,209 tons; Paper comprises more than two-thirds of what is processed at the city’s dual-stream Materials Recovery Facility.
