Our Legacy of Victory
Waste Reduction and Recycling Law
After years of lobbying, organizing and communicating about the importance of recycling, Clean Wisconsin and other advocates successfully pushed through the passage of Wisconsin’s Recycling Law in 1990.
One of the first in the country, Wisconsin’s 1990 recycling law established the state as a leader in recycling by requiring community recycling programs and banning the disposal of specific materials — including aluminum, glass, and certain plastics — in landfills. The Wisconsin Waste Reduction and Recycling Law requires businesses and residents to recycle certain items and also requires counties and municipalities to provide residents with access to local recycling programs. Coupled with state funding for recycling, this law has been wildly successful in keeping waste out of landfills.
Why It Matters
According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, only about 17 percent of municipal solid waste was recycled when the law passed in 1990. By the end of 2004, that number had climbed to 32 percent. Today, local government recycling programs recycle about 420,000 tons of landfill-banned paper plus metal, glass and plastic containers every year.
