The Solution Revolution

TWO

Disruptive Technologies

Creating the ability to mobilize massive resources

Despite endless public service announcements and community campaigns, American recycling rates remain stubbornly low. For more than a decade, the overall solid-waste recycling rate has hovered at around a third, a far cry from Denmark’s 69 percent, for instance, or the zero-waste future dreamed of by many environmentalists.¹

In a number of cities, however, recycling rates have not stagnated; they’ve soared. Recycling jumped from 2 percent of waste to 65 percent in a matter of months in Wilmington, Delaware. In parts of Philadelphia, recycling rates skyrocketed from a dismal 7 percent to 90 percent in months.²

What was the difference? These cities had one thing in common: ...