Recycling in the US is not a Mandated Law

This week, we catch up with our cofounder Sam Bencheghib as he explores recycling in the US. Sam reached his 500th mile mark of running across the USA in Ohio and to celebrate he decided to pick up 500 plastic bottles on the side of the curb that have been littered. It was quite easy! Within a few hours he collected all the bottles, but little did he know that the more challenging part would be to recycle them and sustainably get rid of them.

It happens that there are very few recycling facilities in Ohio. In fact upon searching further, Sam found out that recycling is not a mandated law in the USA and that only around 10% of plastics get recycled. So Sam, went to two different recycling facilities to learn more about what the recycling processes entail. After almost 3 months of living on the road while producing minimal waste, Sam confirms that the real “R” is reduce!