Recycling Around the World Recycling is one of the best environmental success stories of the late 20th century. But we could do more. People must not see recycling as fashionable, but essential. The Japanese are very good at recycling because they live in a crowded country. They do not have much space. They do not want to share their limited space with rubbish. But even so, Tokyo area alone is estimated to have three million tons of leftover rubbish at present. In 1996, the United States recycled and composted (制成肥料) 57 million tons of waste (27% of the nation's solid waste). This is 57 million tons of waste which did not go into landfills and incinerators (焚化炉). In doing this, 7,000 rubbish collection programmes and recycling centres helped the authorities. In Rockford, a city in Illinois, US, its officials choose one house each week and check its garbage (废物). If the garbage does not contain any newspapers or aluminium (铝) cans, then the resident of the house gets a prize of at least $1,000. In Japan, certain cities give children weekly supplies of tissue paper and toilet paper in exchange for a weekly collection of newspapers. In one year Britain recycles: • 1 out of every 3 newspapers. • 1 out of every 4 glass bottles and jars (罐子). • 1 out of every 4 items of clothing. • 1 out of every 3 aluminium drink cans. In 1999, Hong Kong transported 1.3 million tons of waste to mainland China for recycling. Around 535,000 tons of waste were recycled in Hong Kong itself. Over half the things we throw away could be recycled. That means we could recycle 10 times as much as we do now. However, recycling needs a lot of organisation and special equipment. Also, there is not much use for some recycled material. Which of the following is NOT true of the Japanese?