Dive Brief:

• Boston's efforts to increase recycling are paying off, and the city’s residents are savings millions in government funds that otherwise would have been spent on landfill fees. Over the past year, recycling in Boston has improved by 12%, city officials said.
• At its current rate, the city will recycle 40,000 tons of waste this year, Boston officials said. That translates to savings of $55 or more per ton.
• At a rate of $74/ton to dispose of trash from some city neighborhoods and $60/ton from others, the savings in tipping fees quickly pile up. 

Dive Insight:

In May, Boston diverted nearly 24% of the waste it generated from landfills, according to Michael Dennehy, interim commissioner of public works for Boston. That is a significant increase from the prior year, but still less than the national average of 34%.

Boston encouraged recycling through a single-stream system and neighborhood "recycling days."