What people don't know, and what the DEM and RIRRC are not telling us, is that there is almost no recycling going on by businesses in this state. The law requires businesses to recycle, but there isn't any enforcement, so little of it is being done. A business which gets a trash dumpster must also get a recycling dumpster, but ONLY if the business has 50 or more employees; and since very few restaurants or stores have that many employees, most small businesses are simply trashing their recyclables. You might want to think of that the next time you eat out.
In conversations with someone at the DEM, I've been told that there isn't the "political will" to force businesses to recycle in this state. Personally, I don't think that any businesses would relocate to Massachusetts just because they were made to recycle. Businesses MIGHT recycle much more if they could put their recyclables out for the town to take, but they are forbidden from doing so (unless the town agrees). With businesses doing little recycling, and with the general public recycling perhaps 40% of what they could recycle, I estimate that not more than 20% of the recyclables in this state are being recycled. What a pitiful situation.
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