"Government can help change this, whether the laws are in the form of waste-reduction targets for a city or financial incentives to recycle, like the bottle bills that offer cash for recyclables that are in place in many states. 'In pretty much all countries in the world, [those] that have high recycling rates have a significant set of regulations supporting that which actually makes the system functional,' said Rob Opsomer, systemic initiatives lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an organization that focuses on the circular economy. In Oregon, which recently expanded its bottle bill program, 90% of beverage containers were recycled in 2018; nationally, only about 29% of plastic bottles were recycled. Governments could choose to add new taxes to landfills so trashing materials is less economically appealing. 'The cheap economics of landfilling here in the U.S. is one of our biggest struggles,' said Kate Bailey, director of Ecocycle Solutions, a non-profit that handles recycling in Boulder, Colo..